Reply To: Ransomes motor triple advice please

[trusty220]

I assume that you mean the “walking stick” handles either side of the operator’s platform which lift the front units clear of the ground. The spring that pushes the plunger out into the slot is quite a large diameter spring that fits inside the outer tube of the walking stick; it’s quite conceivable that somebody has pushed the plunger in at the top and it’s compressed the spring and it’s now stuck with rust inside the bottom of the walking stick.

All I can suggest is to remove the pin at the bottom which holds the pawl in place and see if you can free it with loads of oil and patience! Good Luck! One little tip I can give you is that the two roll pins at the bottom of the walking stick used to break on a regular basis as well as the two at the front of the machine which lift the cutting units. We used to replace the standard roll pins with spirol pins which were made of spring steel wrapped tightly in a spiral; these used to flex slightly and absorb any jarring shocks that would normally shear off the standard roll pins.

As regards your V-belt I would suggest that you take it to your nearest bearing supplier; they usually supply belts of all shapes and sizes and would be able to match your belt up with something new. The replacement part from Ransomes was GSF3506QH but the book doesn’t give any dimensions.

The tensioner sounds like it is fitted correctly how you describe. Yes, it does take some of the wrap-around away from the pulleys but all belts and chains should have a straight run on their drive side- in this case the cutter clutch pulley will rotate clockwise as you look at it which means that the power will be transmitted in tension on the lower run of the belt between the pulleys. The slack side of the drive will be on the top run, so the tensioner needs to be on the top run of the belt to take up the slack. If you were to put the tensioner on the bottom run all that would happen would be that the belt would pull into a straight line and leave the top run flapping about loose.

Keep going, there can’t be that much left to do!