Wednesday morning I was in total despair. Not only was Ivan still away with his injured hip and Steve

still recovering from a really bad bout of 'flu but Graham's wife had rung to say that he had

injured his back so badly he could not move. Two tractors nearly finished, an engine to rebuild and

I could not leave the office because of getting figures ready for the tax return.

Jeff, bless him, drove 300 miles to come and help. On the first day he sorted out Daisy May's starting

problems, diagnosed Bob's dynamo problem as a fauly connection to the control box and dealt with that

by soldering short lengths of wire to each of the connectors, attaching spade connectors to the ends

of the wires and to the associated wiring and with fail-safe connections all was well.

Between then and Thursday evening when he left he had also rebuilt Laddies engine, timed it and set

the tappets and did half a dozen other jobs as well. Thank you, Jeff!

Apologies for the silence since 10th December. I never get flu but have to admit to being so ill for three weeks that some days I couln't even get out of bed and, having started to recover from whatever I had, promptly went down with an infection in my left lung. That took us up to Christmas Day. Slept most of the week until New Year then have been surviving through the snow as have we all.

Ivan is not with us at present due to having fallen heavily on his hip in the snow and is waiting to see a specialist being unable to stand. We really miss him; he's a cheery sort of chap to have around.

On the tractor front Graham, assisted by me and a new recruit, has sorted Daisy May's clunking problem. Two broken shims on the diff. spider eliminated, ineffective brake adjusting parts replaced with new and not a clunk to be heard!  About time too. Dismantling the entire diff. was interesting but this tractor should have been out of the workshop a long time ago. We believe that there is nothing else on the tractor to go wrong but it has fooled us like this so many times that perhaps we should be careful what we say!

This afternoon the last of the new small ends on Laddie's pistons have been reamed and the pistons are in!

Last but not least- we were expecting to have to shut the workshop down for up to six months while we found new premises but this afternoon we have found a highly suitable, much smaller workshop and will be taking bookings for work to be carried out from the start of April. We'll be keeping the spares dept. open through the move, however.

Because we are downsizing we'll need to get rid of loads of tractor parts- for a start a single furrow plough complete with disc at £185 o.v.n.o and a mid-mounted mower for around £250...

After the continuous run of depressing setbacks including today's discovery of three of the tappets not allowing the passage of oil (rocker shaft taken to pieces for further cleaning) and the discovery that the shaft was so ridged and worn that it could not go back on, the finding of another then the discovery that the tappet adjusters on the new rocker shaft were too wide to allow them to sit in the push-rod cups  (Rocker shaft dismantled again), refitting the original tappets plus finding replacements for seriously wornones etc. etc. the patient, meticulous, double-checking attention to detail by Graham and Ivan paid off when Bob started and ran happily on the second push of the gear lever! This is how it should be...

Now the front axle assembly is being refitted together, the clutch adjusted and the remaining parts refitted ready for next week when Bob will start his week of being trialled before making his way back to Wales.

The new team here is gelling in a way which makes me feel really confident about claiming we are probably the best Ferguson workshop in the country!

Correction of yesterday's blog...

We'd all had one hell of a day by the end of yesterday (visit from a very recent ex-employee who upset everyone - nothing to do with tractors) and it was end of day when Graham discovered the irregularities in Laddie's block. Ivan came in late this morning (VERY unusual for him but he'd had to go and check something after the seriously high winds we had last night) and he came in saying,  'That clag inside the block, I think its where Gary burnt the liner out...' just as Graham had started honing and found that the lump had come off clean leaving a smooth surface behind so apologies to Laddie's owners if you read the blog last night. However I was talking to someone with years of Ferguson experience who said, (hearing about the sloppy oversize pistons AND the cracked head) that it was par for the course from where the engine had come from.

 

We're waiting for gaskets to arrive for Bob, Harald is now part dismantled; his immaculate bonnet safely stored upstairs. We are keeping a close eye open after finding traces of water mixed with the oil in the rocker cover but after finding that the breather banjo had only one washer instead of the two it should have had, that it is more like to be condensation.

 

Going to stop now to pack several parts up for postage. More later...

 

Just a reminder- Titanine (as mentioned in the Ferguson manual) is available almost only from us at £25 a tube instead of the £31 it is priced at normally for a few weeks only. Titanine is recommended for use on Fergusons where iron and alumminium meet as it prevents electrlytic action which can cause aluminium to decay to a powder!

 

If you would like some, send a cheque or a BACS payment or a Paypal payment including postage to wherever you are (Titanine with packing weighs 318g) and we'll post it off to you.

 

End of a satisfactory day today. Two engines with crankshafts in running smooth as silk. Ivan and Graham torqued them up ten pounds at a time evenly on each journal until the recommended pressure was reached. Both engines stopped at the point where the chaincase seals are fitted as they won't arrive until tomorrow and a carb. has arrived for servicing.

 

I'm going home now to connect up a temporary cold water tank in my bathroom which will allow water to flow to wherever it needs to go to while I install the pipework of a new immersion heater. Living with an uninsulated water heating system installed in the 1930's is really retro but really expensive!  The square 1930's copper tanks would be a super prop for a film but who wants to live in a film set...

 

 

What a frustrating day!

While waiting for gaskets to arrive to finish putting Bob’s engine back together Ivan and Graham started to rebuild Laddie’s engine. (Laddie has been waiting patiently while Bob’s engine was put on and taken off because of the leaking head gaskets and the other things).

 

The crankshaft was fitted after another final clean then the block was turned over and the spectacle gasket seats inspected one final time before fitting the gaskets, liners and pistons.

 

Graham (this is Graham of the stationary engines, by the way)  inspecting the liner seats, spotted an irregularity in the surface which, on closer inspections, he identified as a stitching up of this important part of the block. For a block to need welding there is not a good sign and the raised surface is certainly contra-indicative of the block being ready for having the liners refitted. Before rebuilding can continue the projecting area will have to be honed. No problem but, despite our systems for keeping tools tidy and ready for use, the honing tool has not come to light in an exhaustive search so tomorrow Steve is kindly going to lend the workshop his own set.

 

CORRECTION !!   See next blog.We'd all had a hell of a day yesterday by the time we'd finished (upsets from an ex-employer visiting the workshop - nothing to do with tractors) and it was last thing when the irregularity in Laddie's block was discovered. This morning Ivan came in late (very unusual for him but he'd had to go to chexk something after the high winds

 

In the meantime Daisy May was having her brakes attended to. An adjustment in the linkage system carried out by Graham has resulted in a brake which now functions. Unfortunately even when the brakes are disconnected Daisy May’s wheel is locking up so tomorrow we start looking at the differential. Everytime something on this tractor is fixed it does something else.

 

Also because of all the immediate demands on my time I have hardly made a dent in the paperwork I needed to do today so apologies for those of you waiting for parts.

Its been a really depressing week so far. Monday saw two set-backs- yes, I should be used to it by now but when a tractor has been lovingly worked on and then things are not right one does wonder why life can't be simple.

There were times in the past when Mark and I were working together when things kept going wrong when even he, with his sunny temperament and ability to look on the bright side, would go into the office and put his head between his hands.

One bright spot is that Mark is coming back for work here for one day a week to help us through the staff shortage since Gary has left us and we've got three tractors on the go two of which should have been finished some while back and one which should have been started and hasn't been.

So what's gone wrong: well for a start, Daisy May (the tractor who doesn't want to go home), is still here. Every day for the last week she has been started up (and started first time every time) and run round the yard.everything (apart from the brakes which we are still working on) has been fine.

Her owner had taken time off to come and check he was happy before she was delivered back at the weekend and ten minutes before he arrived Ivan went to start her up to bring her to the front of the workshop so that her owner could take her round the yard and damn and blast, the starting problem which had been fixed re-occurred! I think we are going to have to have the top off the gearbox again. There are no quick fixes on this one. I am off the opinion that the problem lies with the button on the side of the gearbox (this is a diesel, remember) which makes it impossible to put the gearstick into the starter position by mistake. I've seen a number of TEFs with this button totally removed but we are a restoration workshop and if we can get Daisy May starting with the button there then we will do so. The trouble is that every single thing on that tractor is worn to the point where things are loose and sloppy where they should be crisp and unidirectional. More on this later.

Bob was, by the time Mark had spent twenty minutes on him, running round the yard with a tickover which sounded gorgeous. He adjusted the governor controls and tuned the carb., reset the tappets and confirmed that new plug leads would be a good idea and we were left with a final list of things like adjusting the clutch pedal and painting the bits of axle beam which were still in red oxide.

This is what he looks like at the moment- again...

Why?

There is still water getting into the oil so off the engine has come again, pistons out, liners out to check the spectacle gaskets, big ends off. Bob's owner asked why, when Bob had run without problems, apart from the low oil pressure, before he came in there were so many problems with the head now which is a very valid question. I remember asking the same thing when my ancient Volvo estate which had run without problems started throwing every possible fit after just a service. I was told that disturbing anything on an older vehicle creates new stresses and strains and this is a similar case. We had noticed, when we started Bob in the workshop where there is a concrete floor that water was bubbling out in one corner of the head. This is not something that would have been noticable on grass. By stripping the engine for line-boring of course we upset all the comfortable juxtapositions of the gaskets, head and head plate which had settled down over the years. Bob had also been running with very low oil pressure. Now, with a newly reground crankshafts, a camshaft which is not leaking oil and new pistons with excellent compression, the whole engine function is notched up to a different level.

I only get briefly depressed when things go wrong. People say well, why don't you just give it up, retire, do something else you've always wanted to do but the bottom line is that I love the work, love  working with these gallant little tractors- they are individuals deserving the very best chance to go on running into the 22nd century and I love the challenge of getting things right in the end. When you've arrived at where you've always wanted to be since you were four years old, why chuck it away?

Anyway, to finish on a cheery note- I was looking through the photos to see if we had a view of a particular tractor and ran across this picture of my two grand-daughters sitting in the truck.

 

 

Steve and I in the workshop today moved towards getting Laddie (the other East Sussex tractor) started and continued with the process of testing Daisy May (the diesel with the series of problems).

The latest of these was the annoying diesel leak which persisted despite tightening every junction. Steve settled down to an investigative session.

(While I'm writing this I can hear Steve driving Daisy May out into the yard in the dark to test the brakes after another dismantling and inspection.)

By a process of elimination he identified to leak as coming from the entry into the bottom of the auxiliary tank itself- you can see the wet patch above the butterfly  in the photo.

Phonecall to owner offering options of taking tank off and repairing it, leaving it, bypassing it.

 

In the meantime I was getting Laddie's block out for its final inspection for clean-ness. I used the engine hoist to lift the block out of the cleaning bay then lowered it until I could bolt it onto the engine support which can be turned to make access easier on all sides. Our only complaint about our super Clarkes equipment is that the engine support won't fit comfortably inside the engine hoist and the heavy block has to be man-handled a bit as well.

It looked pretty good.

Cleaning every liner seat, oilway and face is vital so our cleaning is very thorough.

However our last inspection is out in daylight as things show up which can't be seen in artificial light and as I turned the engine over I caught a glimpse of something moving in the orifice leading to the oil filter (the black hole in the photo to the left of the oil pump mahined face) which turned out to be a a lump of oily clag camouflaged in the darkness.

This is what came out.

Out in the open we give a final high pressure clean with paraffin leaving it ready for rebuilding.

This next picture is Steve giving a thorough trialling of Daisy May's brakes. He was not satisfied and so she went back into the workshop to have the whole brake assembly dismantled and checked again.

On the final test run mentioned earlier he expressed himself satisfied with the one side but the side with the bent back plate (just one of the abuses this poor tractor has suffered) is still under discussion. My preference is to fit another plate altogether but this tractor has had to have so much more work done on it than was originally planned that her owner is quite understandably muttering about budgets so we'll have to see.

Being Friday Steve and I are going to knock off prompt at five and head for the Hill House to have a quick half so have a good weekend , everyone!

 

 

 

 

Bob is a TEA (petrol) converted to run on TVO as well. Unusually he had only one thin plate and two gaskets between the head and block. Usually there is one thick plate and two gaskets or two thiner plates and three gaskets. When we rebuilt the engine after regrinding the crankshaft and lineboreing the camshaft journals we rebuilt it as it was with the one thin plate and two gaskets.

We always get the engine running before rebuilding the rest of the tractor in case anything needs further attention. Lucky we did because Bob's engine started well and ran but examination of the oil (on the dipstick) showed that water was leaking into the oil.

Off came the head again and sure enough it was the dodgy part of the plate which was causing the problem.

This is one side...

and this is the other...

 

Decision time - fit a different plate- lots of phoning- no plates to be had for love nor money. However, on of our contacts said, Hold on a minute, when TVO convertions were first carried out they didn't have plates at all!

'What did they do, then?' I enquired.

'Gaskets', came the reply, ' Lots'

How many is lots?

'Sometimes as many as eight!'

We didn't need to fit eight. We only needed five to reach the required spacing. It was with trepidation that we started to run the tests again but it was successful. Sometimes old methods are the best!

When the time came to wheel back the front wheels complete with radius arms, steering arms and axle assembly we found two problems. The front axle pin which does the vital job of supporting the front of the tractor to say nothing of holding all the steering stuff and the front wheels was worn to a point where the amount of slop was alarming and also potentially dangerous. It seems unlikely that, however wor, a solid pin can snap but we have seen it on one of the tractors we had in where the only things holding the tractor together were the axle bolts!

The old bush did not want to come out so Gary heated it when it came out in two bits worn very thin.

Then he found that the hole in the axle was worn oval which meant that no way could a new bush be fitted- the whole assembly would have worn through again very rapidly.

So it meant fitting a new centre axle beam. We have a number around but only two passed the ovality test.

An unusual feature on Bob is the two original fuel tank filters which are surprisingly in excellent condition.

 

 

Steve and I were here in the workshop this afternoon (Steve had been playing bowls in the morning) and we started what should have been a straightforward job.

 

Simply dismantling the spindle assemblies to fit new bushes and bearings on both sides. By the way, if you wonder why I refer to them aqs 'spindles' rather than the more commonly used label 'King pins' its because thats what the Ferguson parts manual calls them.

 

We’d started off with the whole front axle assembly supported on the engine hoist (still being off while the engine was being rebuilt after its complete overhaul). Lifted but touching the floor. Finding it swung about too much we detached the side axles from the main beam and started work one on each side.

 

Steve had the nearside one and I the offside. Steve undid the bolts on the arm of the spindle, loosened it by inserting a wedge into the split and the complete spindle assembly dropped out. In the meantime I was struggling. Mine did not want to allow the same wedge procedure to operate. I handed mine over to Steve to finish off while I returned a phone call about parts. There were a lot of banging noises but when I came back though Steve was getting a bit red in the face the arm was off. I assumed that Steve was cleverer or stronger than I was and waited for him to knock the spindle out as he’d done with his, but it didn’t move. The other one had come out with gleaming metal and grease but this one was different, it was dark and rusty and very stiff.

 

We put it into the big vice, tried again to shift it, failed, applied WD 40 copiously and tried to tap it out being very careful not to damage the thread.

It moved four inches then wouldn’t budge any further.

 

We tried gentle persuasion with a copper hammer, tried a bigger hammer which Steve broke after it had moved another few inches.

We tried tapping on top and hitting bottom part together. We put it in the bigger vice and I heated it with oxy/acetylene while Steve applied a hammer but unusually this made no difference at all. We were standing back from out labours briefly both with aching arms and re in the face from the heat and exertion when Gary appeared with his stepson Daniel. We explained that we thought the problem was not rust but that the spindle was actually bent and Gary with the vernier confirmed this so we stopped to review the situation. An alternative spindle assembly was the answer so we started to search. These assemblies are handed and of course the first three we found were either the wrong side or were beyond re-use but eventually we decided that Herbert’s side axle had to be used with a new spindle. I broke the news to Bob’s owner who thankfully understands vintage vehicles and was very understanding. I’d already had to phone three times to discuss the seriously worn axle bush and pin, the excessive play in the spindles and the leak in the recently re-cored radiator. Neither he nor us can understand why it has a leak and I examined the radiator very carefully to see if there was any way damage had been done to it. One can always see from the fins where a rad. has had a knock but this has no marks at all so it remains a mystery.

 

 

 

Gary and I were not surprised to find that the bracket the radiator sits on was visibly bent on one side because of the bent spindle- obviously Bob had had a serious knock with a previous owner.

 

Gary straightened the bent bracket with a lever and a lot of energy and now the radiator (temporarily lent to Bob by DeeJay) sits squarely.

Sorry we've been off the air. There is still a problem with going online- sometimes it will and sometimes it won't aven after multiple attempts so I had no way of sorting the bandwidth problem.

Daisy May's hydraulics have been an ongoing serious pain.

Daisy May came to us with its owner being quite certain that the hydraulics had worked ok when he bought it so we’ve worked on that assumption all along. There was initially no way of testing them because the engine had a complete overhaul followed by the starter motor having a complete rebuild. When it did finally run the hydraulics were dead. So the hydraulic pump came off for examination and  the oil-ways were found to be solid with muck . Cleaned out and e-assembled the hydraulics still refused to do anything. The valve assembly was dismantled and checked and the top cover taken off and the cylinder, as mentioned earlier had been found to be full of rust with the piston solid in the cylinder.

 

The top cover complete with lift arms had been replaced at an earlier stage as a shortcut to dealing with the excessively worn nature of the original lift arms (they almost flopped about the bushes were so worn) and this led to a consideration of a mismatch between the new cover and the quadrant assembly but this possibility was eliminated by finding that temporarily fitting D.J.’s quadrant made no difference.

 

You can tell by now that we were scraping the barrel for possibilities. The first time the hydraulic pump came off a long while back there was a lot of water mixed with the gearbox oil and this together with sludge of ages had kept us looking for blockages as an explanation- I mean when you’ve checked everything over and over again you and it still doesn’t work then it has to be something you haven’t thought of but the frustration from checking everything repeatedly and draining the oil out and putting it back and disconnecting the top cover all of these about five million times was driving us crazy!

 

On the last occasion of Gary’s checking the cylinder assembly (yes, we’d taken it off again) by sheer luck when he had put the airline on to check the oil-ways were still clear he had his finger near the cylinder and felt air where no air should have been. Of course the gaskets had been replaced, checked, replaced again in case but there was an imperceptible slight depression in the bottom of the cylinder bolthole itself which was not taken up by the gasket- I mean one does quite reasonably assume that the machined faces on a cylinder which had been on originally when the hydraulics were believed to have worked would be flat.

 

Anyway Gary decided to fit Herbert’s top cover complete with a new cylinder and hey presto the lift arms moved up and down in perfect order!

 

We breathed a huge sigh of relied and began to envisage ringing Daisy May’s owner that it was ready for collection.

 

However we had reckoned without this malevolent tractor. Because Gary had fixed the hydraulics Daisy May decided to pull another trick and tried to kill him!

 

Sorry to stop at this point but its nearly ten o clock at night and I’m going home.

 

 

Bob and Laddie's blocks came back last week having had their camshaft journals re-bushes. Its a time thing this line-boring. The age of Fergusons means that they are nearly all or have nearly all reached a point where wear is endemic. Low oil pressure is a complaint we hear all the time and nine times out of ten its wear on the camshaft journals. Unfortunately its not a cheap job but once done the tractor will go on for the next sixty years or more because few TE20s do the work hours which they used to.

Bot the crankshafts were off locally to be rebored because of excessive wear as well. Bob came back with 20thou. oversize on the main bearings and 10thou. on the big ends but Laddie was 50thou. oversize on both mains and con-rods. It is still just possible to get the shells but specialist and of course the 50thou. main shells I have on the shelf are for a TEF.

Gary has finished rebuilding Bob's engine and is setting up the timing.

Why can’t life ever be simple? Harald was supposed to go back on the truck and the truck decided to throw a wobbly with its electrics…Ivan came in on a day off to start sorting it but has not been able to get back because HIS car has thrown a major electrical fault (oh, and just to cap it all my area had a complete loss of electricity last night).

 

So Harald went back in fine style on Gary's breakdown lorry.

 

 

Bob and Laddie's blocks and camshafts were collected from London. Gary has been working on Bob's engine all day. The initial clean took out some of the dirty oil deposits of then Gary took the liners out and then cleaned the whole interior of the block.

 

 

 

 

As always there are heavy rusty deposit in the water jacket and particular attention needs to be paid to the rim where the spectacle gaskets sit and the areas where the liner seats. Failure to do this leads to problems later.

 

Spectacle gaskets (a pair of which sit under the rim on the liner) are usually metal (either copper [our preference] or aluminium but the gaskets which came off Bob were a papery composite which is very unusual.

 

 

I’ve had a number of concerned phonecalls about the blog being unavailable because of bandwidth and because the blog has not been updated since 7^th September.  ‘You ARE still in business, aren’t you?’ is the anxious question. Answer is yes, very much so but there will be further interruptions to the web site and the blog because our computer is still giving problems and we are going to have to transfer everything onto a new one as well as trying to keep the old system going until this is done.

A further complication is trying to transfer the blog. This may end up being impossible and may result in no blog for some time.

 

Please, make a note of our phone numbers so that you can at least phone us if you want parts or want to book your tractor in.

 

As well as the landline 01692 500821 there is also a mobile 07733 58 44 58

 

Started this Wednesday and its Saturday (today) before I've been able to get back to it...

 

So, to continue-

Before I update the workshop activities I will explain how Steve (after falling backwards down a flight of stairs a month or so ago) managed to fall over the cliff at Happisburgh shortly afterwards! 

 

Well. I live on the clifftop with 22ft between me and the cliff edge and Steve was kindly watering my plants while I was away fetching Laddie (the ‘stop after 30 minutes’ tractor –more on this later). His daughter and grandson were on the beach, luckily out of sight.  Steve decided to join them by the shortcut which is a long scaffolding pole stretching from my garden down onto a ledge on the cliff. It wasn’t actually a weight problem it was just that Steve is heavier than the previous user and when Steve swung himself over the cliff the pole started to sink into the ground. Steve let go of the pole (he’s not sure why when I asked him) and grabbed the edge of the cliff which crumbled in his hand and he tumbled down the cliff through brambles and sharp branches and landed on the beach!  I reckon he was really lucky that he merely sprained his shoulder and got badly scratched because it could have been much worse.

 

And the workshop has to continue to manage without him at at a time when we are busier than we’ve been for a long time.

 

You might remember that Gary reckoned he knew why Laddie  was stopping after thirty minutes but hadn’t said what he thought so I didn’t know what to expect. He took the sump off and examined the bearings. They were worn and scratched but nothing out of the ordinary. Then he took the head off and made a satisfied but not surprised noise. He had found what he expected- pistons with way beyond acceptable play. This meant that oil was seeping up round the pistons and filling the firing chamber to the point where the mixture would not burn any more and probably also there was, with that amount of oil, some hydraulic locking effect as well.

 

The other thing of interest which Gary pointed out to me was that the pistons were marked 30 thou. oversize. Which meant that the liners were also 30 thou. undersize. This practice of honing out liners was discontinued a long time ago and  we’d not had one like it through the workshop.

 

While Bob and Laddie’s blocks are off being line-bored Gary and Ivan have been working on Harald.

 

Harald came up from  near Hastings to have the steerings seals renewed, the wheel bearings sorted and to have the carburetion sorted out amongst other things.  I’ll put some pictures up soon.  He’s a very carefully restored tractor who copes happily with a five foot topper (which is not always the case).

 

When I take Harald back I will be picking up the blocks on the way back and then it will be all hands on deck.

 

Daisy May’s starter motor has returned in a fully functional state but when it was fitted the starter mechanism  controlled by the gear stock turned out to have its own problems. Gary and Ivan finally took the top cover off and observed that the hole which should be round is very definitely oval which is why starting is a hit and miss affair.  Once more we had to phone the owner and tell him that there was yet another problem.

 

Steve did come in last week just for a day to help me get the tools organised so that we can all find  everything when we need it and Gary and Ivan were most approving when they came in on Tuesday.

 

More next week and hopefully time to put some picures up…

 

PS  One picture I do have ready to go on is this meticulously restored Allis -Chalmers B.

 

 

 

It is for sale in the region of £1400 ono. Email us if you are interested as we are selling it on commission. We'll deliver it under our 'fuel cost only'  arrangement which we offer to any tractor coming to the workshop for work to be carried out wherever the tractor is in the uk.

 

 

Daisy May is still having a starter problem. The starter motor was dismantled and the armature tested. Almost certainly finally given up so we fitted another one from the starter bits store and trialled it but it too is dud. There is no short cut now and I need to steel myself to ring Daisy May's owner and tell him that a rewind is the only answer. There is only one place in this part of the world who still does rewinds and, with trepidation, I rang to check they still did and thankfully they do.

Bringing the new tractor back from East Sussex was the final straw for the truck and Gary and Ivan have spent a hard three days taking the axle off the old van we bought in for this very purpose and fitting it to the truck. On the way they have skimmed the drums, fitted new handbrake cables (brake cables on a Mercedes 410D are handed) and sorted the brakes to a point where I cannot believe how efficient the handbrake is. They also fitted the doors off the van onto the truck to replace, on the passenger side, a door with the window broken and on the driver side a door which was very difficult to open and whose window would open but not shut! This last caused problems at the Blackwall tunnel where I nearly fell out of the door hanging out precariously to pay money to the kiosk. This manoevre was further complicated by the presence of four new chickens bought in Kent who were quite keen to get out of their box at the scent of fresh air at the same time.

The new tractor is a very interesting case. The owners told me that it started beautifully but stopped after thirty minutes and wouldn't start again. It stopped for us at thirty-three minutes which was near enough. Gary knows what the problem is but is running a series of tests to confirm it. More on this later.

Apologies to everyone who was inconvenienced by the collapse of the workshop computor. Seven days computerless caused absolute chaos and one irate customer. (It says a lot for the lovely nature of Ferguson owners that everyone else was incredibly understanding when they finally managed to get me on the phone and I was able to explain.) I couldn't ring them because my phone numbers are all on the computer! Needless to say, now I have it back there are hard copies of vital info. and back-up copies in case of total melt-down. Computers!!!!

Tomorrow Gary is going to get back from working endlessly on the truck to sorting out the East Sussex tractor while Steve and I take the Suffolk one back to its very long-suffering owner. I will be in a bit before eight to finish costing out Bob's parts and getting the report and quotation off to his owner. Gary will be in just before eight as well- he suggested this new time regime which I think is great though we are supposed to finish at four and it is quarter past seven so I must go home and put my chickens to bed...

PS I meant to tell you all about Steve falling off the cliff last week - will do so tomorrow...

Have been trying to update the blog all week but there is so much going on here I haven’t had a moment. In between doing the ordering and sending off of parts I’ve been working on dismantling Bob’s engine with Dave here on Tuesday splitting Bob by using Atlas, not quite as quickly as Jeff used to do it but very much quicker than in pre-Atlas days (thanks to Jeff’s efficient design and construction skills). OJ is finished bar having a small electrical fault sorted. Daisy May has had a new switch fitted to her starter motor but still has a problem which will be sorted early next week. DeeJay is well on the way- head refaced some time back, cleaned to Gary’s high standards, gasket face on block cleaned and a low spot identified by Graham’s sharp eyes. Gasket fitted with gasket sealant to eliminate the possibility of the indentation being the cause of the water seepage into the oil. Bob’s engine is off and head off as well. With the camshaft removed it became obvious that the camshaft journal are oval and would certainly have been a large contributory factor to the low oil pressure. Pistons are pretty good but the block will have to be stripped before going off for line boring so it would be a good time to complete the engine rebuild with new pistons rings and liners. That will be our recommendation but the decision will be that of Bob’s owner. Its Thursday already. Tomorrow I’m off to Sussex to collect another TEA leaving Steve in charge of the workshop. He might be kind enough to write a blog himself though I’m leaving a list of non-back taxing jobs for him…   more »

No time for a proper blog- I've got Bob's engine to get to a position where Gary can check the cam journals- the sump and big end caps are off. The shells show scuffing which, had they been left much longer would have started to score the camshaft journal as well. As it is three of the jounals Gary reckoned were ok but the fourth (on No. 3) is damaged so it is (as Bob's owner told us!) needing a crankshaft regrind!

 Loads has been happening here, Yesterday while Gary continued to sort out the electrics on OJ ( there is almost certainly a regulator problem) and dealt with the lengthy business of getting the throttle linkage into a condition to allow the throttle lever to actually do something (worn linkages) and dealing with the carburettor which, despite a thorough overhaul, continued to misfunction.  In the meantime Dave was starting to dismantle Daisy May to the point where Gary could take the head off and find out why the gasket had blown. Off came the fuel tank and throttle linkages, the manifold was left attached with the exhaust off. Eventually he was down to the rocker cover. Lots of oil which is always good to see, head nuts were undone and Gary and Dave together lifted off the head and placed it carefully on the ground.

The gasket showed tracking between two of the cylinders and some other defects.  The gasket faces on the head and the block were scrupulously cleaned with fine emery - I just missed getting a picture of them- and soon Gary and Dave had the head back on and Daisy May back to where she was in the morning.

Next thing was to sort out the starter motor problem. The new one which arrived  listed as being for a TEF was no use to us at all as it neccessitated changing the polarity of everything on the tractor!  So it was back to the longer process of sorting out the  original starter motor. The commutator skimmed to eradicate the undulations and the bushes (unworn but barely making contact) were cleaned back to bright and the starter switch dismantled...

It was rather corroded!  So much so that it was not possible to save it and we are waiting for a new one to arrive.

I've just put a rather fine TEF dashboard on ebay...

It s unusual in that it is as solid as the day it was made and has, beside a fine example of the brass Kigass starting instructions with all its corners intact, a 'Supplied by' plate as well.

The Workshop really needs Steve at the moment and Steve has had an accident which has put him out of action as far as work is concerned. Oh help!  Seems Steve was standing at the top of a flight of stairs while he was helping Mark in London. Mark, in fun, threw a small teddy bear at Steve and Steve, who thought it was a dead rat fell backwards down the stairs. He has hurt his neck, his back and his knee and has been told firmly not to do anything until he sees the doctor next week. He did come into the workshop and I had to keep telling him not to try to do all the things he was doing and was not meant to do. (He didn't take a lot of notice!)

So we are having to get on without him.

Dave on the left is working on OJ's carburettor. It used to flood so Dave checked the needle valve and found it was sticking. He changed it and gave the carb. a general overhaul. He noticed that the interconnection rod which attachs to the combined throttle and interconnection lever, was missing the tube in which it is meant to slide up and down.

Without the tube the movement is jerky which is the last thing you need in the supply of fuel.

The next picture shows the the carburettor which has the tube in place...

A long and laborious seach took place for, firstly a replacement and then for anything which would do the job. Just when we were despairing he looked in the box of 'brass bits' which I have, over the last year or so been sorting from the piles of general bits and pieces- it contains things like brass taps and bits of taps and brass fittings and bits of fitting and amongst it he found a throttle and interconnection lever complete with rod and tube!

While all this was going on Gary, new engineer, was working steadily on Daisy May. Jeff had rebuilt Daisy May's engine not long before he left but when we trialled her we found that the brakes were not functioning and one side would not adjust and the hydraulics did not function at all. 

Gary worked his way steadily through checking every part of the visible hydraulics, draining the oil and removing both side plates and checking that the fork assembly was still intact. With nothing visibly wrong it was time to take the top cover off and examine the cylinder. He found that the piston, which should slide freely in the cylinder was, instead, firmly fixed at the furthest end of its run by rust and that there was rust and muck on the walls of the cylinder. 

 

When the hydraulics were last working heaven only knows. He made it move by injecting compressed air behind it and thoroughly cleaned the piston and cylinder walls. Its ready to go back here

Gary finished the hydraulics inspection by removing the hydraulic pump and checking it. He then re-assemble everything . Steve, who was not meant to be doing anything was helping to replace the (heavy) top cover with Gary.

Gary checked the brake adjusters and recommended an immediate inspection of the brake assembly on the non-functioning side and a subsequent inspection of the other side to check. So off came the nearside wheen, the brake drum screws and the brake drum. The cause of the non finctioning adjustor was immediately apparent- the centraliser spring, instead of having its double centre section located on each side of the adjuster pinion was located with both sections of the spring above the pinion flange thus causing the pinion to drop below the point at which the crown wheel could inter-react and push the brakes shoes out. This was corrected, the centraliser nut was loosened, the drum refitted and the shoes moved out until the drum was locked. The drum was tapped firmly with a hammer to encourage the shoes to move if they were not central. Twice they loosened with the tapping and were then re-adjusted till tight then when it was certain the shoes were both properly centered the centraliser nut was tightened and the shoes adjusted until the drum could just be moved.  Then the same was carried out on the other side, Everything there was correctly located and brakes were recentreing as before.

All seemed to be going well. Gary started Daisy May up and began the process of bleeding the hydraulic system. Just as the arms began to operate of their own accord I noticed water shooting out from the radiator. Gary stopped the engine immediately and we both looked. The radiator cap seemed cool so I carefully unscrewed it and a huge fountain of water shot out. 'Looks like a head gasket to me,' said Gary. I won't write what I said. That was not all. When Gary tried to start Daisy May again the starter motor which has always been a bit internmittent refused to function at all! Loose connections were tightened but still nothing. Off came the starter motor. The stink of burning electrics told its own tale. Rewinding the armature is more expensive than a new starter motor. I phoned the owner, who, to his eternal credit, took it on the chin like a true brit.

We've shifted stuff about, moved Daisy May off Atlas and taken Bob off the back of the truck. I carefully (but with trepidation 'cos I hate driving the tractors on and off the truck) backed Bob down. He came down with a rush but I managed to stop just six inches away from Daisy May's bonnet. We ran Bob for a bit to see what the oil pressure did and, as Bob's owner had said, the oil pressure dropped dramatically as the engine heated uo. We are concerned about the amount of water being pushed out and the high engine temperature as well and are going to check that the thermostat is working correctly as a first move.

I suppose one shouldn't join the vintage tractor circus if one can't take a joke..but...

The tractors look nice all tucked up for the night-

 

Can't believe there's been a gap of over a week since I last updated the blog!

There are now two carburettors to be serviced. One is on the Suffolk tractor which has a tendency to overflow until the engine is running and the second one which arrived by post has similar problems but a different cause.

There are now new Zenith 24Ts available but how could one beat the  look of a carb. which has been on the tractor for the last half a century...

More when we start looking at them.

Steve and I have been working hard on Daisy May to get her finished for the owner's visit on Wednesday. The new bonnet catch has been fitted and when Steve checked it it clicked smartly into place without any adjustment. He fitted a new ignition switch to replace the defunct one while I checked the heater switch circuit. Nothing wrong with the circuit but the switch is frozen solid. The owner has decided to leave it for the time being as a new switch is quite pricey. He would dearly like a Kigass pump though if anyone wants to sell one.

We fitted the seat with a new spring with the option of doubling the spring up if needed later. Steve had sorted the sharp edges on the new footplate ends which Jeff had made before he left

and given them a solid coat of red oxide.

New Ferguson owners beware ebay sellers claiming to be selling TE20 front wheels when they are in fact for a 35!

Closer up it can be seen that the wheel nuts sit proud of the wheel because the pits are not there. Jeff had taken one look and said, 'They're dangerous!'

He could see that the nuts would not go on far enough- the threads of the studs cannot be seen -so Daisy May's owner had to buy another pair of proper ones.

Steve took Daisy Mat out into the yard on her maiden trip. She started beautifully, the engine ran like a dream (well of course it did, Jeff had done it) but as for stopping!!! Jeff had redone the brakes but had obviously left the adjusting to be done later. This is Steve standing on the brakes trying to stop!

Daisy May's owner came to visit today. For the first time he was able to drive his own Ferguson and the pleasure on his face was a picture. He'd never driven a Ferguson before but was soon spinning her round the yard enchanted with the small turning circle. When he finally drew up (carefully because of the brake situation!) he said, 'I'm really pleased ...'   

There are things still to be done- the brakes (it's back on Atlas just as I was hoping to get Bob on), the hydraulics are not functioning at all, some welded on lumps on each of the footpegs need to come off and the wings which we'd removed to get access to the rocker arm have to be replaced and the dynamo output has to be checked. But the owner is pleased with things as far as they have gone which is great!

This last picture shows Steve working on Daisy May while in the background is Dave. Dave came to help us for the first time today and after dealing with a serious blockage in the water jacket of the Suffolk tractor he then got on with DJ who has been sitting with pistons and liners removed for months and by the end of the day had cleaned out the bores and the liner seats (the problem had been water seeping under the seats and down into the oil) cleaned the liners and pistons and the crankshaft and replaced the liners , pistons, and con-rods. He had noticed that one of the small inserts in the con-rod body and cap was missing and we had a frantic but successful search to find a replacement.  He torqued the con-rod bolts up and now there is only the tab washers to be bent over the nuts and, after, cleaning, the sump to go back on and the head and other bits. It will be such a relief to have DJ mobile because then it will be possible to rebuild Herbert. Jeff always reckoned that it was not cost effective to restore a tractor by the workshop for the workshop but I still look forward to auctioning Herbert at Cheffins...

Oh, and the Flying Saucer!  Honest, this is the name of this convolvulus which I grew from seed. Well, to be accurate I grew fifteen of them but some I gave away and they got eaten by slugs and some I sold and when I planted this one out I thought it was the small purply-red 'Grandpa Otts' but it turned out to be a surviving Flying Saucer. The flower itself is about five inches across but an ephemeral aethetic experience because when I went home it had had its day and was crumpled up and maybe that was it and there will be no more. Question now is whether I try to grow this fragile beauty again next year or not...

 

 

Yesterday was spent in the office in the morning processing orders, sending off quotations, answering emails this despite my resolution to get straight on with Daisy  May who is waiting to be finished.  Help in the office in the afternoon meant that I could get on and I was able to get on with taking Daisy May's commission plate off the original steering column to put on the one which was fitted later. The plates are held on with dome-headed spiral fixing which are not meant to come out. Steve had started drilling them from the back and I continued this using a burr until the end of the fixing was visible and could be knocked through with a very small punch. The fixings left on Daisy May's new steering column had to come out and I discovered that by carefully gripping them and turning they could be persuaded to come out all except the last one which snapped off and had to be punched through. I also started fitting the bonnet rubber, always a fiddly job but stopped when I could get back in the office at five to continue processing orders.

Today Steve was working by himself until I arrived at 2.15 tis afternoon. No, I was not skiving I was doing a (very rare for me because of working) stint as Granny looking after my baby grand-daughter while my daughter stayed with the other grand-daughter who was having her adenoids taken out and grommets put in her ears. When I left the hospital baby was asleep in her car seat and Myhren was looking a kind of Ferguson grey colour but complaining of hunger having not eaten from early the night before. They would not let her have anything at that stage but I hope by now she has had something to eat. (An update informs me that she eat two pieces of toast late afternoon followed by two more pieces followed not too long after by jacket potato with tuna and jelly and ice-cream followed later by scone and butter and raspberries- sounds like she's getting back to normal!)

While I was out Steve had adjusted the wheel bearings on  the Suffolk tractor (which is without a name at the moment because I forgot to ask), put new rubbers on the fuel tank, fitted the new distributor cap and the correct rotor arm in place of the one Jeff had identified as being an incorrect one. This was in between taking down a number of enquiries. In the afternoon while I answered the said enquiries, he took the old top link rocker bracket off Daisy May which had one distinctly oval hole (not without considerable difficulty I might add). The bush will have to be replaced, of course when the new one is fitted.

 

Morris dancing was good yesterday night. It looked as if it was going to rain any minute but held off.  We had a good audience- enthusiastic, chucking lots of money into the Motor Neurone Disease collection bucket. Four people joined in- two youngsters which is always nice (one of whom, Danny, took most of these photos for me because I cannot play a whistle and take photos) and the landlord himself and a friend who were both absolute natch! We are hoping he'll join us next autumn when practising starts again.

Musicians at rest during the break (well, two of the three- I was taking the photo)

Then I was intruiged by this inverted image and thought I'd try and capture it.

We went on dancing even though it got a bit dark- in this picture are Danny and his brother.

With a patient worker in the office yesterday trying to catch up with piles of paperwork I've not been able to keep up with recently and dealing with a few muddles as well, I was able to get collections of parts together, packed up and posted off.

Am beginning to think seriously about moving the workshop to Wales next April when the lease which Mark  and I signed runs out here.

When I leave the workshop each night I go home and get on with my indoor gardening. Its the first time in my life (and I'm 64 now) that I've had a covered, light, warm space for growing. It is meant to be a sun lounge with a couple of easy chairs and a table to sit and have drinks while looking out over the bay in one direction and at the lighthouse in the other but I've turned it into a serious greenhouse with bench shelves along two sides and big pots along the third. For the first time ever I'm  successfully growing tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers. These are some of the peppers a few weeks ago. One of them is huge now.

 Getting the work done is ok though inevitably there will be delays now in getting engineer type jobs done because an engineer is not on tap all the time. I'm really happy to be back on the shop floor again- I came  into the business in the first place to do practical work but because Jeff was so good at everything and the  demands of actually running the business have got more complex as we bacame more streamlined I've been more or less chained to the office.

 I'll be glad when Steve is back from his philanthropical mission next week. Its a bit quiet in the day unless customers are in though at the moment I can hear the lathe going as Philip continues with his flight simulator. Having him here enabled me to nip out to pay some cheques in without having to lock the whole place up. 'Just make sure', I said to him, 'if you don't mind, that no-one pinches the tractor, for instance.' He looked up at the tractor on the truck, in the doorway and laughed at the possibility.

We are secure here but we are hearing of several cases of Fergusons being lifted together, in one case, with its three ton trailer (newly restored!)  Ouch!

A chap came in yesterday-he'd helped us a lot in 2007 when the electrics Mark had put in shortly before he left blew up. Could he use our lathe (the workshop's own one)? 'Of course,' we said.

He came back a bit later with the very interesting and complex objects which can be seen in the foreground.

Eventually Steve could not suppress his curiosity and went over to ask what it was...  It was, we were told, part of a flight simulator for a facimile Boering 737 cabin which Philip was building. (No, before anyone asks, is the answer!). It had been an ambition for a great many years and finally Philip has retired in order to be able to dedicate himself to fulfilling his ambition!  He kindly said that Steve and I could go and see it when it was finished. Wow! That's a treat to look forward to!

Steve worked on Daisy May yesterday. Jeff had left a list of things to finished so Steve kept busy putting in anti-freeze in the rad., oil in the steering box and air cleaner as well as the gearbox. He attached the bonnet stay and changed the oil filter.

Feel sorry for Steve... after leaving here he's off to play bowls then at ten tonight he's leaving to drive himself and a friend down to London to help with a house clearance.

I should have been out there working with Steve doing other things which needed doing but I was stuck at the computer all day until 10.15 at night.

Today Daisy May's owner came in to see how things were going. He said a couple of times that he was disappointed that he would not be able to say that Jeff had done all the work from beginning to end but was a little comforted to understand that even had Jeff been there,Steve or I might have been doing these last minute jobs in order to free Jeff to do less routine work.

A big order in today including a request for trumpet housing nuts and a gasket asap so I got them into the post, first class, with 30 seconds to spare before the PO closed.

I'm off to Morris dancing now (well, playing music, not dancing to be accurate.) We go round the pubs during the summer raising money for Motor Neurone Disease. Tonight we are at the Kings Head in Coltishall which is a lovely pub just beside the river. Getting short of time. Must fly!

I’m just back from Wales with Bob the Tractor! Bob is being converted from 6v to 12v and has some engine problems. More on Bob when we’ve had a chance to look at him properly.

 

I got lost in Wales but found the remnants of an Eighteenth century landscape. This garden building- a dovecote perhaps? in need of some care. A building in a ruined state has pathos and is symbolic of the passing of the centuries but pleasing decay is one thing and it is keeping the balance which is the difficulty.

 

 

These magnificent gates have been recently restored.

 

This is Bob just before leaving his home patch.

 

 

The sky behind him is a forwarning of what was to come-it rained heavily all the way back to Norfolk except for an hour!

 

 

 

 

These things are great fun to do , if you plan it right its simple , if you don't you can make a lot of work for your self , you should end up with the tractor looking like this when its removed

don't bother taking all the dash off , you don't need to , remove the gear lever 2 nuts and washers

remove the 4 bolts that hold on the steering colum , remove the 2 bolts at the base of the main frame behind the dash, remember to put tray under the tractor oil will come out of these 2 holes , remove all 14 bolts that hold the top cover on , lift up steering colum and slide out the steering box , simple

that's inside the gear box , see the colour of the oil , water and lots of it , bad

this is inside the main bell housing , that rod operates the starter

now the steering box drain out the rest of the oil and place upside down and remove any old gaskets from the faces

remove all the little screws and remove the bottom plate

yes i know Ive all ready done it in the pics , now move the arms so you can get at the 2 nuts and bolts , undo them and remove ,

 

is all good , right keep the bits handed ,

now you can see the seal , stick something in it and lever it out

now you can see the bush get each arm from the side it was removed and see what the fit is like , it needs to be silky

it its all over the place replace the bush ,

the seals , on the left the old seal and on the right the new ,( why don't they make the new seals look like the old ones )

right clean all the faces remember this thing holds oil , make new gaskets

see i can do it , now you have to put it all back together ............... bye ......... joking its easy reverse the order you carnt get the arms in the wrong place , just put them level when you drop the colum back in when you've done , have fun ............................. right run lads

Its me.

Daisy May .  a TEF20 with TEP back end, and as you can see the half shafts are very different a lot more solid

a lot thicker in the main body ,someone as put on some secondary seals to try and stop oil leeks but this only works if the bearings are in pretty good order , those cap over the bearings are the seals  ,  have a look at these pics ,

you can really see the difference here

the one on the right is a Diesel shaft that as a 50mm gear head on it , these TEP shafts have 44mm

gear on the end ,

the one on the left is a standard shaft ,

and this is them all together , any way they have had there bearings and seals changed and have been refitted to day

and set up 10 thou between the tips , fun with shims and magnetic drop gadges . more on Daisy May tomorrow

And there is another Tractor in the workshop for some work , wheel bearings , starter motor , carb , and a few other bits

as you can see the carb does leak a bit , it keeps flooding

and yes it still runs 6 volt electrics , if you can call them electrics have a look at the back of the dash

ha ha ha , no joke that's it , its got a control box down under the battery box but thats about all ,quite a tidy tractor

really ,

And so on , we have another tractor due in on Monday from North Wales , I would like to go and get it but the boss

aint seen the mountains for ages and she needs a break she works to hard , anyway ive got things to do , later you lot more tomorrow .

We have a couple of tractors to pick up, one local to day, and one at the weekend in North Wales,

This Ferguson is at Hedington Steam Fair

have a look at the blue wings on this ( Steve )

And for the 135 owners

And no show is complete with out one of these

and this bloke dont even think it ,never mind say it

Wow what toys some people have , anyway, onward, steam engines a pair of plough engines

don't you just want one , and a steam roller

This is brilliant, look at the size of the engine , its on the left, ha ha ha , now look at the size of the pump, the little thing mounted on the corner on the right ,  it did make me smile,

This truck , steam engine , chain drive , and what a bloody chain it was

not look very big , look again,

looks like a fergi cam chain made by ........................ ha ha ha , stop laughing you lot , i know you know what I'm on about , Cars , yes, box things , wheels on corners,this bloke as style , on a motor like this he turns the MG badge upside down to make his initials, how cool is he ,

lawn mower racing what a laugh

tractor pulling , watch out I have an idea ha ha ha

And this is a V12

 The ROLLS ROYCE V12 MERLIN XX ,many years ago when i was a kid a spitfire used to fly over our estate from time to time , The sound of this engine does things to people, there are people out there who will know what Im on about the sound of one of these babys can make a grown man cry , as far as i know no one as ever put in to words the beauti and grace of this god like, master piece of Engineering , I am proud to say I have made parts and worked on them , The Stone Henge of Engines,

This ones out of a Bristol Beaufighter

 

 

 

 

Before I go I must say sorry to the nice chap who had his trailer restored , seems no one else noticed till i pointed out to him they did on have nylock nuts in them days , Ho well trust me , It was still a nice job tho , thanks for your time mate and the chat , And just for him his trailer

So there you go things and stuff ,now I need a coffee .

 

Well daisy Mays motor is back together now and refitted to the tractor, here are some more pics of odds and sods and a few bits of the tractors history ,

right the cranks had a regrind and is back with us .020 mains and .030 big ends

as you can see Ive already put the main bearings on , and Ive fitted the new rear crank seal

and the new liners are in the block ready

new pistons with rings and pins

want to see the old stuff

see them rings in front of the liners Warning do not mix them up they are machined as pairs ,and when you put them back in turn the bottom ring by 90* degree ,

ha ha ha them big ends are great , anyway now the motors built and back on and test run

and its all sweet and dandy now , funny over the years this tractor has had a hard life from chucking its cam chain

to snapping its front pin , poor thing belly flopped

And yes Ive made a new front pin for daisy

so their you have it ,

And what did I get up to over the weekend , well a little trip out to one of the biggest sets of locks in the country

A really nice bit of water engineering , OK a big bit of engineering when you see the size of them

a good days work to get through this lot , and all of them are not in the picture there are many more up and down from where i took this picture,

a real nice place for a day out with cracking wildlife in the reservoirs

and stunning views from the top of the hill, so go see for your self ,

 

I came up with these so you can use the bolts that hold the fender skins on , saves drilling another

hole quite simple and look nice clean and tidy

See nice and neet

And it keeps the wires out the way

I think they are quite good if you have a mint tractor you dont want to drill holes in , gives a call if you want some .

Oil pumps, be aware these can KILL your engine big time ,

Little story , a few months ago I rebuilt a TEF diesel motor , big ends ,mains , pistons, rings, liners,oil pump. stuff and things,

anyway everything was good Mr owner very happy with his tractor , he had got it back three weeks earlier and was running it and something happened !!!!!!!!!!!!!! .Anyway he phones in and says tractor made a real nasty noise and stopped dead, Ho,Isaid, shock horror, could I have dropped a round dangley thing ,  he explained what had happened , I asked him to bring it in , and told him i would stop what I was doing and find the problem there and then with him there , and that's what happened , he turns up with the tractor , so its off the trailer and in the workshop , bonnet off , I TRIED to start it the poor starter motor , the motor was solid, so we stuck it in gear and pushed it backwards and forwards , nothing , so jacks went in under the front and I took the front end off , straight away , the timing case had a hole in it , on removing the case , we could see a problem the oil pump drive gear and the end of the shaft had come away and punched a hole in the case, strange i thought the only weight on the oil pump is the oil , So off came the rest of the pump , Bloody hell I said as i looked at the pump , I did feel sorry for the owner this tractor had been a pain in his neck since he had it , and now this , a problem, was not his fault , was not mine either , its a makers problem , anyway a few phone calls later to some very nice people and they picked up the tab for the mans motor rebuild , one really happy owner, have a look at these pictures

see the hole on the left

Poor little engine , and this was the problem the pump !

The pin had come out and locked up the pump

want to see a baked conrod

and the big end bearing , don't laugh i had to chisel them off the crank

And then get the shells off the rods

So there you can see what happens when your oil pump goes pop or snap .

And on another note thanks for the emails didn't realize so many people where interested in what I got up to on my time off, so for those who are over the weekend I went off to the solstice at Avebury at the weekend and had a great time , so many people , from baby's to grans and grand dads, here are just a few pics , and by the way taking pictures at 1.30 am in the morning with an 8sec expo is fun in its self  

below the bunch of lads in the middle here where drumming all night non stop

and even some very posh people

about a thousand people stayed there over night , a brilliant night , even the spooks had fun

all good stuff right that's that more later ,

As you will know from yesterday Daisy's motor is off and being striped out , well now striped out

and as I thought the mains are shot and the big ends, the crank needs a regrind so that's being picked up tomorrow

it should be back done to .020 big ends and mains , which is all good

Have a look at the state of the big ends

and close up

and another

and yet another

Well more when the crank comes back,

And on another note guess who this is looking thoughtful , yes its me , how strange me looking thoughtful

ha ha ha ha

Yes I need a bloody shave , don't worrie Ive got a grinder, It didn't matter I only went for a walk on a country estate

I took this picture of this bit of wall and a tree , just because it said how the whole place was ,

beautiful , the whole place was , even sheep shearing going on

they sorted my fluff out ha ha ha

 anyway enough of such nonsence less of it  , more later. 

Right , Wellie first ,

Wellie came in for Half shafts , normal new bearings, seals, and reset, and its brakes to be relined and set up and balanced, front wheel bearings  and the fuel system cleaned out , and just a quick tweak , then a quick blast with the pressure washer ,

pressure washers and old paint don't really go together

they tend to blast off the paint if you get to close

any all went well and Wellie was delivered back to its owner yesterday morning

seems he was very pleased with the tractors brakes ,cool another happy costumer.

Daisy may . to give it its full name, seems to have a bit of a problem with her motor

main bearings, big ends ,normal test sump off put a bar between the fly wheel and press down on the bar ,

nicely, does it put a dial gadge on the flywheel and watch how much the flywheel lifts

mills is bad ,ha ha ha ,any way I took the motor off and started to strip it out

diesel`s are ok but you have to take the whole motor apart to get the crank out

not an easy job , these motors are not light , and the crank comes out the fly wheel end of the block

pics of that later ,

anyway this is how it looks now ,

The bell housing

you can see the oil coming from the rear crank seal

And the front end , cam chain and wheels

So there you go , other stuff Dj`s heads been skimmed and ready

Seems it might have a cracked liner tho so thats next on that

And ive got this in to play with its not grey but it soon will be ha ha ha ,

And now a few pics from last weekend due ,

Nutty jo, the woman wont sit still,

sunsets daughter filling her face

And Bee look no hat

and jo at it again

Jo lived just down the road from me in my home town , so that makes her nuts anyway

Right more stuff and things later and im off to either castle rigg or stone henge not desided yet

this weekend all good stuff ,