Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

One thing that you didn’t mention, Alan- it loads quicker, too! A great improvement.

Another great issue from Will Haggle, but don’t forget that it’s contributions from club members that go to make it up. Without your articles The Cultivator would not get off the ground, so (I’m sure Alan will agree) please keep them coming, the more the merrier!

You would do best to ask him yourself, I haven’t spoken to him about it.

WooHoo, I’ve done it, and it looks like I’ve saved myself some money as well!

The Trusty Registers are now up-to-date, as is the Ransomes MG Register, so those of you who were waiting for me to look up the new dates can now find their machines details on the Survivors tab.

Alan- I didn’t realise you were a pork pie aficionado; coming from God’s…[Read more]

It seems that I’m having a bit of trouble uploading the new listings for the 2-wheeled Trusty register, so you’ll have to be patient a little longer whilst I work out what I’ve done wrong!

Alan……….???

There is no other written work on Trusty- that’s why I wrote the book!

The best thing to do is to buy a JAP 5 book off a well-known auction site; the original, official book has set-up instructions for the carburettor and magneto as well as a full parts listing and dismantling/rebuild instructions for the engine. Otherwise, if you need more help…[Read more]

Yes, that’s the early type carburettor which I haven’t had much success with. I haven’t found anyone that can supply parts for it but yours may be repairable if it hasn’t got anything missing.

If there are parts missing I would look for a Zenith carb and manifold which should bolt straight on. You will need different throttle linkages as well, so…[Read more]

If it has had the early JAP carburettor fitted you will need a different inlet manifold to suit the Zenith. This has a horizontal flange fitting with two bolts. If I remember correctly the JAP carb has a sleeve type fitting and a pinchbolt to tighten it around the fitting.

It may have had the early type JAP carburettor fitted; this has “JAP” cast into the aluminium barrel of the float chamber. They aren’t too good and are a little erratic (you can set it up to run fine with a lovely slow tick-over, then you rev it up and it somehow loses it’s settings); parts are not available for it either.

By far the best carb to…[Read more]

That type of machine has been very popular in Europe for quite a few years. For those of you in the groundcare trade you will undoubtedly recognise the basic chassis as the one used/copied on the Verti-Drain series of deep spikers which are very popular over here at the moment.

It does sound like the mixture is too rich. With a four stroke this would tend to produce black smoke (soot) but I haven’t come across a two stroke being run for too long on a rich mixture because they tend to oil the plug up. The extra oil being drained off afterwards would also point to too much mixture going through.

What colour is the plug?…[Read more]

A great weekend with excellent weather and a wonderful social atmosphere- everything that being part of a club is about. I can’t thank everyone concerned enough for the hard work in organising it so that it went off without a hitch, and even more thanks are due to Dave Weeley and his family for putting up with us for two days and letting us make a…[Read more]

Me too! Trailer already loaded, hotel booked, looking forward to it. See you all there!
Geoff

I’ve been doing a little homework since this morning and it appears that the pin with the thread on is inserted into a blind hole in the casting, the shaft is then fed through it’s hole then a sleeve is put onto the threaded part of the pin and everything is drawn up tight with the nut.

You may have loosened the one that you’ve been working on…[Read more]

Let us know what you find out, Charlie.

It may help if you could post a photo of the underside of the frame to show the other end of the fixing that you’ve removed. If the thread is loose in the hole it’s more likely to be a two-piece collet with a bolt going through them to draw them together and clamp them on the shaft. A sharp tap on the…[Read more]

Let us know what you find out, Charlie.

If you want to do a blog about restoring the Gem your best option is to start a new post in the “Projects” section; there are plenty more in there and so you will be in good company.

Have you tried a bigger hammer?

With the sleeve out it would be worth pouring some acid down the hole so that it soaks directly into the parts that need to be freed off. I’d still try to soak the rest as well, it can only be corrosion that is holding it.

Best of luck.

It looks like the side pieces are made from aluminium. Could you use heat to try to move them- aluminium expands more than steel- but the chances are that the electrolytic action between the two different metals has fused them together.

If heat doesn’t work I would try the brick acid soak for a few days. It should eat into the corrosion and…[Read more]