Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Just to add, I found I could get enough of the distortion out of the cutter plate using a G clamp and a bit of something straight – I had a short bit of box section to hand

PM me you e-mail and I’ll send a pdf of the 2No. SV54 manuals that I have ..

Well I got the Hayter fettled this morning, blades swinging, wheels spinning, belts tightened and nipples greased. I did perhaps 15mins easy cutting and then hit a rock in some nettles and now the machine won’t fire – I think the flywheel must have spun on the crank. Hey ho – easy enough to fix, and I was pleased with the cut and the speed

Grahame , Cox and Turner should be able to help you with SV54 rings.

Andy.

Hi Will,

Did not see your posts until this morning. I set the tappet clearances on a Jap 5 & 6 to 10 thou on the inlet and 20 thou on the exhaust. These figures are stamped on the inside of the inspection cover. Have also fitted new rings if required and can vouch for the increase in compression when this is done. Have two Douglas SV54…[Read more]

In the end I used 10 thou inlet and 16 thou exhaust (not sure why 16 exactly!). With a hone and new rings it now has huge compression and runs beautifully

Thanks for this – I’ll give the plate a fettle at the weekend. I have now welded up the front frame tensioning plate, and I have also found some nos bearings for the front wheels which were in a right state/ missing. The rear height adjusting wing nut and collar are missing, so I’ve bored out a hex nut to slip over the 1/2 adjusting screw stud and…[Read more]

It’s quite a common problem with the 21/Osprey models , having the Duralinium disc , they tended to “bend a small set” where the blades bolt on (see pic 2) , take the carrier off and simply hammer back into shape using a suitable anvil/block, in other words until perfectly flat , the blades should rotate freely through 369 degrees.When these…[Read more]

The blades do not need to swing 360 on their mounting bolts, they only beed to swing in if an obstruction is hit. I suspect the bolts have a shoulder rather than a plain shank, to ensure the blades do swing.

Doh! thanks

When we had one never gave it a thought and fitted the free swinging blades the other way up so like all rotary mowers.

Thanks for your attention. Photos attached. All the blades swing from side to side, but they all foul on the plate because it is not flat, and so will not swing 360′. I wonder if I am overthinking this, and just a bit of deflection is all that is needed.

I checked the gearbox this morning, and it is good for oil.

I went to tension the drive…[Read more]

A photo of the blade set up would help to see if aluminium plate should be flat and if blades should rotate.

Well done again Robert.

Andy.

OK thanks will give it a go

Try spacing with a washer
John E-W