Early Trusty Rebuild

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  • #34020
    charlie
    Keymaster

    Mmmmm thinking aloud, Trusty book 3, Trusty Restoration Guide!!?????

    #34035
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    NOOOOOOOOO……!! Well, certainly not for a bit anyway!

    Ivan- I’m sorry but I’ve already restored the drawbar assembly and installed it on the tractor. I will take some photo’s of it to show you the layout in a later posting, but it didn’t present any problems and was straightforward to do. All that was needed was de-rusting and cleaning. I realise that the drawbar is one of the unique features of these early tractors and so I will do a post on it shortly.

    In the meantime……..back in the garage the toolbox and front cover have come in for the usual treatment. Whilst it looks the same as all the others, it does have a few differences- don’t forget this is really the Mk1 version of the toolbox. The first thing that struck me was the external hinges to the lid when all of the others I’ve done have had the hinges made from the wired-edge of the toolbox sides. Comparing it to factory photo’s it is correct and so the hinges will be kept as they appear. Another mystery is the attachment of the front cover to the tractor; there are no holes in the side plates of the tractor to put the retaining screws through and there are two holes in each side of the toolbox at the lower edge- did they intend to bolt the toolbox to the sideplates and have a lift-up front cover? Possibly, but looking at old photo’s the front cover appears to be bolted through the side plates. Oh dear, I’m getting that headache again…….

    Here are the pictures from the factory.

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    #34039
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    Here are the pictures of my toolbox, and you can still see the impression of one of the transfers. These are different to the ones that I sell being of the earlier style, so this will be a completely new challenge for me. I have never tried to make my own transfers before so I will not make any promises but it will pass the time over the next few days whilst it’s raining.

    If you look closely at the pictures you can see the holes along the lower edges of the toolbox. These are also present on the factory pictures in the previous post, so what were they there for? Was the original plan to bolt the toolbox down and have the front flap lifting up?

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    #34059
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    As promised, here are some pictures of the early type hitch which was used before the swinging drawbar was introduced. The plough was attached by placing it’s large, horizontal ring on top of the crossbar with the ringbolt through the middle of the ring. The large clamping plate was fitted over it and the eyebolt and held down with a nut. The plough could be adjusted sideways by slackening the nut and sliding the plough and eyebolt sideways then tightening when the correct setting was achieved.

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    #34089
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    Back to the rebuild today. Because the toolbox was in such good condition I had hoped to put a few coats of red oxide primer on it, flatting between each coat. I hoped this would fill all of the small blemishes and rust pits on the surface; this it did, but the paint is too soft and kept clogging up the glasspaper. Not wanting to throw so much of it away I resorted to the tried and tested method of skimming P38 filler thinly over the worst spots. Three applications later and it all came good with a lovely smooth finish. I’ve never been able to achieve it with one application as flatting down always shows up something else, but three is about right for this.

    Before painting the top coat I decided to attach the front plate with it’s hinges. This can be more difficult than it sounds because if you don’t get the hinges in exactly the right place it strains the rivets and everything loosens up after a short while. The best method I have found is to bolt everything together first, adjusting their position if needed before tightening everything up. Once the hinges are in position and tightened you can then remove each bolt in turn, replacing each bolt with a soft rivet and cold forming the head before removing the next bolt. The method is foolproof and as long as you don’t lose patience it works every time.

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    #34231
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I’ve been juggling work in the garage with work on the farm this week, so apologies for anyone that thinks I’ve put it down again! The first thing that I did was have a good sort out, then pushed the Trusty outside to turn it around so that I could work on the other side. This is now done and I have jacked it up much higher than I had it before so that I can work on it more easily without grovelling on the floor half the time.

    First job was to take the wheel off; it was then that I found that I had left the bottom tray of the reduction gear loose, probably because I didn’t have a big enough piece of gasket paper to make the gasket. It doesn’t take long to knock one out and I’m sure all of you oldies know how to make one using a hammer across the open face of the casting, but I’ve put some photo’s on the post to show some of the younger members who may not know this old trick. The secret is to clamp the gasket paper firmly in place so that it can’t move, then tap gently at a slight angle where you think the edge of the casting is. Once you’ve found it you’ll find that it will cut through the paper cleanly and all you have to do is to follow the edge around the casting until you meet up with the original cut. You can do bolt holes in the same way but you are better using a small ball pein hammer to do those. Once you’ve gone round all of the edges you are left with a perfect gasket which is tailor made to your machine- what could be simpler?

    As you will see from the pictures I have also taken the time to paint this side of the tractor as well. Once the paint’s dry I will carry on with some more. It’s certainly starting to come together quickly now, so not much longer!

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    #34281
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    After a few days in the garage with paint brush and aerosol cans (I’ve learnt me lesson now, so I’m not poking any wire into the top ever again!) the Trusty is certainly coming together very quickly.

    I had to take the top of the clutch cover off to fit the engine now that the clutch is firmly bolted to the crankshaft, but I thought that would be the better way so that I could get the length of the drive chain just right. I’ll just have to patch the paintwork up again once it’s all together.

    The toolbox is now finished and bolted down. I took the decision to drill some holes in the side casing to bolt the front plate down; if I move house in the near future I don’t want to have the toolbox floating around loose to get damaged or lost, so that seemed to be the best way to keep everything together. All I need to do now to complete that part is to make some transfers to put on each side; that will be a rainy-day job!

    The drawbar is now finished and fitted; you will also see that I have loosely put the serial number plate in position on the back of the transmission casing, and it does look good. I may modify all of my other plates in a similar way so that they stand out better.

    Things that are left to do are:-
    1. to search around for the very distinctive air filter which sits on the front of the chassis;
    2. to search for the engine hold-down bolts;
    3. find the length of new Reynolds chain that I bought years ago for this job;
    4. purchase a 5/8″ Whitworth nut to hold the plate to the eyebolt on the drawbar;
    5. purchase some 5BA screws to fit the serial plate to the transmission case.
    6. find the throttle/governor link.

    As you can see, not much left to do now!

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    #34312
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    One thing that I forgot to put on the list was the pair of steel wheels. When I had to clear out of my late father’s workshop one of the first things I did was take the wheels to the shot blasters to get them out of the way temporarily. They are still there, waiting to be done because I told the owner that I wasn’t in any hurry!

    I managed to find the air filter and have spent the day cleaning it. It was filthy, so first step was to brush it with a brass wire brush. This is gentler than a steel one and doesn’t score the aluminium, so once the larger lumps of dirt were brushed off it was treated to a dose of WD40 well worked in with fine steel wool. Finally a sink full of hot water and washing up liquid, with more scrubbing with steel wool and you can judge for yourself the results. Not exactly like new, but not far off and with a few battle scars left to show it’s age.

    I have also re-positioned the throttle rod steady into a position that looks more in keeping. It isn’t the original- this would have been a cast iron one- so I think this is a replacement that has been hurriedly fitted to keep the tractor in work. It had been bent in an effort to align the throttle rod, so this time I’ve fitted it correctly so that it all lines up without the need to bend the bracket at all. Time will tell if I’ve succeeded.

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    #34794
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    It’s raining today so no work on the farm to do that can’t be put off until tomorrow. I also received the latest edition of The Cultivator today (well done, Alan; a good read despite the absence of any shows to report on) and re-read my piece in the front, telling everyone that I had re-started the rebuild of the rare Trusty. As you can probably guess, it has shamed me into doing some more on it!

    The reason it had stalled again was that I had fitted the engine onto the chassis and the four mounting holes in the base were half-a-hole out of line. The engine was pushed hard up against the clutch housing and so there was no adjustment. Thinking back to all of the other Trusty rebuilds that I’ve done I remembered that the JAP 5 engines had short heads fitted in the crankshaft seal carrier on the output side. I’ve made the classic error of replacing the four carrier bolts with new ones and forgotten about the height of the head- in this application it’s critical.

    As you know, I’ve packed away all of my workshop in readiness for moving house and so what would be an easy five minute job on the lathe is now made much more complicated. Not to be outdone, however, I sat down and had a think (contrary to what Mrs. Geoff says, I can do two things at once but I prefer to prioritise). If I mounted the bolt in the chuck of the pillar drill I could spin it like on a lathe and if I made an extension to the drill table I could use my angle grinder to make a horizontal cut.

    I do have some 1.6mm thick cutting blades for the grinder which are brilliant, and just right for this job. Five minutes later and I had four new bolts with reduced heads which were all the same size! Amazing!

    Now all I’ve got to do is put it all back together again. The paint’s drying at the moment, so you’ll have to wait a bit for the finished pictures.

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    #34804
    charlie
    Keymaster

    One aspect of our hobby is that we have to be inventive at times to come up with a solution to particular problems using what ever resources we have.

    #34807
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    Quite right, Charlie. Contrary to many people’s beliefs, beer isn’t the answer to every question, just some of them!

    It is a very good point though. Because I’m not able to use any of my workshop equipment I’m having to do things in the way a newcomer to the hobby would have to do it, by inventing ways to overcome tricky problems. It does show what can be achieved by going about things in a different way- I suppose I’ve got spoiled over the years by acquiring so many useful tools to make the job quicker and easier.

    More rain today, so the farm can wait a bit longer!

    #35028
    will-haggle
    Participant

    Wow, what a fascinating article. I had a petrol generator with a wartime JAP 5 on it, it had a Wico mag. with a metal top and screened plug for RF interference protection and a JAP carb. It had been refurbished in Reme workshops.

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    #35033
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I’m sorry, Alan, the rebuild has taken a back seat for a while. Every spare day we get at the minute is spent trawling the internet for smallholdings. We’ve already had a couple of viewings but nothing has proved suitable as yet.

    Rest assured, as soon as we are settled I’ll have a working weekend at the new place; I told Dave Weeley last year that we’d have one and call it “Weeley West!”

    Watch this space!

    #35435
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    Farm work is starting to drop off a bit now so I can pick this thread up again. I went around to the shot blaster’s last week to pick up my wheels; he’d had them for nearly eighteen months but because I wasn’t pushing him for them he’d put them to one side. Not a problem, I was really looking for somewhere to put them when I emptied out my workshop at my parents’ old house and so long as they didn’t get thrown away I was quite happy to leave them there.

    He’s done a good job on them. They are completely different to normal Trusty wheels in that they are bolted and riveted together with strakes that face backwards, the idea being that they come out of the ground vertically and leave the soil behind. They must have been very expensive to make which is probably why the welded wheels came along, but seeing as they are a feature of this tractor they have got to be right.

    From the pictures you will see that I’ve finished one of the centres and bolted it to the tractor; the intention is to build the wheel up on the tractor so that I don’t get a hernia trying to manhandle it about whilst I paint it. I still have to find the correct wheel bolts to fix it permanently and I will also fit them with locking tabs as they used to make in the factory. These are simply 1″ wide strips of steel with a hole at either end for two wheel bolts; once the bolts are tightened the outside corners of the strips are turned upwards with a cold chisel and hammered onto the flats of the bolts to stop them coming loose. Just a small detail but just as important.

    Here are the pictures. Yes, I know it’s covered in dust!

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    #35448
    will-haggle
    Participant

    You don’t need to convince us that it fills a hole in your collection, Geoff, however there’s a higher authority who may have a view! Nice job, by the way….

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 102 total)
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