[trusty220]

It may be the case that Singer were developing a tractor of their own which was dropped when they bought the rights to manufacture the OTA as the Singer Monarch.

I have no evidence to back this up, it is only a suggestion! Can anyone throw any more light on this?

[trusty220]

I’ve been poking bits of wire into all sorts of holes this weekend, and the one that Sean is pointing out is actually a pressure feed from the pump. It corresponds to a hole drilled in the cast iron barrel which exits about 1/3rd of the way up the bore. The only use I can see for this is to lubricate the piston skirt- maybe they had a problem with overheating caused by excessive friction in the bore- so I will have to drill a hole in my new spacer to allow oil to flow through.

Thanks for pointing it out, Sean.

[trusty220]

There is a hole there on both faces. I’ve poked a piece of wire down the crankcase one the other day and it seems to be an exit into the crankcase for some sort of oil drain from above.

So far that’s classified as a “work in progress”, so watch this space. It was possibly intended to supply oil to a rocker shaft for an overhead valve version of this engine, but I’m only guessing.

More photo’s to come this weekend as I’ve just picked up the new little end bush from Alpha Bearings. Let’s hope it fits!

[trusty220]

Holes are now drilled for the five retaining studs, not forgetting the two additional holes for the cam followers that operate the valves. It was a major work to get all of the dimensions right and complete the spacer without any distortion at all; still, you can judge for yourselves from the photo’s.

Whilst working on this part of the engine I thought it prudent to change the little end bush as there was a slight amount of movement in it. Now, this is where my latest problems arose as the piston appears to be non-standard. The outer dimension of the bush (ie the diameter of the hole in the end of the con rod) is 1.032″, the length of it is 1.125″- so far so good. The gudgeon pin has a diameter of .866″ (which is 21.99mm ), and the standard Norton bush has an internal hole diameter of .875″. That means that I can’t buy a bush off the shelf.

When I get problems like this I normally end up either making the part myself or going to Alpha Bearings in Netherton, Dudley. That’s what I did today and they are going to make me a bush to fit; call me lazy, but I’m very busy at work at just haven’t got the time.

Now that I know that I can get a replacement I decided to remove the old one. As you can see from the pictures I made up a puller from a long bolt with a washer at one end to engage the bush. At the other end was a tube that the bush would slide into, with another larger washer and the nut on the other end of the bolt. As the nut was tightened it pulled the bush from the con rod into the spacer tube with no risk of bending the con rod. I now have a bare con rod awaiting the new bush, so fingers crossed!

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[trusty220]

The hole spacing is 1.5″ which is very roughly 38mm. The other measurements are a little vague because I don’t know where you are measuring from, but the offset (length of the foot from the upright) is 4″ and the vertical is 4 3/4″ from the base of the foot to the centre of the uppermost hole.

These are handed as well- the one that I photographed is a left hand one- and the part number is 9896LH.

It looks almost identical to the Trusty ones apart from the slight radius at the top to fit around the rotor shaft and the foot has a more gradual curve to it rather than the straight lines of the original. Otherwise it should fit with little or no modification.

Does anyone know where to find these today? I have one or two Earthquakes that I need to restore and so I shall need some new ones as well.

[trusty220]

It’s been a week or so since I last looked at this and I decided to move it on a pace today, seeing as the shows are getting closer and I need it finished. The course of action decided upon was to make a spacer gasket to lift the barrel 40 thou and bringing the top of the piston level with the top of the barrel. The only problem was that it isn’t easy making a circular hole 3.55″ in diameter in 40 thou Aluminium sheet.

The easiest way was to mount it on the faceplate on the lathe with a hardboard backing piece so that I didn’t cut into the faceplate. The job itself took seconds, but mounting it took a while longer. Still, the end result was worth it and I now have a sheet of 40 thou Aluminium plate with a 3.56″ hole in it and no distortion. Now to mark it out, drill the other holes and cut it to shape.

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[trusty220]

Here are some photo’s of the tines supplied with the Earthquake. They are definitely Dowdeswell as you can see the “D” stamped on the side of one of them, which means they were probably made for an original Howard machine. They are a direct replacement for the Trusty tines- the holes line up, they are the correct distance apart and the tine is at the correct angle.

Here are the photo’s.

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[trusty220]

The Earthquake that I picked up the other day had some new tines with it that weren’t fitted. They were a sickly green colour so I suspect they were from Dowdeswell (that is the firm that bought out the Howard company).

I will have a look later today when I go to the farm and take a photo. My best guess is that they are off an older Howard product like the Bantam. Of course, they may not have been fitted because they might not fit directly, but we will see.

Watch this space!

[trusty220]

A very warm welcome to the club.

A very nice late series Earthquake that you have there. The Earthquake normally had only one engine speed which was set on the governer so they can be a bit of a handful at times; your modification with a throttle control will no doubt help considerably in improving it’s usability. If you let me have the serial number I will put it on the trusty Register.

[trusty220]

The front axle looks like the rear (steering) axle off a Ransomes Motor Triple. Well done, Barry, another excellent conversion.

[trusty220]

And I thought it was ME she loves. I’d better cancel the cheque!
Geoff

[trusty220]

I’ve been over to look for the offending adapter and here’s the photo. It does look very similar to yours, Alan, except that it uses a larger pulley on the crankshaft to speed up the attachment.

As you can see from the other pictures the place is swimming this morning and I got extremely wet taking the photo’s. Such dedication!

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[trusty220]

I haven’t sorted out how the Tarpen fitting works yet. It was fitted to the original engine and removed when the Kohler engine was fitted. Presumably it is in the collection of bits and pieces that came with it.

Once I’ve had a good sort out I’ll post some photo’s of the Tarpen arrangement.

[trusty220]

One problem that I have run into in the past when trying to book up suitable venues is that a lot of them don’t open until Easter, and many of them use the winter period to restore exhibits and redecorate.

Just a thought that Ivan had a couple of years ago was to explore the possibility of us going to the Fred Dibnah house and garden in Bolton. We never seem to go north with the AGM and that would bring some of the other members into the ring as well.

[trusty220]

I wouldn’t worry about it yet, it’s twelve months away!

[Author]

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