Clifford cultivator restoration – colour help!

[airhog94]

Hi,

New to the site, brought this 30 years ago it was seized up then, now got it all apart but planning ahead would like to know the original colour green. Someone painted it orange then blue but it doesn’t look right. Does anyone know the correct colour?

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[sidevalve5]

Hi,

I have the same machine in its original colour. Have taken the engine off, so some non faded paint is now exposed. Will take a photo so you can colour match if you wish. But this may take a few days, the machine is buried at the back of a shed. Some experts in the club may be able to help with the exact colour from a previous restoration.

Best wishes,

Grahame

[airhog94]

Hi Grahame
thank you for the reply i am a little slow on the computer and i do not look at things every day. took 4 hrs to get the tiller gear apart seized solid it only has oil felt washer only and i do not think it has oil in with the drive?
thanks again there is no rush
kind regards
Norman

[sidevalve5]

Hi Norman,

You may be able to help me. I bought my Clifford 40 years ago and got a Trusty at the same time. A chap was giving up his ground and wanted to clear his sheds. Used both for a few years, the Trusty had the better engine, but the transmission was knackered. The Clifford was hard to start, but the hooked tines did a really good job in seedbed preparation. It had a massive oil leak where the bevel drive housing joins the rotor axles. Someone told me it was a common fault when the machine gets old because the oil seal was, I think I recall him saying, leather. Which dried out and wore. I used to have to store the machine tilted with the engine on the ground, otherwise it would loose all the oil. Still had to give it a good top it up every time I used it. I put some new tines, big end shells and rings on it, all purchased from Chester Hudson. Then moved and put it away in a shed, ready for the day I had the time to carry out all the repairs to make it a reliable machine again. Two years ago my Trusty Jap 5 engine blew the big end. So I took the engine off the Clifford and made one good engine out of the two. Still have another spare engine, so the plan was to fully re-build that one and fit it to the Clifford.

Where you can help me is with advice about the dismantling of the rotor axles and what I should expect to find in the way of oil seals. Then how to get the parts to fix the problem. Like yourself, am in no rush to do this. At the very earliest it will be a couple of years before I get round to doing it. Have another couple of working rotovators I have done up, so there is no pressure to fix the Clifford.

It was a right old beast to use, no throttle, just the governor to regulate the engine speed. When you pulled the dog clutch handle to engage the rotor you had to do the same for the drive with the next movement of your hand. Otherwise it tried to jerk out of your remaining hand on the handle bars. Was younger, fitter, stronger and quicker back then and it still took some effort to use. Remember I could not get it to start one day with single swings, so kept winding it up as fast as I could. It fired, the handle came out, swung around and hit me straight in the mouth. There was blood everywhere. All good fun though.

Best wishes,

Grahame

[charlie]

I believe the Clifford rotavator drive from rear of main gearbox back is the same as on a SIMAR. If it is any help I can post a copy of th erelevant page of the parts book which shows the various parts.

[sidevalve5]

Dear Charlie,

That would be great. Have a Clifford Mk IV and a manual which I think has an exploded view of the machine. But the Mk 1a is a very much cruder piece of engineering. Believe the Clifford factory made parts for the MoD in the war and probably rushed to get a roteo on the market soon afterwards. The Jap 5 engine was made in 1948. So do not have a clue if the oil seals in question are the same for both models. In all probability think they would have been improved upon. Be good to know how to take it apart and what the fix is for the leaking problem. Suspect the ID and OD of the original seal may not have a modern equivalent.

Best wishes,

Grahame

[andyfrost]

Graham , you would be surprised what seals are still available , I did a back to front restoration on another Howard 700 over last winter , and got every seal I needed. You may well not get leather clad ones , but later equivilant are often available, which are better for rotor boxes anyway , as grit does not get impregnated in them

Andy.

[charlie]

Copy of page from Rototiller 56 parts manual.

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[sidevalve5]

Dear Charlie,

A big thank you for this. Have no idea if Clifford copied the Simar design, would be interested to know. But expect they would have used typical 1930’s engineering methods that would have included leather and felt oil seals. From the parts diagram and list can see the Simar has both. Once removed from the machine, would be a simple job to cross reference them with modern seals to see if one would fit. Failing that, I was going to use some neoprene sheet material.

Do you know of the spring tines on the Clifford are the same as the Simar’s. It was about 35 years ago when I contacted Chester Hudson who had them in stock. There was some discussion about either a 5/16” or 3/8” size was required. Had a couple broken and worn, so just replaced them. Wished I have got a couple of spares too at the time.

Best wishes,

Grahame

[charlie]

Grahame, I don’t know if the tines are the same size. I am fairly sure Clifford either copied or produced the rotavator under licence from SIMAR as SIMAR held the patent. Geo Monro produced the Rototiller 56 under licence from 1948.

[Author]

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