Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Rope in the bore enables locking of crank if you haven’t got the special flywheel holder and don’t want to risk breaking any fins off the flywheel. I rotated the engine so that the valves were closed, feed as much rope as I could into the bore and then turned the flywheel cw to feel it lock. I could then torque it to 60 ft lb.

None of the sof…[Read more]

The flywheel had spun slightly. So I have now taken apart and reassembled with a new key, lapping the flywheel well and torquing it down with the rope in the bore trick to lock the crank, and the special clutch drive tool which I bought for the job.

The mower was then running OK, but was difficult to start without pouring a little petrol into…[Read more]

Just to add, I found I could get enough of the distortion out of the cutter plate using a G clamp and a bit of something straight – I had a short bit of box section to hand

Well I got the Hayter fettled this morning, blades swinging, wheels spinning, belts tightened and nipples greased. I did perhaps 15mins easy cutting and then hit a rock in some nettles and now the machine won’t fire – I think the flywheel must have spun on the crank. Hey ho – easy enough to fix, and I was pleased with the cut and the speed

Thanks for this – I’ll give the plate a fettle at the weekend. I have now welded up the front frame tensioning plate, and I have also found some nos bearings for the front wheels which were in a right state/ missing. The rear height adjusting wing nut and collar are missing, so I’ve bored out a hex nut to slip over the 1/2 adjusting screw stud and…[Read more]

Doh! thanks

Thanks for your attention. Photos attached. All the blades swing from side to side, but they all foul on the plate because it is not flat, and so will not swing 360′. I wonder if I am overthinking this, and just a bit of deflection is all that is needed.

I checked the gearbox this morning, and it is good for oil.

I went to tension the drive…[Read more]

OK thanks will give it a go

Can anyone advise on replacing the blades – I’ve got a new set. If I snug the bolt for each blade down, the knives will not rotate due to the aluminium plate not being flat. So I guess I need to fettle/flatten the dish locally so the knives do rotate when the bolts are tight – is that right?
Thanks

So I fitted new points and condenser (I did eventually buy the funky little tool to compress the spring as I found that a bit of a fiddle without, and the wire from the coil is getting shorter where the spring cuts into it), I changed the carb diaphragm and put in a new plug, and bought a new air filter as the old one had disintegrated, and then…[Read more]

Thanks for response Andy. So with a squirt of some penetrating oil, a good torch and more perseverance, I’m very happy to say both valves are in fact moving. I put a compression gauge on the engine and after a few pulls can get to 80 psi. So a much better starting point.
I’ll try to get a spark, check the coil, and if necessary pull the fly whe…[Read more]