Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Should any of you wish to view the whole process of torturing the Simar back into life, here’s an extended cut of the video:

Simar start up long video

I know easy start is naughty, but used as a diagnostic tool it has it’s place… The issue which necessitated it’s usage was a vacuum leak between the choke butterfly and the carb, meaning the…[Read more]

Well I don’t think I should be encountering any tree roots, fingers crossed!

Does the gearbox in the middle of the miller unit share oil with the main gearbox or is it filled separately?

Is there much to choose between the “wire” type tines and the “slasher” ones?

This is the ground it is going to be cultivating, marshland, but actually fairly dry in the top layers!

Hortiman that is very generous indeed, I have sent you a PM!

A few pictures for the record

A drawing for the exhaust would be great! Shall I PM you an email address?

Of course that would have been a much more sensible course of action, even better would have been to just press the stop button on the Wico mag, but alas all these sensible thoughts go out the window when one is fearing for the life of the engine!

I’ve stripped the hubs…[Read more]

Charlie, actually very little the end, I resorted to robbing the Wico mag from Roland the headless 35, until such a time as I can afford to have the old Lucas properly rebuilt. Aside from that, the usual rigmarole, carb strip and clean, filled the gearbox with oil and away she went! That exhaust pipe is frantically loud, the video does it no…[Read more]

Apologies for dredging up an old thread, but, nearly nine months after purchase…

…it runs!

Simar running on youtube!

Now the engine is known to be sound I can begin working through the rest of the issues!

Some more pictures

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kv2MH3][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50867998392_3c29960488_z.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kv2MH3]Simar 35[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_cullum/]michael_cullum[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kv2MH3][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50867998392_3c29960488_z.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kv2MH3]Simar 35[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_cullum/]michael_cullum[/url], on Flickr

I must admit it has crossed my mind to switch to a Wico A series mag, should the prices for overhaul be prohibitive. They seem to be very plentiful second hand, and I see from reading other posts that yourself and others have had some success repairing them! Would mean sacrificing some originality, but might be a more affordable route to get the…[Read more]

PS, if anyone has a type 50 (or any other simar, all comparisons welcome) handy I’d be really interested to see how the mag is mounted. Mine was bolted down by it’s baseplate onto studs in the top of the gearbox casting, but also has a face plate fitted as if for flange mounting, but this was not connected to anything… See photos in previous post!

So, things aren’t looking too good with regards to the magneto, popped the cover off to check the points today and was greeted by a rusty corroded mess.

Still can’t identify which Lucas magneto it actually is, even after hours of trawling through websites, which makes trying to find parts nigh on impossible. I have emailed several firms offering…[Read more]

Well, I think for the time being I’ll have to get the engine running and see just how badly the oil escaped from the gearbox before deciding exactly what the course of action is to be!

Peter you’re spot on, it’s the chappy circled in the attachment

Argh, my inability to remember and accurately reproduce numbers has thwarted me again by the looks of it

I’ve been referring to Sean’s thread, it’s a great insight into the inner workings! The deeper I dig into these machines the more I appreciate the way they’re made! Would be good to see you out and about, fingers crossed we don’t have to stay confined to quarters too much longer!

Charlie, the drawing I’d particularly like to see is 8317D which…[Read more]