[davidbliss]

Bolens used stock bearings but to gain a few £s they had the ODs taken down so a standard one wouldn’t fit without the housings altered. Bearings are usually all good, think in the 80s there was some Russian ones and for some reason we had a shortage and had what was available, they were so soft if heavily loaded stationary after fitting just sounded terrible. So there are bearings and bearings and today am amazed how long some go with heat and horrendous speed. But for some applications you still need if possible the old solid brass cages as if anything goes belly up the strong cage keeps the balls or rollers all in there positions it is also noticeable the bass cage laps the balls or rollers to a better finish, where in certain conditions a steel cage will seize very quickly or nylon will brake. A 4.3 Alvis ran roughly 400 miles shedding teeth off the crown-wheel but done little damage, a nylon or light steel caged would have let go with the amount of metal chips going through. the replacement is a easy off the shelf twin ball type like some FWD cars use. I would not use one of those and said why, well they found a genuine old stock, and blow me it had the Alvis part number etched in, I said how many do you have and got 25, I payed £90 and knew some were asking £400 for the same bearing so always try firms that know what you are asking for and helpful so you don’t just get the this is what we have also firms that are spread about they may have inherited old stock and I always say why I want a particular type so its reliable like originals if possible.

[davidbliss]

If you could post the exact sizes I could look in my archive of old bearings, as many old bits of equipment ran those small bearings.

[davidbliss]

I have run two Bolens mowers now 43 years, and rebuilt the decks a few times, I went to replace the bearings and found they are a odd size, one firm said couldn’t I get the housings turned out to take a standard bearing, well they are not that strong to start with, so I tried Hayley’s Norwich, they have other branches. they said we keep them specially for you old boys. However I could have machined down a standard bearing and then ground to the finished size. as have done several for replacement obsolete bearings for early cars. The Bolens bearing sizes are, bore 3/4” OD 1.780 width .608. photos of Bolens, 1905 Rover gearbox bearings being turned down to size.

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[davidbliss]

They often keep to same BSP thread pitch for pipe fittings, however if you have a gauge it saves guessing. if its of US manufacture they use NPT thats only one thread per inch different, I get the odd motor cycle they often used cycle rate 26 tpi for there oil fittings thats not good into alloy being so fine. I often make my own taps and dies and a easy metal to machine then harden is EN24 works quite well as can go up a few thou without going up to next size. I recently was repairing a 1924 French car gearbox that was very poorly designed that allowed a non captive bearing to work partly off, as there is a French odd ball metric pitch I did that at a imperial 1/2”size to be equally awkward.

[davidbliss]

As nobody tells me that can’t be done without certain machines, I just do it on clapped out old things some rescued from the scrap, spend hours making a press tool for a thing that would have cost pennies, but get satisfaction no one else have ever bothered, its often funny the crudest made tool can turn out a complicated to form the metal boys say impossible, then say would cost thousands just for the tooling, if my idea of a tool didn’t work it wouldn’t matter but has so far. It isn’t just machining I will have a go at tin work, and make parts by just welding, I had made a engine manifold, sent a photo to a friend in the States saying there you go casting by mig welder, well blow me they do just that continuous welding with a CNC mig water cooled, annoying thing I haven’t the knowledge of how to program. Door capping’s for a 1915 car, was told a very difficult part to make as had a slight curve, well D shape railing top bent to give a curve and a block of Elm wood, four G clamps, one hour to fold up four mark free.The cast exhaust manifolds metal was shot so bent pipe and a few drawn metal elbows, cut and lots of welding and finish inside is as good, no one would ever know they weren’t the originals and they haven’t warped. like the cast ones do.

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[davidbliss]

I have had some of those taps and were alloy not Die-cast metal that can be very difficult sometimes as with age and what metal mix its made from on that day or even hour so can get very bad internal corrosion and expands, had some new 1940s carbs still in there original greased packages just a myriad of cracks, warming the stork a few times might help just be carful as the die-cast melts at a low temperature, and have shifted some frozen parts from carbs by boiling them in a saucepan with ordinary washing powder as it dissolves the old varnish left from the petrol.some I have welded (more like soldering than welding) with some special low temp rods and some leaded solders will work, messing with the 100+ year old of unobtainable parts some times a needs must and worked to save the day. or I make patterns and get them cast and machine or machine from the solid so its fit and forget.

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[davidbliss]

I’ve just looked again and can see the plug, and can see the oil filler plug and looks more or less plastic modern Briggs but the alloy case looks shaped older stile and not on any briggs i have seen.

[davidbliss]

Is that a injector in the head.

[davidbliss]

If you have a problem see if you can find and ask a vintage motorcycle enthusiasts lads as motor cycles have much smaller bores than most Briggs engines, going back to when they started to use all alloy non sleeved engines was told they couldn’t be bored, but an old engineering friend used to do them without fuss and seem to remember them saying after boring used a different hone.

[davidbliss]

When I dropped the carb into boiling water I should have known what was going to happen. When a float has a pin hole in and has sunk with petrol in thats how I get rid of it by firstly unsoldering the pin hole that all floats have then just warming it a few times will soon empty the petrol, with a cool float I then solder the pin hole up. This is how I find any holes that can’t be seen, placing under in warm water and watch for bubbles, clean and before soldering the leak unsolder the the breather hole. solder the leaking hole and again cool and then solder the pinhole and test in warm water again. With some floats with the manufacturing process of drawn metal to cause stress cracking all over, would clean and tin all over, if done properly doesn’t cause any detrimental weight increase, a friend used to electro plate floats, I could see how a float would implode like Sidevalve mentions, in full sun things can get very hot indeed and one day left a jug with petrol in out in full sun, as I went to pick it up noticed the petrol was boiling away quite well and thats the same as air expands, thats how water gets into seemingly sealed parts like gearboxes, rain water cools and then is sucked into a part. If the carb had a bit of water in and the float had the smallest hole air would escape but if cooled water wouldn’t get drawn back in and would then implode.as not very structurally sound with pressure on the outside.

[davidbliss]

Just by accident one day found washing powder and boiling it in a saucepan, in several cases the brown sticky mess goes whitish and when dry even small airways can be blown out with an air line. However remove the float before putting into hot water, without thinking one day just dropped a part carb still with the float into boiling water, in only count of two float burst and thru hot water out everywhere as had bit of petrol in. it took some time teasing the distorted float back to work again.

[davidbliss]

I would have though the jet would be larger so would go from rich to weak, Think I have a good 24 T carb minus the adjustable bits as they fitted a teens to twenty’s bronze zenith, if you need spare bit could try and fing it.

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[davidbliss]

Now this is a dyno-starter called a USL, book said something like not to use to assist the motor, bet it would climb up any hill with that. Car was a Overland model 71 from 1913

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[davidbliss]

A DC motor just change over the brush wires, done it on a two brush set ups on generators and quite a few old motors and often found wrong rotation for a engine so saving to have a crossed belt often just changed the rotation. A good way to check rotation is just using a 12v battery, even one of the high DC 400+ voltage motors or generators will motor on the 12volt and the direction it turns is its also the way it generates, and old generators often need a flash of voltage if have had long period of inactivity. My old 1953 generator is direct DC Dyno-Start and if hand started is reluctant to generate, if its really big it can take a few minutes to come on load so never leave a dc generator with a open circuit running not connected to a load. I once thought it odd a generator would motor but no voltage just standing looking at it to then see it show a few volts, in a spit second went sky high even with a load on and not thinking broke the connection there was a good two plus inch ark, voltage metre maxed out at 2,000 volts, luckily the insolation was good and I had my wooly hat on as a bit hair razing to say the least. Biggest reversing DC motor I saw working near me was a 50HP planer motor would brake stop and change direction that a small car would fit on the planers bed, road was closed the other day so done a short cut through the village and recognised one of the last workers I think still alive that used to work there so I stopped a had a good chat.

[davidbliss]

I agree with side valve be careful and have it apart, things to lookout for on some mags is the spark gap protecter, if not removed will break a bit out of the insulation of the pickup ring and the odd carbon earthing brush so just ask but don’t touch any part if you are a bodger with poor tools it will only cost you lots. I would say multi metre is a waist of time, unless someone is paying you to use it. A known good condenser and magnet with clean points and give it a spin and if it works. I will make most things on the mechanical side and get the coils rewound and magnets re-magnetised. However we have lost most of the really good re-wind boys, I had two coils done a few years back, one lasted 300 miles and the other about a thousand, and the magnetiser was nowhere near powerful enough, magnetising is like staining surface of wood with a brush and not done properly will very soon loose its strength, and unbeknown to me they had both coils fail they done first time and never told me they then glued and baked the two fibre boards on that hold the pickup, so to get them done again would need new parts making, there are some supposedly experts out there but idiots in not looking to understand how things are made or put together and work. I am now back on dated 1916 coils that are still going and they have had almost constant use for 108 years. Bit on the Splitdorf, there early system used a engine driven dynamo, dash mounted coil, started on battery and then changed over, so no problems starting the early large car engines like the aircraft engines, the later Splitdorf Dixie is extremely superior away ahead to any mag made back then as the coil units do not rotate and can if need be changed in minutes, with coil and points moving as one unit they can run on full retard ignition all day without doing damage to the coil and still produce a very good spark as they had to back then as most were hand started and the self starters were size of a small car engine today turning very slow, so mag is turning at 50rpm at idle. The down fall of the Splitdorf and many early mags today parts are made of Zinc die-cast so you just have to make parts. someone said they are Poler induction? that’s why they are better, to me parts are turned through 90% but inside work no differently and just make and break the magnetic field.

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