Cub Cadet

Following this with interest as my Bolens Ride a Matic got a Kholer in it too.
 

I have started work on my massey Ferguson 7e again and work has turned to the engine. We don't know if it runs and seen as i'm stripping the whole tractor down for a good clean it made sense to inspect the engine also. It was also a good time to make a new sump gasket as it leaked a lot of oil.
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
After stripping it down some its apparent that one of the crankshaft bearings is a little bit worn, but after trawling the web i'm struggling to find what size bearings were used, we would normally measure the existing bearings but I haven't stripped it down that far yet. Any help would be appreciated as to where I can source this information. 
Thanks 

How many times have you been up to Newby Hall, Nigel? ONCE if I remember correctly. Now how many times have I made the 380 mile drive south? 4? 5?
 
 I know Chris. Also yours and Pam's hospitality. Plus the rest of the usual group.

Put this machine to the test yesterday for my first attempt.
Used 1.5mm thick copper for my 1 inch scale Water Cart tank. Marked and spotted first for 144 x 1/32"(.8mm) diameter rivets. 
Annealed and cleaned the sheets twice during bending.
It will do for me as both halves rolled to identical diameters . Marked the adjuster knobs on the top Roll so I knew each is at the same setting-
 

 
 

Had another play with the suck it and see project.
 
  Modified the hitch, Billy Goat to tractor. Made it offset so the Goat is about 3" to the left of the tractor. This is so the tractor exhaust is clear of any hedge or tree low branches.
 
 
Even threw some paint at it.
 

 
   Last week I did some work on sides and top for the Saxon trailer. All made out of scrap material I had lying about and also some of a neighbours. Everything can be dismantled in a few minutes.
 
 
  Yes! The sides are a bit short, but that is because the scrap ply was that length.
 
  At the rear, the back is held by the clips you see. The chamfers at the bottom allow the tailboard to open.
 

 
To stop, (hopefully) grass/leaves being blown out, but let air through, a wire mesh covers the gap with hessian behind it. The hessian is a cut up shopping bag, that Carol was going to put in the rubbish bin.  The vertical edges being trapped twixt end panel and side

 
 
 
  Next I'm going to have to spend some cash  and buy a flexible hose 4" pipe.  Still, shouldn't complain as expense so far has been zilch.

Pic from the cab of a brand new Volvo 220 excavator 

After pushing the dirt back in the hole.
I would post one of the hole but it had 
people in it and I didn’t get their permission to put their pic up sorry

I will try in next couple weeks to get some more pic’s and a few vid of stuff working 

Get to play with some biggish toys '. Spend a fair bit of time on 988Bs


Get to play with this to , Cat  992 . Loads the 60 ton dump trucks in 2 buckets .
The other favorite is the Cat D10-84W 

Hooked things up this morning to see how things looked.
 

 

 
   Fired up the Goat and threw a latex glove under it. Shot it nicely in to the back of the trailer. Also blew it out again.  By 'eck it's got some waft.
   So what next. Need something along the lines of a silage trailer, methinks. So what's next?
 
To be continued...…..
 
 
 

Raised and 2-1/2" ground clearance.
 

 
Lowered.
 

 
To be continued...….

Today I thought I'd better do something about the Billy Goat. So I dragged it out from it's hiding place and placed it behind the C-125. After much thinking, swapping and general trying to work something out, the C-125 was fitted with a slot hitch. The front wheels removed from the Billy Goat and a coupling knocked up.
  Tried various things, none of which I was happy with. Suddenly I had a flash of inspiration. How would a hinged coupling work out. So with no more todo, I knocked one up using a cut down butt hinge. See below.
 

 

 
  Up!
 
Down!

 
  The principle works and I can adjust the Billy Goats intake height with the lift levers adjuster. I think this could be a suck it and see project. I already have some alterations in mind.
 
  I'll post some photo's of it coupled up tomorrow all being well.
 
  

Ok, Thats me being a bit slow responding and you being on the same frequency!. Yeah, strange how the occasional metric dimension crops up in U.S. equipment.
The specs in the Kohler Manual for the Crank journals each end are not round imperial fractions in Thous of an inch-
 
 
 
1.1811" = 30mm.
Regards.

Try Paul at Meetens, Ewan.

Hi Ewan, other options which I would follow is, if you have a parts manual for the engine, do a search online using the part number.
Often, something will show up with an alternative bearing number or dimension (probably stateside) to work to.
Or, post the question on Redsquare, as there must be owners of early 60's machines who have been there and done it .
They should be same size bearing as in K181.
Good luck
 
  .
 

Hi Norm, Yes, they should do for me.
Not best quality, or hardened/ground rolls, as they were painted and I had to clean it off them to ensure the rolls were smooth enough for the finer metals I will be using.
Took a flyer and ordered off ebay. Came from Poland. Bit anxious for the last week, as overdue and no update or shipping info since 20th June. All sorted .
Just waiting for some tooling for the Mill to arrive and I'll be bending metal at the weekend.  
   

For many years, I've wanted to be able to roll sheet metal (in small sizes).
From shaping the nickel silver cleading on my traction engine to making fuel tanks and small exhaust mufflers.
So after saving up the Workshop pocket money, I've finally got a set of Mini Bending Rolls-

 
Quite heavy duty rollers for a 300mm wide unit and steel geared. Plenty big enough for all the jobs I have for it, and at 14kgs, just unbolts from the bench to be stored
out of the way. ....I'll get around to making some Swaging Rolls one day  

A few more.
 























 

 
 
  Here we have the intrepid  Smith family as can be found engaging in their usual rally activity.
 
   From the right.  Ewan, (Meadowfields son). Mark, (Meadowfield)  Frank, (Meadowfields father)  Ian, (Meadowfields brother)  Jake, (Ewans twin brother}
 

 
  That's your lot.

A few more.
















 
More to come.
 

No real update yet and haven't had a chance to concentrate on test running this, but have primed the Carb float bowl to test the float valve which I 'Lapped' to ensure a good fit/seal.
Left it for a week to see how it fares. I suppose I really want to cover all the points that will make it work before fueling it up.
In the meantime, I wanted to give the Spark Plug stock a good going over.
I have the original 8 COM in the engine currently,  but don't really want to rely on it. So I have 2 other 8 COMs and a Lodge BBL.
These I've stripped out and cleaned, as they all can be dismantled for cleaning. Did the Champions first, one is 1930s (left) and the other is 1950s.
The 50s one cleaned up best, but turned out to be dead. No continuity in the central electrode. The 30s one is perfect, 0.5 ohms resistance top to tip-
 
 
Had doubts about the Lodge BBL, but after sorting the loose body electrode, it cleaned up ok-
 

 
Has a reading of just 2.8 Ohms, so also good. This one is on the higher temperature side of the 'Warm' range that 8 Com is in and is good for Oily running engines.
Also have a good Vintage Lodge CV and hope to be able to test them all out on it, but I have to make 2 different threaded (Thumb Nuts)  for them.
2 early ones are threaded UNC and the CV is 2BA !. Hope to update soon.  
   
  
 
 

Don't usually like to revisit old Topics, but this Tap came back to haunt me.
I started dripping fuel out of the Tap and apparently emptied the fuel out on the floor probably over last winter.
Having concerns that my workmanship, or the materials I had used were at fault, I took it back to find the cause.
Glad to say the bits I did were not faulty, but found the fuel was leaking out of the lever end.
So I stripped it down on the understanding that if I can't fix it, they will have to replace the whole unit (if they can find one).
Talk about over engineered!. Seven separate parts just for the tap lever control !, including a plastic type seal which had dissolved/rotted which was causing the leak-
 

 
So as usual, I hit the challenge and went for making a replacement seal from fuel resistant 1.5mm thick nitrile/nylon reinforced rubber.
I had to make 2 special punches that could cleanly punch through the tough layers and in the correct positions-
 
 
Glad to say that when the cleaned parts were assembled and the tap fitted , there were no further leaks. Hope I've seen the back of this one now.
 

Hi all here are some pictures of one of the Gutbrod 1030s now set up with finger mower attachment of to do some mowing  
not sure if it needs adjustment but it was cutting ok try it in some longer grass next time 

Been using them on the tractors for years. If you look carefully Ewan has them on his cadet too!
 
 

A bit more than I could deal with without finding more large tooling like bending rolls and a larger welder Norm. A long search for the correct size may be the only way.
I reckon sorting the  mower will be quicker.
 
 
Not sure if it was worth the wait for people, but hope it is seen for what it's worth. 
 
An overdue update which has established the drive chain dilemma and now has at least linked the Counter Shaft to the engine, so it can be turned over with the handle.
Also, I mentioned I was not happy with the badly worn split bushing that holds the Armature plate on the engine's crankshaft bushing.
Marathon job for me, machining it from  40mm solid EN8 bar. Pressed out the old one-
 

 

 
Careful measuring so the new one fits as well as the old one and the bore finished undersize (0.9970") to fit the crank bushing with an interference fit-
 
  
 
Loads of swarf later, moved it to the Mill still in the chuck to put the first slit in-
 
 
 
Could not see why the slit needed to be as wide as the original, so kept it 1/32" (.8mm) and back on the Lathe for parting off-

 
I could then fit it in a machine vise for the second slit and pressed it back into the plate-
 

 
I bottled out in the end and replaced the HT Coil - Points wire just to be sure, so was now confident that it was as good as I could get it Mag- wise.
The Armature Plate went back onto the engine as planned, a good interference fit with zero movement on the bushing before tightening the securing screw.
Final check/clean and the flywheel replaced to set the points gap and timing and the anxiety was building.
 
I knew the magnets were reasonable and had 'Keepers' fitted while work was done. So had no excuses left and started to check for a spark.
First few cranks of the handle produced nothing, then next turns, spotted a few faint, inconsistent sparks. I knew the mag needed to be re-energised and could take a while.
That was last week. Today, I set to it again and more cranking and checking. Finally, the sparks were more consistent and brighter, but not sure if strong enough.
Went for it and primed the cylinder with some petroil, shoved the original Spark plug in. Cranked it up with the De-comp open, then closed it and it fired up briefly !!!.
So after over 80 years, the old Villiers has a pulse and a brief mechanical heartbeat. Next week, I'll hope to run it for longer and get some heat into it.
It will be a while before I can run/drive it....nothing to hook it up to yet.  
      
 
 
 

About 3yrs ago I acquired a rather sorry '75 Raider 10. A none runner but complete. I got it going but it only ran briefly before stopping and refused to restart. After the usual spark and fuel test, and having no cover on the flywheel I tried to turn it over by hand. Turned one way but locked up the other. Off with the head and the piston was at the top of the bore. Pressed down on the piston and down it went with no resistance. Yes, you've guessed it, broken rod.
  On stripping the engine I found the sump had quite a lot of sludge in it. When the oil was last change is anyone's guess. So most likely that was why the rod broke.
  Anyway, the engine has been sitting completely stripped on a shelf and the rest of the tractor stripped and in a heap in a corner. This morning I thought it was about time I did something about the engine. The crankshaft has been checked and is fine. So is the bore. So I did the valves and started cleaning up other parts. Finally the turn of the head. 
  The gasket was still attached and had to be pried off with a scraper. No wonder really, as it was stuck to the head with SILICONE.  So out with a piece of plate glass and sheet of 180 grit. The first photo shows the start of fattening the head. The second after about 2hrs. 
 

 
 

 
  I did bit more after the last photo' and it looks a bit better. There's still a bad patch at the bottom between the two bolts holes, but most of the rest is mainly clear. I'll finish it of tomorrow and order rod, rings, seals and gaskets next week.
 

Youngest Son-in-Law asked if I could collect a ride on mower, the owner of the holiday site he works at had given him. Also could I sort it out for him. Somethings not right with the steering he said. Not right was an understatement. It didn't.
  Anyway we picked it up this morning. Westwood S1300. B&S 12-1/2hp with mowing deck. Age as yet unknown and in need of a good clean. On investigation I found the gear that engages the steering quadrant was badly worn. So worn it was not engaging the quadrant. New gear and quadrant needed. £80 off that site. Engine runs sweet as a nut and the oil is clean. Needs a battery clamp and that's about it.
  Deck needs a good pressure wash underneath e seems sound.
 

 

 

 
   Not bad for free.

Had a run over to a little classic car show held near Penrith, Cumbria. This is held every year and usually has a good turn out. Unfortunately the weather this morning was very wet and windy. So I expect more than a few cars didn't leave their cosy garages.
  Anyway a few photos of some exhibits there.