Norton Engined Trusty (Serial 10739) – Part 2

[vhgmcbuddy]

Following on from my project thread on the old forum, (see https://www.tractorbox.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6279), I have now got the handlebars and stay assembly fitted (see photo 0001).
The engine cowling is now in place, along with new support brackets that I had fabricated for the fuel tank (see photo 0002). Fuel tank was then strapped to the new brackets (see photo 0003).
At some point in the past, the tractor had lost it’s air cleaner, so I purchased a Burgess oil bath cleaner from that well know auction website. This is mounted to a piece of flat bar bolted to the drive chain guard. The air cleaner is connected to the carb using what I think is an intercooler hose from a Peugeot 306 (I never throw owt away that might come in handy one day!!). This hose is a perfect fit, as it is 1 1/4″ bore at the carb and then flares out to 1 1/2″ bore to fit on the air cleaner (see pic 0004). Only downside is that the cleaner slightly gets in the way of the starting strap, so may alter it at some point in the future, but for now, I can live with it.
I have also taken the opportunity to get some road transport bands made to fit over the wheels. Special thanks go to Richard Lowden (aka Trusty Bloke) for supplying me with photos and drawings. I have made one modification by adding rubber to the steel bands, to hopefully avoid the need to keep repainting them following use.

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[vhgmcbuddy]

What a brilliant restoration you have done, concourse id say! well done 🙂

[vhgmcbuddy]

Had a new exhaust fabricated recently, which is now fitted (photo 0006).

Also had some felt washers made for the reduction gear housings (photo’s 0007 & 0008). I can’t emphasise enough how important these are to the healthy running of a Trusty. The reason my Dad abandoned the tractor in the first place was down to the left hand side reduction gears jamming solid. This happened while ploughing, with the engine pulling hard. The weak link in the transmission turned out to be the countershaft, which ended up twisted like a corkscrew (see photo 0009). The drive chains and sprockets were undamaged. I was fortunate enough to have another Trusty which has been canabalised for spares, donating it’s countershaft for the restoration project. When I originally stripped the reduction housings down, both were missing the felt washers which had resulted in them being full of dirt. There was so much muck in the left hand side housing that it had packed solid around the small drive gear.

While the wheels were removed to fit the felt washers, I took the opportunity to fit the tie rods which hold the side plates of the transmission housing square (photo 0010). The lower one near the large drive sprockets can only be fitted with the wheels off.

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[charlie]

Amazing to see the counter shaft twisted like that, just shows how much power must have been going through it at the time. Great photos.

[vhgmcbuddy]

Made up a new copper fuel pipe and also the oil pipes for the magneto chain case drain and crankcase breather.
Decided to have a crack at Silver soldering nipples onto the pipe ends, rather than using a swaging tool. Turned out to be much easier than I thought. Apply a generous amount of flux to the pipe end, pop on the nipple and then heat it up with a hand held gas torch. Don’t hold the torch too close to the brass nipple or it will melt (guess how I found this out!!!). Once the flux turns clear, feed in the Silver solder and it is drawn by capillary action into the gap between the nipple and pipe. The solder used was 55% Silver, along with Easy Flo flux powder.

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[vhgmcbuddy]

Steering levers have now been connected to the dog clutches on the countershaft.

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[vhgmcbuddy]

Finally got the engine running today. After flooding the carb, starts almost straight away on half throttle with no smoke, but pops/bangs and shoots flame from the silencer (about every 5 seconds). Once the fuel level in the float bowl begins to drop back to it’s normal level, the engine looses power and stops. Would the indicated symptoms point towards running too lean?

[trusty220]

It sounds like you need to open the main jet to get some more fuel to flow through. The engine starts on the excess fuel that floods into the venturi (and there can be quite a lot), but once this is used up it reverts to running through the main jet if you have any amount of throttle on.

Once you have the engine running at about 1500 rpm with no nasty coughs or splutters (you achieve this by setting the throttle and adjusting the main jet in and out until it runs smoothly), you can then start to decrease the revs slowly. As the butterfly starts to close right down the main jet then becomes redundant and the engine draws fuel through a series of pin holes alongside the butterfly. The fuel mixture to these is controlled by the screw that is alongside the barrel and the further out you unscrew it the weaker the mixture gets.

The pinholes also act as a gradual acceleration device so that there is no hesitation on opening the throttle. Once you think you have the setting about right on this slow running jet, open the throttle a few times to make sure you get a smooth response. If it hesitates and then picks up it needs more fuel and so you need to richen the mixture (screw it inwards).

I hope that helps.
Geoff

[vhgmcbuddy]

Finally traced the dodgy running to the butterfly spindle on the carb. There was a slight amount of side to side play, so drilled the spindle hole out and fitted a bush so that the spindle is now a tight fit. The result can be seen at https://youtu.be/UTL6pM8uRAA
The slightly oval spindle hole meant air was being drawn in past the loose fitting spindle causing the engine to run lean.

[trusty220]

I’ve entered mine at Newark this November- are you tempted to bring yours? Entries close this Friday for anyone wishing to enter the biggest tractor show in the year.

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[vhgmcbuddy]

Unfortunately, I don’t have any transport for the Trusty.

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