New SIMAR owner seeks assistance!

[roatavator]

Mike
Sean did an excellent restoration topic on his 56 a few years ago here:

Simar 56A Rototiller – Serial No. 561621

They’re almost the same machine so you might find it helpful to have a look.
Peter

[vhgmcbuddy]

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 should be the right hand axle bush. I suspect it might be a part common to the 56.

As an aside, were the UK built machines an exact copy of the Swiss SIMAR, ie all built in metric. Or were they “imperialised”?

Mike

[charlie]

A quick look at parts books and numbers are different for 50 and 56, also checked list of drawings and could not see that part number.
The machines are metric, nuts bolts etc.

[roatavator]

Mike
Might the part number be 8713d? I think I’ve found the part you’re referring to in a parts list on the French site

https://motoculteur-simar.fr/Documents/catlivc50.pdf
Peter

[vhgmcbuddy]

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

[vhgmcbuddy]

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

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[charlie]

I spotted that when I looked. Note part numbers with a suffix of D or G indicates Right (droite) and Left (gauche).

[vhgmcbuddy]

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!

[charlie]

A wise move, no point in spending a lot of time and money on gearbox only to find engine is no good. I always open the drain tap on bottom of crank case to drain any excess fuel/oil mix before starting.

[vhgmcbuddy]

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 overhauls, looking forward to some eye-watering quotes after the weekend 😀

If any of you good people have an idea as to which mag this thing is I’d be super pleased to hear! As is so often the case when googling anything Villiers, amal, jap, Lucas etc there is an impenetrable mass of information pertaining only to motorcycles out there, everything else seems to fall through the cracks. Still, such is the joy of playing with this old stuff!

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[vhgmcbuddy]

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!

[roatavator]

Hi Mike
Sorry, mine has a Wico series a, your mag is similar to but not identical to the mag on my A5. So can’t really help, hopefully Charlie can be more help than me.

[vhgmcbuddy]

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 machine running!

[trusty220]

When I was rebuilding a Norton Big Four engine for a Trusty Steed a few years ago I came across a chap who specialises in magneto repair in Halesowen in the West Midlands. He doesn’t touch all makes but he does know just about all there is to know about BTH and Lucas magnetos, as well as having a huge stock of parts for these makes. He doesn’t charge silly money, either, and the magneto that he did for me was absolutely perfect- search under “Trusty Steed Engine Rebuild” and you will find the thread together with plenty of photo’s.

His name is Tony Cooper and he can be contacted on 0121 559 2405.

[charlie]

I need to pull my 50 out of the shed for a better look, but I can confirm it is a Lucas and is bolted down through the base. Looking around the internet it looks like an MA1 possibly.

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