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 ,

Well people this is what Charlies loader looks like fitted ,

I had a little bit of fun with the connectors , this loader had never been fitted to this tractor so I had to do a few things

on site , but nothing I could not handle

And guess what it all worked lovely , ha ha ha hell im good , ha ha ha  Ho well

Good I think

even looks good from the other side

Well people its friday and im off be good and if you break your fergi give us a ring 01692 500821coz we are good

ha ha ha well we are! its what we do . later

 

AND  The leamington peace festival is on tomorrow , ah gives ya chance to make some noise

its all good fun. BACK SOON . 

Right I will tell you now this as nothing to do with tractors, its just what I've been doing since i went away at the weekend
First I went down to Epping forest to meet up with some of my friends old and new for a bit of a giggle and catch up
as you can see yes we are a bunch of hippys messing about in the woods, all good fun tho ,





poor trippy got attacked by jenny


then some of us buggered off to my van to escape the sun , strange the insulation in my
van works like a flask kept us cool


DJ made her self at home , pain in my butt that woman, go and play in your own van,
 ha ha ha joking , anyway we had a right laugh ,
mum Bee watching over us all like mother hen  ,One of my favorite people megger clever old school hippie
Knows everything about everything ,


any way a good time was had by all, see you lot later , And by the way it seems we
had the next field too, ha ha ha bloody hippys ,


the after we had all said are goodbyes , I drove down to port Eynon in south wales
I spent a few days down there just chilling out and met up with another of my friend who
came down from wiltshire ,


we sat on the Cliff top and watched the nutters surfing in to the bay , rock n roll


the cliffs down here are massive and great to climb


this little mountain is doodles mountain


Then I sat and watched the sun set with Suzanne and Jess her dog


very nice sun set


Then I left Suzanne and Jess, and had a day or so driving around, then went off up to gloucestershire
to see DJ before she went off to the island of racing, TT week , lucky sod ,
Anyway after saying tat tar to DJ, i drove back down the M5 and along to Bath and in to Wiltshire and down to Stone henge
And thanks to the good lads on the gate ,








No people just me , how cool is that ha ha ha , so after Stonehenge I went to wood henge just a few miles down the road one of the biggest earth works in the UK


the posts have long gone but in 2005 time team turned up and did some work and now
you can see where it all was




yes that's a lot of posts , well worth a visit , then off to Avebury
alot of the stones here where blown up and used for building stuff around here and some where buried
because the locals where scared of them , bit strange ,










This is the Avenue


this goes off over the hill for some half mile , this picture is from the top of the hill .
Then off to West Kennet Long Barrow with Suzanne and Jess the sheep dog Jess ,
Suzanne knows everything there is to know about all this stuff ,
A very calm and spiritual place up on top of a hill on the walk up the great oak
with gifts








Pagans , And for those of you who don't know means people of the country ,
Right the Barrow ,as me and Suzanne walked up the hill she told me loads of stuff
about goings on and when we got there , I could feel the place ,


A very calm and spiritual place




We sat in the barrow and talked , then went up on the top and sat in the sun and chatted
the woman's like talking to bloody google ,
the view from up there was amazing


this hill is bigger than it looks they are big trees in front of it ,
Its called silbury hill,
and of course I seen one of the White horses too




Thank you Suzanne, for everything all your help and doing what ever you did, I feel Amazing ,
 I don't know what to say , Thank you , And hand carved Maori tribal necklace, I will treasure for ever,
And thank you to all my friends you all are very special , I will see you again soon ,
So that's it ,I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow to the Strawberry fields due ,

See ,

It was packed

And yes I did sign on the line

There was all sorts of stuff and music everywhere

Yes I did have a really good day and met up with friends from all over the country ,

And now back to work till next weekend  ,OK with tractor stuff ,ha ha ha later ,

Well , things have been happening around here , anyway here's a picture up date i think its the fastest way to bring you up to speed , I will start with . A spud planter

The box was easy I rolled steel bar into the edges to stiffen it up and cut out and re-made the tray bottom

Then did some work on the main frame , turned out this planter was three different planters thrown together

so I had to re-design it and make it all work properly , good fun,

The top part of the frame comes from the planter with the long shelf across the top

so with a few mod`s it now holds the box nicely

that seat mount was a double to start with but with a quick cut and shut it works

putting the shoots through the box is easy IF you mark it up right

And now for a mill loader with a few problems as you will see " A bodge is an understatement "

check this out joins at there best ,

don't you just love it , and the other side

The main frame was just as good

yes that weld cuts in, any way after i ground it all out and re-welded it then plated it

i had a nice main frame you can see the new plate work on the joint ,

the catch had to go it didn't work properly the lever points where all wrong so I made a new one

the problem you have is moving that pin with the bucket full , and that brings me to the bucket

was rusty and worn out , and so I made this one

ho yes , I had some 6mm checker plate so I saved the man some money

then the front fork i started with this

Nice and the bucket was the same state , and the fork ended up like this

I'm so bad , OK fairly good , it what i do ,

now for the tricky bits these little suckers , The rams the seals had gone and they had filled

up with water , you can see the water level mark ,

so after hunting down some rams ,to do the job I then had to make them fit cutting off the ends

and making them shorter and getting the stroke right was all good fun , I used push pull rams just in case

in future the own wanted to power the main frame down to , anyway these are the rams i made up

so their you have it , other stuff Ive been doing re-building carbs and distributor's from Canada

s/steel choke rods with brass knobs , more half shafts , and re-built a T bar

well thats it , for now , A part from saying Hi to all my hippy friends , il see you lot at Essex gathering on Sunday , Then, Hello, To South Wales, il be down there in the week , And then off to the strawberry fair at Cambridge next weekend, ul and coltishall fun day this weekend, 30th

So its all a bit mad, ha ha ha, that's the way it goes ,

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong

 

 

Things have been so hectic here that there has been no time to do blogs. Jeff promises some technical stuff when he gets a spare moment so I will just do a general updating.

We are, thankfully, as yet unaffected by the economic doom and gloom. Lots of enquiries, lots of orders for parts and a stream of work coming into the workshop including as well as tractors, fuel and oil pressure pipes being sent in for ends remaking or replacements, a conrod with problems for replacement or repair and a carburettor and distributor sent to us from Canada for Jeff to sort out.

The Mil Loader is now finished apart from cleaning and painting. Its been a pig from beginning to end- no replacement hydraulic rams were available unless we had them custom built at incredible expense, the bucket as mentioned in the last blog had to be kitted out with its pin mountings and catch and these could not just be replaced in the same place as the old one used as a pattern because the weight distribution was completely different and the thing has to be balanced to tip forward properly then flip back for its latch to catch properly. Of course, in the end, by clever thinking, Jeff has got the whole thing working perfectly. Steve started to clean off the rust and dirt for painting and got the bucket done before being stopped to get on with other jobs which were holding things up.

Ooh-Ah (the TED) has had its newly reground crankshaft refitted with new shells all round. Jeff will possibly put a picture on showing how the play on the crankshaft has work away a bit of the clutch housing.

Herbert now has his own bay in which to be rebuilt and with his crankshaft reground as well and his new main and con-rod shells and new pistons, rings and liners arrived should be under way before too long. Only problem is that with the arrival of two more vehicles, Deejay is in Herberts bay as well so no room to work.

One of these was a sad TEF who came in to be started. Jeff quickly identified a lack of fuel getting through to the injectors as an initial cause. One fuel pipe had started to disintegrate inside its metal outer and was totally blocked. When this was unblocked fuel was still not arriving in the right place. Further investigation revealed not bunged up fuel filters but NO fuel filters at all. Cruelty to tractors. Of course this meant that bits of muck including rubber particles had bunged up the injectors. I was busy elsewhere so didn't see what Jeff did to clean the system out but was then called over to see fuel spirting smoothly and evenly from each injector in turn (having been warned first to keep out of line as the force with which the fuel is pushed out is horrendous (Jeff has a nasty story of someone who said, 'Look there's no fuel coming out of the injector!' putting his hand in front of the injector just as it started to pump through. It blew a hole through the guy's hand).

When Jeff got the tractor running at last he diagnosed badly worn main and big end bearings. I rang the owner who informed me that when the tractor was purchased a few years back it was found that the previous owner had 'been running it dry' - no oil in the engine, no oil in the gearbox. Oh dear!

Owner sadly, decided to sell rather than have repaired so arrangement was made for owner to come in in the morning to pay us and the new owner to arrive in the afternoon to take the tractor away to break for spares. I was up at the post office in the morning when an agitated Steve rang me to say, 'Come back quickly, they are trying to take the tractor away without paying!' New owners had started to push the tractor up their ramp into their trailor. Jeff had pushed it down again! There was one of Jeff and seven! men arrived to collect it- had they anticipated trouble??

I'd planned my approach as I did 80 down the by-pass and, confident that Jeff would play the hard man and not let the tractor go, I played it cool, wandered up, said, 'Hi! Were expecting the owner in to pay in the morning, you in the afternoon. Suppose you come back later.' 'Can't' they said and went into a huddle. Eventually all was sorted amicably, we got the money from them, they got the tractor. We all had a cup of coffee and Jeff and Steve went back to changing the head gasket on a Mercedes van. No, we don't usually but this was a favour. Also, our truck (also a Mercedes) is dripping black oil and is next in line for attention.

Tommorrow we have a TEF and owner in for the day. More later...

 

I’ve got loads of quotations to get out, parcels to pack and label and send as well as all the other office work that has to be done but I can’t resist stopping frequently to see what Jeff and Steve are up to in the workshop. A 6mm sheet of steel has to be bent to make up the main part of the  bucket for the loader which Jeff is rebuilding.

 

At one point Steve was swinging in mid-air putting all his weight on the plate while Jeff heated it with the blow torch (Jeff having tack-welded one edge of the plate to the rusty bucket being used as a former and welded a strong bar across the mouth of the old bucket to make it rigid). That failing to make any impression on the plate, next time I went out it was Steve wielding the blow torch while Jeff put straps and hooks on the edges and ratchetted the plate down. Triumphant moment as the metal plate began to move!

 

As the curve became shallower two straps and ratchets were necessary so I was handed the torch (leaving me standing like the Statue of Liberty!) while the two tough guys turned the heavy assembly on its side to fit the straps at either end.

 

Now, with only a foot gap to close there are sounds of torch and ratchetting going on simultaneously. Slight hitch when the hook came off the old strap being used and a new load-binder was put on instead together with a heavy duty metal gripper as well.

 

They’ll succeed without a doubt!

 

The workshop is filling up with fumes from the hot metal so I’ve opened the doors each end and put the fan on to clear it.

 

‘That’s about it, Steve’, I hear Jeff say, ‘Looks pretty good’, replied Steve. Success!

 

Coincidences do happen- I’ve never had a request for brake adjuster ball retaining plates and within four days I’ve been asked for them from two different parts of the country! This meant a search for some of the many old brake back plates stored on the mezzanine floor put in by Jeff last year. Its now very easy to access because Jeff has this week installed a wooden staircase with safety rails and going up to look for used parts is now a doddle. I’m looking forward to the weekend when I can start getting the parts sorted properly.

 

Brake plates, yes,- Steve and I between us had to dismantle five assemblies to find only two retainer plates in any sort of reasonable condition (I now understand why people restoring their Fergusons need them). I need four to send off and want to keep one good one as a pattern so yesterday Jeff knocked up a few more (sounds like an easy process but it took quite a bit of trial and error to get them right. They have a ¼” indentation at one end and a tab in a notched square hole at the other end and fit over the crown wheel brake adjuster. This is a picture of old and new ones. No prize but can you correctly pick out the original ones from the Jeff-made ones? (picture to follow-its on Jeff's camera!)

 

‘Want a bigger hammer?’ comes Steve’s voice through the office door so I am going to have another look. (In the meantime I have answered several emails, made up a quotation and stuck core plugs onto a card to send them off.

 

Side plates of the bucket are being welded- the hammer was being suggested to push the side plate up which had begun to twist on its spot weld but Jeff preferred to used the more controlled method of a block of wood and a hydraulic jack.

 

By the end of today there is one super bucket! (picture to follow!)

 

What's he got to do with tractors you might ask? Well, nothing but he is one of my great heroes not only for his brilliance at designing and engineering but because he was a true Victorian all round bloke. Engineer, innovator, inventor painter, and my feeling is that Jeff's professional reputation is so totally unasailable

Also I believe absolutely in the freedom of the human spirit, in the place of art as a challenge to the established order and the right of people to express themselves in any way they like as long as it does not impinge on the rights of others.

Also I think that Obama's inauguration as president of the United states is maybe the dawn of a more civilised world. Lets hope so- there is room for a little more civilisation.

After all that, yes the Workshop is extremely busy. Horace is finished and returning home shortly, O-or whom you might recall was in almost a year ago having goo cleaned out of all its airways is having lower engine trouble and is back with us. More on that later. Jeff and I did manage to take Charlie back last Friday. Despite the rain all day (or it seemed like it) we arrived in good time for a reunion of Charlie with his owner- Charlies owner, thank you for being such a thoroughly kind and understanding customer! We brought back with us a Mil loader in pieces (assorted). Yesterday Steve and I drove most of the pieces to be sand-blasted and then went on to collect O-or  today I went to collect it. The sand-blasting has revealed some deterioration which Jeff will be examining. More on that later also. He's been collecting bits of metal up to repair the potato planter..

Help- I'm late for Morris practice (I play the tin whistle, don't dance-[yet])  Continued tomorrow!

 

 

 

This is Charlie loaded onto the truck ready to go back tomorrow morning. And why is the bonnet of the truck open? Not because we’ve been checking the oil/ screen washer etc. we did all that first thing this morning. No- it is open because having run without trouble for months the truck has suddenly decided at this incredibly inconvenient moment to throw a wobbly. I could see Jeff listening intently as he backed the truck in. Then he shouted something which I couldn’t hear, then he got out of the truck and opened the bonnet and peered inside. Then he reached in and found the fan belt was extremely loose, got a light, disappeared under the truck, came out and reported that the gas strut which keeps the tension on the fan belt was detached from its fixing. So, a  phone call to Charlie’s owners who have been, through all the delays (Charlie was due back home a number of weeks ago) extremely fore-bearing for which we are very grateful, to say that if we can get the truck repaired by a sensible time tomorrow then they will see Charlie tomorrow otherwise it will be next week. I’m pretty cross about it not least because its one more job for Jeff who already has more than enough to do.

 

 

He’s got Horrace’s engine running today… doesn’t sound absolutely brilliant but Horrace only has to be able to do a short run at the end of the month for a very special occasion and should manage that all right.

 

The parts department is having a reshuffle to make more shelf space available. Dave S. is really good at organising parts and parts areas and has been working towards this move round for some time. Jeff felt that the organisation of parts by numbers meant a confusing mix of parts and demanded that new parts were grouped together according to the part of the tractor. Dave and I started off thinking that it was recipe for disiater but actually it makes a lot of sense and now we can walk straight up to the relevant shelf and find the required part easily (apologies for doubting you, Jeff!)  (I should know by now that his ideas are almost always pretty sensible!)

 

I will have a no alcohol / early to bed night tonight anyway in the hopes of its being possible to drive Charlie back tomorrow as planned, even if setting off a bit later than I prefer to do.

 

 

Hello you lot out there , as you know Ive had the dreaded flu thing that's been going around ,i still seem to have a bit of it
but work must go on ,As you can see below the paint on the bonnet and wings came out nicely and the graffics look good to, so the 154 Leyland is done and did its bit pulling Santa around on a trailer over Christmas , and will soon be back in to be rewired .

No this is not Santa , This is Dave the owner .


 Charlie the Grey Ferguson is looking pretty cool and runs like a dream and starts and fires up on to a tick over like you wouldn't believe , This is just a quick recap of the tractor when it came in to how it is now ,
The left side


The right side


The back end


The strip out


And how it looks now








And a little video for you to look at .Just double click the little picture below

We're back at the Workshop today. I've really enjoyed the long break but am delighted to be back here again. Not too sure about whether Jeff is - he's still not really well but it doesn't seem to stop him thinking and working.

Hope you all had a super Christmas. I had one extra super present this year. Have a look...

Isn't it absolutely fantastic? It was made for me by Jeff himself!  He used a bearing from an old Ferguson water pump and painstakingly has cut out this intricate Ferguson tractor. On Christmas morning I couldn't understand why my daughter and grand-daughter wouldn't let me draw back the curtains. Then there were banging noise outside then Myhren said, 'Open the curtains, Granny!' I did so not knowing what to expect! What a fabulous surprise- one of those 'Can't believe ones eyes' moment!  Freezing as it was I ran outside in my dressing gown to admire it at close hand. The detailing is superb. Now I look out of the window first thing and now can see which way the wind is coming from at a glance. I'm very touched at Jeff's taking that amount of trouble for me as you can imagine...

We have started off the new year here by tidying the workshop which had got into a bit of a muddle because so much was going on just before Christmas. Now Jeff is doing a few last minute jobs on Charlie who is due to go home this Friday (weather permitting!) while I am starting to deal with forty-three emails!

Tuesday 6th

It is obvious that things are going to be as busy as they were before Christmas. No sooner had I picked up Steve and arrived at work with him to be told that a tractor was to be picked up to come in for rewiring. So off we went again. The tractor had been immured in a shed for long enough for the grass to have grown across the door but soon we were winching the TEF up onto the truck. I was really glad to have Steve with me 'cos he knows the sequence of winch release, folding ramps down etc. plus he is immensely strong which is really helpful sometimes (today for example when the tractor's owner and Steve pushed the TEF out of the shed so that we could get the winch cable attached).

Jeff couldn't resist leaving the job he was on to inspect the newcomer. One of the things he spotted was that the axle centre pin had worked loose and moved forward so that the front of the tractor was only attached to the rest of it by the track rods and radius arms! Apparently it might had been like this for some time but still kept doing its job. Not recommended practice but good for Ferguson T20s to have been able to work on like that!

Another tractor is booked in for next week which is why I'm hoping that Charlie can go home. Jeff has done a super job there- he was driving round the yard and Charlie sounded beautiful. You can hear him on the vid. Jeff will be putting on the web.

Jeff has got a bad cold, in fact he's not been well for some time so that's why there's been no recent blogs. Instead you've got me doing one. I can't do anything interestingly technical like Jeff so here are a few images which I've taken over recent months.

My sister and brother-in-law run a smallholding in Cornwall. John and Diane have just bought themselves a Benye 404 which is a Chinese tractor. I was allowed to drive it! Here I am doing a bit of topping. I was actually very impressed with the tractor (although I have to admit to having been prepared to be disparaging about it because it wasn't a Ferguson!). Its solidly built and most of the parts I could identify because it is a copy of earlier British tractors. It can be seen from the extensive view behind me that they live in a very beautiful part of the country. They have converted most of their farm outbuildings into gorgeous self-catering holiday accomodation. If anyone is thinking of holidaying in Cornwall and would like their email address, email me and I'll send it to you. 

Last week Hamish went home. Steve came with me which made it a thoroughly enjoyable day out and we were so proud of  the way that Hamish looked and behaved following all Jeff's hard work on him that we took some more pictures there.

 

The next picture is Happisburgh in the snow a few weekends back. Snow transforms a landscape. When, in those far off days I was a practising Garden Historian I would seize the opportunity to visit gardens in the snow because it was sometimes possible to pick up features that had been invisible to the eye before but which indicated their presence by an outline or shadow shown up by the snow covering.

My cats were unimpressed by the snow. This is how they spent their day!

From left to right- ginger Marmaduke known as Mopsy, Augustus (known as Gus) who is getting a bit shaky and has nearly died three times in the last year but still enjoys warmth, food and a cuddle, Zak who is the upside down mass of ginger and white fur and Bartolomeo (referred to as Tolly. There is also Socrates (Socky) and Blackjack who were in their boxes in the kitchen.

This is the nearest I've ever been to a rainbow- it literally dropped down behind the cliff. Digging for gold at the foot of the rainbow would be much easier in sand!

Lastly a picture which I call getting right on top of the job! Jeff was torquing Charlies head and in order to get proper purchase was standing up on Charlie. Behind is Steve for those of you who haven't seen or heard of him for some time. He's invaluable in the workshop but very modest about it, prefers keeping in the background and hates having his picture taken when he knows its being done so this is a rare shot of him!

Jeff will be putting more of his interesting stuff on when he feels up to it but in the meantime I'll put in a bit or two.

So here we go - Charlie is now about 95% done just a few bits to go As you can see Charlie is really taking shape, nice new tyres and paint and its still got its little dents and little quirks because that's what the owner wanted , 


all nicely wired and tidy



below a  vapormatic manifold made at loddon just down the road around 1949 - 1950




 and this below is an ammeter which was to small for its hole in the dash so i had a bit of fun on the lathe making a little insert out of an old piston top



and the poor old piston that gave its head for the job , waste not want not


now the little blue leyland which again is connected to Ferguson  through its design team , Ferguson , Fordson , Leyland , all connected proper little family any this is how it looks at the moment , the rad has been off and recored



bonnet in oxide read and the rear fenders




all ready to go back in to Leyland blue and it now turns out Ive got the front and rear wheel bearings to do on it as well
so more to come soon .

Well as you can see we have another little blue tractor in the workshop  , its a Leyland 154 in for some work on its electric and some paint and decals , No we have not gone mad ,its that some of our customers have other toys as well as Grey ones and we like to keep our customers happy and with the way things are at the moment in the world , work is work And we still specialize in the TE20 Ferguson's from the ground up .


you will be seeing more of this little blue tractor when i start pulling it apart later



I quite like it ,

Fordson Dexta
Its a kind of cousin to the Ferguson , but ah ho that was long ago , and i don't give a dam
here's a picture just in case you don't know what one looks like ,

right your probley wondering what i was doing to this fordson , well the clutch sounds a simple enough job and it should be , split the tractor take old pressure palate off  fit new one easy ( I should be so bloody lucky ) below is a picture of a brand new pressure plate with a new thrust bearing laying on the 3 actuation levers NOTICE ANYTHING

And the manual says this


 I did laugh , when the owner said he had taken it back and the bloke behind the counter said they where all like that
anyway i was asked to sort it out because he had (  had enough to say the least  ) I don't blame him there is so much crap out there ,
so i went to work making an adjustable copy of the end of the fordson gearbox main shaft


and yes that is the top of an old piston put to good use, you will see what i did with another old piston a bit further on in this blog,


this thing will mimic the travel of the thrust bearing and let me set the height of the actuator arms which in fact had a difference of 6mm from the lowest to the highest, quite a big difference , OK yes i did try it just to see what it would do
it tipped the pressure plate over at an angle and jammed the clutch plate on the shaft quite funny for a new part , unless its you that's just payed your hard earned cash for the said new part and then find you have to pay someone else to fix it . then its not so funny , any way i took some more measurements and started to work out thrust bearing movements and so on and so forth , took the flywheel off and set it on the bench fitting the clutch plate and old pressure plate and back engineering it working out how much metal was missing off the adjuster bolt heads and measuring the head heights and stuff then i took off the old pressure plate and put the new one on and adjusted the heights of the actuator arms


then tested the travel of the arms compared to the thrust bearing travel ARE WE BOARD YET  i should not have to do this SH...T... so then after a small adjustment i got it down to a half a turn on the jack i was using just under 1mm got me a nice  2 thou  gap between the clutch plate and the pressure plate which i could measure with a feeler gauge that told me the pressure plate was moving squarely

 i know this sort of accuracy is a bit over the top but near enough is not good enough, its got to be right

have a look at this see it works  , click pic


I look at it this way the blokes out in the field dragging his plough and his clutch goes again not only has he got to drop the plough off and get the tractor out of the field hes then got to get it fixed again , enough said ,

Have a look at this radial arm .. tie bar what ever you want to call it end cap ha ha shim


its a bit of an old plastic oil can , I only found a couple of bits in the other side , it worked for a wile anyway
i fixed these to brass plate is a way forward in shims



and i also fitted a new rear crank shaft seal because the owner wanted it done , here is the other piston


modified to do a job 10 thou smaller than the seal seat on the crank shaft , fit new seals in there housings clamp them on to the piston top leaves you a nice bit for the crank to take up simple , and you can see that the seal is sitting propley in the seat , right ive got some work to do , later.

1,  DO NOT BRING PARTS HOPING TO HAVE THEM FITTED TO YOUR TRACTOR ,
 reason there are a lot of parts out there that I WILL NOT FIT because they are cheap and nasty ,

2. WHEN YOUR TRACTOR IS IN THIS WORKSHOP IT IS MINE,
 reason if i am working on it and one I'm not happy with quality of the part or parts supplied I WILL NOT FIT THEM
we know the parts we can trust for quality and durability I WILL NOT FIT CRAP
two when I AM HAPPY WITH IT SO WILL YOU BE.

3 SAFETY COMES FIRST, BRAKES IS BRAKES , any thing connected to the brakes  is fixed first , IE shoes , drums , half shafts + seals and
bearing ,
reason just in case you need this explaining , If your half shaft bearings are bad enough to trash the half shaft seal I will not
reline your brake shoes and fit them to your tractor in THIS WORK SHOP , If you bring shoes in for relining they will be relined properly,  but what you fit them to is on your head if your stupid enough to fit them to a tractor with leaking half shaft seal , .................. work that out for your self

yes you might think to your self, Jeff is not a happy teddy , NO I'M NOT A HAPPY TEDDY, I WILL NOT JUST BODGE THIS THAT OR THE OTHER. FOR YOU OR ANY ONE ELSE . IF YOU WANT IT ... FOR KIN.. BODGING.. FOR  COUGH.. SOMEWHERE ELSE WITH IT .. sorry we are not interested , thank you,  have a nice day.

Hello again, Its just a little blog today because Ive got quite a lot on ,
And I thought you just might like to see this little job I did on a TEF diesel throttle venturi it was very worn on the main shaft and the main body , It had a massive air leak which is no good when your trying to set the engine up, what I do is strip the unit out and line bore it in the lathe , then make inserts that I press in to the main body and ream out to fit the shaft this picture below shows one of the inserts


and a bit of a close up



then I give the body a bit of a clean out they can get a bit grubby



you can see the insert



then I put it all back together and set it up


all done and no air leaks , by the way if you have problems with setting up the tick over on the TEF 20  you will find the throttle body is worn you can check this by grabbing hold of the end of the shaft end on the right in the picture above and lifting it up and down if you can the throttle body is worn and as you can see we can help you



all done good as new

And this is Fred the TEF 20 Diesel running again with that very same throttle body on  , just click the little picture




And have a look at this to I dident do do
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zXx6yNd_Yas&feature=related

SQUISH HEADS

Ive writen this quick blog just so people will know what one is and what it does . And besides I'm getting bored OF STANDING THERE SMILING TO MY SELF, KNOWING THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE  HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE AND I'M GETTING BORED with it all .

Ive been  listening to lots of different things on what a squish head on a tractor is, and what it is and where it is and all the boll------=s about it being this brass tube thing that goes in side the head and so on and so forth and so on ,

Right lets start with me and what i know and how i know . Any one who does know me will all ready know so sorry for boring you and hello to you all , Now I am an ENGINEER , don't take that lightly. I have built and tuned engines from old NSU quicklys to V10 SUPER CHARGED MONSTERS , Ive worked on steam engines , 2 strokes ,4 strokes, rotaries, diesels, Terra and marine , gas turbines, and jet engines, and of course electric , So I know a bit about stuff and things and you know i will put everything into what I'm doing as you can probley see by what I'm doing now on the blog . What the Hell is he doing this job for ? youre asking your self , BECAUSE I CAN ,and I am nearly 50 and these old tractors are puzzles. they are old and so many people have worked on them over the years, every single one is different and are someones history of their lives, their farms ,or what ever , I look at it as I'm doing my bit so they don't die and vanish . I will be totally honest with you ,I know nothing about tractors. I am an engineer I will find out what has caused the problem , and fix that, and then fix the damage it has done .
Right ,Squish heads .
squish refers to the shape of the inside of the head, the combustion chamber . anyone who has tuned the old 250 and 350 LC`s has had hours and hours of fun , tears and pounds spent, sorting these things out .have a look at the picture below ,

Its all to do with how the fuel mixes in the combustion chamber in the top of the head ,blar, blar,  blar AND AS FOR THE BRASS TUBE it has nothing what so ever to do with squish , Its to do with making the ENGINE HOTTER FASTER. it directs the water in the cooling system at the thin walls of the head around the exhaust valves so the engine warms up faster  DUE TO THE HEAT FROM THE HOT EXHAUST GASES.
So there you go , PS, and by the way if in doubt, RTFM, and if you want to know what that means Email, ha ha ha.

Sorry if you read the blog yesterday it dident make a lot of sense as i was trying to do 10 things at once.

Something else you might want to look at rear fenders simple to fit ,
harder to get them to look right , Ive seen a lot off center and on the wonk and big dents around the bolts
personally i think they look a mess with a bit of care you can get fenders to fit quite well, even the reproduction ones ,
just take your time and think about things before whacking the drill through them and slinging some bolts through the holes,
just before i get in to this il put a picture up so you can see what I'm on about there we go,



right the fender frames Ive heard story's about them having to pull the top part of the frames about to get them to go back on , yes i did laugh  the only time this happens is 1 when they are bent and in tension or you have the wrong top
on the right bottom . they are drilled to match the bottom so if you take them a part keep the two bits together .guess
how I know this .............. Charlies and Hubert's wings are originals and I TRYED TO SWAP THE BITS OVER TO SEE IF THEY FIT THE ANSWER WAS NO ... I had a close look at the way charlies where drilled  and the holes are not in uniformed positions as they would be if they where drilled on a jig . if the wings are originals the bottom 3 holes in the Grey V will be rivets, and the top center one on the top frame to



like this above( top middle rivet )

Right you will need your bolts dome head like this

 measure the square bit across the corners you need a drill the same size Plus a mill or so ,
then nip off the corners like this, Do not take all of the corner off,

the reason for doing this is that the taper will locate and lock into the frame easier by the way the bolts i used
are 23.5 mm wide domes 36mm long and M10 ,
ha ha sorry lads a request from tim at www.ploughmyfield.co.uk just for you tim ....... dome 15/16 .. 1 1/2 inch long
and 3/8
right start by centering the fender , then have a quick check and mark up the fender
remove the fender and drill out the holes with the size of drill you have gone for and bolt then bolt on the fender
its should look like this below


now mark up the other 5 holes remove the fender and drill them out  and refit it



still with me , now take the nuts off the top 4 bolts and fit the support, be careful to fit the right one



yes i know its the same picture as at the start , right this is where it gets a bit tricky new fender skins are a slightly
different shape to the originals along the top edge so be careful do the top middle hole first , you will notice the other 2 holes one either side they might be standing away from the frame make sure you mark the fender square to its own face not in line with the hole ,


the red lines are the hole in the frame , the green line is what your aiming for 90" degrees to the skin surface
remove the fender drill the hole , I do hope your not confused , you will see what I'm up to soon , bolt the fender back on , now look at the hole in put a bolt in the middle top hole now look at the ones either side the hole in the fender is bigger than the hole in the frame, yes ? , if you using M10 bolts get an 11mm drill and drill out the hole and tilt the drill to realign the holes...  anyone having a whinge yet ? get this, I DONT CARE This is the difference between bolting some rear fenders on your tractor, AND FITTING SOME ,Right on with the job , now you will need some big Pennie washers like these



get a bit of soft wood and a big socket put the washer on the wood turn the socket on its side and smack the socket with a hammer what your after is a slight bend ( Its bloody quicker to do it than write about it ) these are for inside the fenders between the skin and the frame, can you see what we are up to now ? look at the little gap that's where the fender skin sits and the washers take up the gap



that was the easy way of doing that bit , for you who want to do it them selves. And this is my way



Just because i can and there is another angled washer between the frame and skin
This is what you get for your well spent time


Lovely ,So people there you go
fun with Ferguson tractor fenders ,

PS. Try this out , on a standard original fender the skin has 3 rivets at the bottom, see below


yes , and the top has 1 rivet in the middle hole


so the fender will not come apart even if you undo all the bolts , Very strange , unless it is for a reason, Old man Ferguson was not daft , they could be for fitting lights and stuff or ................................Look what i dug up


can you see, look where the uprights are on the cab right on the 4 bolts on the top frames  , spot on idea from the bloke who designed the cab , like i said i might be totaly wrong , and its a SUN TRAC cab

And lastly, thank you for the Emails and pictures ,

Charlies starting to look good in his new coat of classic Ferguson grey ,



this is just its first base coat



looks good i think



Anyway first thing this morning before i got to the paint i had to take off some tyres its all good fun getting these
big babys off of there rusty rims they might as well have been  glued on



Right people , wiring looms ,a little thing but can be a pain in the back side
the picture below is from the Ferguson manual



have a look at the colour code then look at the piccture below



and now this one



not only are the colours wrong on the first one but most of the ends are wrong to



what are people thinking when they do this ..... ho well that will do



and now a look at the two full looms



yes i am having a winge the top one i would give to the cat to play with and the bottom one i would fit to a tractor,
if someones going to make something for a classic do it right or not a all , or at least mark it up sayin this is not right but will get you out of trouble if you can fit it ,

Hello, Jeff, with more stuff for you to ponder,

People seem to be having a few problems with there carb`s lately , and with alot of them i can see why ,
ham fisted adjustments , have a look at this for an example



I think it all went a bit wrong , never mind , its nothing i carnt sort out ,
by the way the screw above is out of the later 24t carb the earlier one had a solid end in the picture below
 you can see the two screws together



the one on the left is out of a straight petrol the one on the right is out of a TVO , I had to make another one
of the one on the left because we needed one for Charlie which has just been converted back to straight petrol
have a look



I had to make a seat cutter first to sort out the seat in the carb , then make the screw to suit and any one who
is after the thread size, its 5/32 and 32TPI , so what makes people gives these adjusters so much grief 
this is what Ive worked out from what i can see, No1,  it goes like this where this adjuster screw goes in to the carb there is a collar with a leather seal inside petrol starts to leak out around the edge of the screw someone tightens up the seal nut
with a spanner the seal clamps the screw really tight , time passes then someone comes along to adjust it for some
reason grabs hold of the little thumb wheel finds it wont move by hand and gets a pair of grips on it and with the lack of feel the grips give windes it into the stop trashing the end , instead of undoing the nut then adjusting it ,
No2, the blokes a idiot and should not be left alone with a dead brick,



so people just undo the seal nut and save your self some trouble ,



 AND NOW , from one extreme to another , one of the chaps that comes into the workshop said he had to say
 a slight problem...... guess what this is



I was so impressed........ got it yet ..... another pic


still not got it




one of his half shafts , totalled ,took the end right off and the diff  lived on



this is a picture of a picture he had with him , so i went to work striped out an old shaft we had on the shelf fitted
a new seal and bearing and its waiting for him to pick up


All good fun and yes it shows these old greys do still work very hard

Hello its me again Jeff.
Sorry about the blog Ive been a bit bizzy , and its been a bit mad here , another two tractors in for hydraulics work
bent control valves and worn and bent top link censors


just a bit rusty



Its got a bend and twist I can see why the blokes gear kept hitting the deck



 all add to the fun and puzzles of whats going on with these poor old things . right lets get you all up to speed on stuff , the diesel engine i was working on is OK but I'm not really happy with it , I tried to save the chap a bit of money against my judgement , I recommended new pistons , rings , and liners ,
I try to hone out the liners as much as i could , the main problem is with this is that new rings are a lot stronger and will not tolerate bores with the slightest oval in them , I did a compression test and they where well down , it runs but like i said I'm not happy with it , anyway a different story with the motor on charlie that's the one in red oxide its had a quick engine test it now fires up lovely , and has been converted back to petrol , higher compression better bang more power , this below is Charlies first test run its not very long but just long enough to make sure it runs and oil is
reaching the top of the motor

click the pic below



 This time if you remember it seemed to be lack oil some what at the top
See what I mean




Now Ive just got to strip off the bits again and put it all back together , back soon,

Hello again Tractor folk, Jeff again with more stuff,

spill timing is not a black art its just fluid mechanics and timing, IE, when the pump opens and closes its ports to let diesel in to its pump chambers timing one of these old TEF`S is a lot easier when the engine is off the tractor as you will see , when the engine is off the tractor you can see the flywheel if you look around the machined edge of the wheel you will see one arrow, this lines up on the block with another arrow to give you top dead centre ( TDC )

At this point you go round to the other end of the engine and set up the cam timing don't for get to find a way to adjust the cam chain tension

have a look at his picture from the Manuel

remember this these marks are only for reference always check to see if things are where they should be, the only thing you are doing at this time is setting the cam timing  any way after you have done this an easy little check stick 2 push rods in to there holes for No 1 and do the same on No 4 then rock the crank backwards and forwards No 1s push rods should sit still and No4s should move up and down , DO NOT GO WACKING THE CRANK AROUND FULL TURN , just in case you've got it wrong, now the pump put the crank back to TDC IE the 2 arrows then fit a dial gauge to the end of the crank

 and turn it back about 40* degrees then move it to 32* degrees taking up any slack ( there is a hole drilled through the case in to the fly wheel at 30* degrees so you know your in about the right place

i do prefer the gauge anyway

then go to the pump and remove the top of No 1 out put and remove the spring and valve

then put the top back on and fit a old injector pipe with the end cut off

check that the default marks are in line

connect some sort of tank with diesel in it turn it on and press in excess fuel button now remove the inspection cover

on the side of the pump . now put some tape around the end of the shaft then look at the end of the shaft there should be a dot turn it to the top , turn it anti clock wise till fuel comes out of the pipe then clock wise till the fuel just comes to a drip

drip

then just a touch till it just stops

put in the centre splinie device and rotate the engine the fuel will start to flow and as No 1 comes back again watch the fuel and the gauge the fuel should cut off at 32* BTDC if it does your done put the rest of the bits back on and away you go

Hello its Jeff again,

Liner retainers on diesels they come in pairs , they are machined as such and have to go in the right way round

 

linner seat

unlike the motor I'm building at the moment they where in all over the place ,

these things go in one way they have a flat face and a tappered face and they fit together ,

lets say we where taking a motor apart and we take out the liner retainers out of No1 pot keep these two rings together with a bit of tape or wire anything will do , anyway you do the same with all the pots marking them as you go, so now when you have done all the bits you need to do put them back in start with the ring without the gap in it you can see the witness mark of the cut away in the block turn the mark 90` degrees from where it sat before , now for the top ring the give away is the dowel slot the hole faces up at you , be careful though some are drilled right through

 if so look at the end of the slot at the face very carefully

 you will see a slight angle on one face , this face goes down in to the block

this is wrong

this is right

see they fit together these rings don't just retain the liners they clean the carbon off the top outer edges of the piston and if they are put in wrong you will see the results on the piston and it clamps the top ring, so there you go be careful ,

 

 

 

 

Hello you lot, Jeff back again,

Well Charlies engine is about done and ready to put back on ,

Away after sorting out a few odds and sods I timed up the cam  and things ,

set to No1 pot

And just in case anyone needs to know pop out No1 plug, get your self a 6mm bar I use my cross head screwdriver which I know is 6mm and look at the front face of the bell housing the little hole

stick it in there, you will feel the flywheel back face it has 4 holes in it so be careful you need the one for No1 pot now turn the engine over with a spanner till the rod,screwdriver, or what ever your using goes in to the hole on the flywheel , TDC  right now line up the marks put your cam chain on remembering which way the engine turns that side must be the tight side of the chain  put any slack the other side the when you turn the crank the marks will stay in line , then set the points just opening on No1 and away you go . then I fitted the flywheel and clutch

see i got a bit lost going on about timing and stuff

Right where was I , Charlies engine, putting it back on,

yes right a got a old sump and dropped it on the jig and slid it up to the gear box and set the hight and angle

then i got the engin lift and put charlies engine back on to the truck on the jig and then,

I did a bit of video click the pic below

So there you go, the motor is back on ,and im off to do some work on it ,

PS,some more pics of old tractors from one of my trips out

cool , old iron,

 

 

Hello you lot, its me again Jeff

Well what can I say Ive been a bit bizzy doing all sorts of stuff all over the place ,

Ive got a couple of engines to do a petrol / tvo conversion motor in bits that Ive got to rebuild and convert back to petrol just a straight forward job. just a carb and ignition set up after the build

the second a diesel that's now got a new block as its old one was a right state with a full spider wed thanks to some one centre doting the core plugs in , any way here's some pictures of what Ive been up to , along with a few lines

first a nice little alternator conversion I also rewired the tractor and  did the half shaft bearings and seal ,relined the brakes and  recentered them in the brake drums  then set and balanced them , then set the carb up ,

 anyway then i went out to look at a couple of old Ferguson greys and came across this lot and these are only some of the old tractors

with a nice mid mounted mower

a big old major with a hell of a crane for a tractor

and this

and this

and hiding under a sheet this

then I started to build charlies engine

after sorting out this lot, and putting in new base seals and liners

pistons , rings , pins ,

big ends , mains , thrust plates and stuff and things

and oil pump rotor and shaft

and governor weights and plate and chain

I will add the rest of what Ive been upto tomorrow

 

Yesterday and the day before yesterday was a blur of tractor visitors (a big Massey Ferguson turned up (driven) to have a chat about another tractor followed by some interesting people looking for a Ferguson for a community composting scheme they are setting up which resulted in Jeff's being driven to South Norfolk to look at a possible purchase.

Jeff came back with a stack of pictures of all sorts of weird and wonderful tractors and implememnts for tractors and parts for tractors. In the meanwhile I'd taken advantage of an empty workshop to get on with the bonnet cleaning. I'd got about anothe six square inches to do when the (new) wire wheel started spitting out so many bits of wire that I knew it was time to stop. With most of it down to bare metal Jeff was able to see where there were dents and depressions and by five 'O'clock he'd knocked it back into a very respectable shape.

While he was doing that I started to take the frames off Charlie's rusted wings. The bolts with nuts came off relatively easily but there were also four 'rivetted' on bolts which eventually had to be ground down, then centre punched then drilled out, first with a small bit then one just slightly smaller than the hole. This job was finished off this morning by Steve doing the grinding and me doing the drilling out.  

Meanwhile Jeff had been checking Chester's brakes (Chester is the '35) and discovering that some rather strange thing had been done to the one which didn't work properly. I hope he's going to do one of his detailed technical accounts of what he found- the cracked drum was only part of it!. 

This afternoon found him muttering things like 'Why didn't I stick to jet engines?' and 'How could anyone have put this engine together like that!'  as he delved into Charlies block. (You may remember that Charlie had a mass of rust inside the rocker cover ). What he found 'ain't' too good. He will be talking to Charlie's owner as soon as the full extent of the damage is assessed.