[trusty220]

Charlie tells me that he’s the one with the big ears. Am I right?

[trusty220]

Are you sure it wasn’t you sending me parts and trying to get me in trouble? A trick worthy of The Gnome himself!!

[trusty220]

…….or should I expect a ransom note in the post? Something along the lines of,” These are parts off your Steed. Leave money in a paper bag or we will start to dismantle it more and sell it off piecemeal.”

I hope not, but you never know!

By the way, Charlie, I hadn’t thought of that one- thanks for the tip. It reminds me of one of my customers who was told by his golf course committee that he couldn’t order a new sprayer. He ended up ordering it in parts and paying a hell of a lot more, but he got his sprayer!

[trusty220]

It sounds like it should be an Albion HR3 or 3A gearbox which was quite common on most of these vehicles.

First thing that I would look at in both cases is the clutch plates. The corks may be sticking to the steel plates with old oil or grease- or rust if it hasn’t been used for a while- and it’s the easiest part to get at. Just undo the hexagon headed shoulder bolts with springs underneath and it will come apart, but take care to catch the operating rod in the centre when you pull the outer cover off.

Once you’ve got the outer cover off you will see a series of plates, every other one will have corks in. One set of plates will have “ears” or tags on the outside which engage in slots in the outer cage; make sure that there are no burrs on the edges of the tags (file them off if there are) and make sure that the edges of the slots in the cage are smooth and not a series of notches where the tags have worn grooves. If you have notches file them smooth with a file so that the tags will slide up and down the slots without snagging.

Before re-assembly make sure that the clutch operating rod is working smoothly backwards and forwards. It is normally in two pieces- a plain rod where it goes into the gearbox on the clutch lever side and a rod with a foot on it that pushes on the inside of the clutch cover, and these two are normally separated by a ball bearing in the middle.

If cleaning the clutch up doesn’t do the job it may be that the input shaft and output shaft have become stuck together. The one shaft runs inside the other and if you didn’t want to dismantle the gearbox you can sometimes free them off by running the engine and selecting a low gear- 3rd gear is normally a direct drive with no difference in the two shaft speeds, but 2nd or 1st gear should show a result but make sure that you’ve drained all of the old oil out first and refilled with fresh oil so you don’t do any internal damage.

[trusty220]

Have you tried Meetens Industrial Engines at Preston?

[trusty220]

The exact shade of green would vary quite a bit but the most common shade for the mid- to late- 1940’s machines is a Dark Brunswick Green, otherwise known as British Racing Green. Prior to 1945 the shade seems to have been lighter and so a Mid Brunswick Green would be more appropriate. After 1950 they changed to Apple Green, which has an equivalent in today’s colours as Amazone Green, although Fendt Green will give a slightly more weathered look if you want the machinery to look a little older.

The paint that I have used is some that was left over from painting the garage door! It is British Racing Green, though, and is made by Sandtex and labelled “10 year Exterior Gloss” which sounded just what I needed! It does give a very glossy finish that lasts so I can thoroughly recommend it.

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[trusty220]

…..and it had lead in it as well! Those were the days when our engines didn’t overheat, would run on proper advanced timing settings and carburettor gaskets didn’t dissolve every five minutes. Where did it all go wrong??

[trusty220]

I love those pictures, Angus. They remind me of the old petrol station that was halfway up the main street in Burford; those pumps were back against the wall and the delivery pipes dangled off huge triangular brackets that were hinged to the wall and swung out to reach customers’ cars when needed.

All gone now but it wasn’t that long ago.

[trusty220]

Do you have any pictures of what it looked like back then with the petrol pump?

[trusty220]

I have bought it and collected it last weekend. I just had to snap it up quickly or run the risk of Henry Cole making it into a drinks cabinet!

Rest assured it will find a nice warm corner of the workshop when I eventually find somewhere and it will have plenty of company with the collection of Trusty machinery.

[trusty220]

There must have been some sort of trade agreement at the time. As a comparison I have included the plate from the earlier Trusty that I’m rebuilding; this one doesn’t mention Vigzol at all but says that the owner must use Trusty Oils (which you could only get from the Trusty dealer).

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[trusty220]

Just in case you were doubting my sanity, here is a picture of a serial number plate to show you what I mean.

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[trusty220]

Sorry for the delay but farm work has been taking over now the warm weather is here. The plough is now almost finished with only a few little pieces to touch up with paint. The problem I was finding a few weeks back was that the paint wouldn’t dry because it was far too cold in the garage; no such problems now that the temperature has moved up the scale!

When I chose this plough it was because it had been used and abused in a previous life and it was even doubtful that it would work again. I think somebody has driven over it at some point as the mouldboard seems to be a little narrow but it will be fine as a static exhibit to show off at a show. I’ve had to make another landslide because the old one was almost worn away completely and the mouldboard was so badly pitted I could not successfully grind out the deep pits and leave enough metal behind. The only way to rescue it was to de-rust and fill it with filler to smooth it out; painting afterwards was very successful with a base coat of grey primer, two coats of chrome finish Rust-O-Leum enamel then three coats of clear lacquer. It looks like polished steel!

On the transfer front I have had some samples back but there are issues concerning the colour combinations. We have had to settle for waterslide transfers to get the colour match exact but seeing as that was what the originals were made like I can’t object; the only problem is that I’m going to have to order considerably more of them to get the price down to a reasonable figure.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the plough just to keep you quiet until they arrive!

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[trusty220]

I’m glad to see that you’ve located some filler caps. I’ll have to remember that they are the same as Howard, that will make them easier to find if anyone wants any in the future. Luckily mine came with them so I didn’t have to go searching.

One thing that people ask me from time to time is,”Where can I get my Wico A magneto refurbished?”. Not being a standard motorcycle type magneto the usual restorers tend to turn their noses up at the humble Wico; could I ask you where you got yours refurbished?

[trusty220]

Looking at the set-up of the belt drive to the mower deck, does the blade rotate in the right direction or does it go backwards as well? Look for the sharpened cutting edge on the blade to see if it is going the right way.

It may well be that somebody has put the wrong replacement engine on it with the rotation going the wrong way.

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