[trusty220]

Many thanks to all those club members who attended the AGM this year. I think everyone was agreed that Oakham Treasures is a place that you can go back to time and time again.

It’s one of the few places that exceeds all expectations, and that’s no exaggeration. The exhibits are crammed into all manner of display styles, from glass cabinets to reproduction shops. The amount is truly staggering.

The only problem now is how to top that for next year. Any suggestions?

[trusty220]

Try downloading ShrinkPic. It has always worked for me and I’ve recently upgraded to Windows 10- it still works on that as well!
Once you’ve got it you can upload photo’s and it will automatically resize them. The website will only recognise jpeg images, though, so you may have to change photo editor.

[trusty220]

The flywheel type looks similar to the Villiers ones with a cam on the flywheel boss. Villiers engines don’t have a key but rely on the taper to keep them in the correct position. Basically, if you put the flywheel onto the crankshaft and tighten it up on the taper it will produce a spark when you spin it; the knack is to put the flywheel in the right place so that the spark occurs at TDC or just before (BTDC).

To achieve this it is best to remove the cylinder head, then rotate the engine in the direction that it runs. For an engine of this size you should stop the rotation when the piston is 1/4″ from the top of the bore before it reaches TDC. Do not turn the crankshaft, and if you can lock it in position so that it doesn’t turn even better.

Next you will fit the flywheel loosely on the crankshaft, fitting the flywheel nut to prevent it falling off. Do not tighten it to the crankshaft yet. The flywheel can then be rotated around the crankshaft and the points gap observed. Rotate the flywheel in the direction that the engine runs, watch the points close, keep rotating the flywheel slowly until the points gap starts to open. This is when the spark will occur. Without moving the relative positions of the crankshaft and flywheel you should now tighten the flywheel nut to lock the tapers together.

The engine should now be timed.

[trusty220]

I can see why Jonathon thought it was going to be a big job to restore his skimmer now! F&HEC used to have some really good articles and it’s still a shame that it was killed off.

[trusty220]

Any chance of a picture or two? I’m sure we are all curious to see what this sand skimmer looked like.

[trusty220]

Now that the show is over I can safely say that it has been brilliant! Here are some more pictures for those of you who couldn’t attend (Alan!), and I do apologise for not getting around to everyone before the close tonight but it was very chaotic. In an ideal world I would have preferred to have spoken to everyone individually to thank them but it simply wasn’t going to happen with the hasty retreat to the loading areas.

Well done to Jonathan for winning the individual prize for best exhibit and for best display. Well deserved, the best display for any machine that I’ve seen for a long time. Oh, and thank you Wendy Mac for the chocolate cake; everyone who tried it on the stand was very appreciative!

I didn’t notice when I posted the previous set of photo’s, but the sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed our Shopkeeper helping himself to Chairman’s coffee. Damned cheek!

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[trusty220]

We would all love to see you there, Alan, especially as I have a little present for you as well.

There are some real rarities on display this year such as the Garrett version of the BMB Plowmate and the vintage hedgecutter with stationary Petter engine.

Jonathan Cox (Expeatfarmer) has exceeded all expectations with his display of Ransomes MG crawlers which is simply superb. A very “Well Done” to all who collaborated to bring this off, both exhibitors and organisers- I reckon it’s the best display that I’ve seen for a long time. Not only was there a variety of modified machinery there, the layout allowed the visitor to view and photograph each exhibit easily; it even looked like each item was different because no two similar machines were parked next to each other.

I will let the photo’s speak for themselves.

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[trusty220]

Hear, hear! We all sympathise with your predicament, Phil. It’s a job to know what to do sometimes when you get targetted like this, I think I would be tempted to wire the whole thing up to the mains!!

[trusty220]

I think Xenoah was (or is) a division of Komatsu, the bulldozer people. The full name was Komatsu-Xenoah and they came up with a revolutionary brushcutter in the early nineties; it consisted of two circular blades with hedgecutter-like teeth all around the outside, and the engine drove both blades in opposite directions to each other. Great for grass because it didn’t throw stones/dog muck/debris all over you and you could even cut pondweed underwater with it. Our fertiliser rep at the time used to sell it for edging bunkers on golf courses; this was great for repeat spares business because the blades used to go blunt very quickly.

Happy days!

[trusty220]

You’ve got to thank Alan Newbould for the hard work on the galleries. So far he has logged and captioned 7,000 photo’s, many of them from the old Tractorbox forum, so we all owe him an enormous vote of thanks for his hard work.

The “What is it” section is something that I’ve concocted as a result of Alan being uncertain of some of the items in the galleries; normally we can identify unusual machines using our combined knowledge, and if that fails we can look it up somewhere. But why should we have all the fun? The combined knowledge of all of our readers will be far greater and wider in it’s scope, so we thought that we’d give some of the work back to you!

We hope you enjoy browsing through the new sections and if you can add anything please feel free to do so.

Geoff

[trusty220]

Here’s a factory picture of it! It’s obvious that they tried to take excess weight off the front end because all of the clutch castings have gone and are replaced with a manual clutch which is operated from a lever on the throttle.

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[trusty220]

Why don’t you try a JAP 5? There are plenty on the auction site and it should fit straight on with very few modifications.
What you have to watch is the height of the crankshaft above the chassis because the castings around the clutch were made in two different heights. The shorter one that you have (which fits the B+S ZZ) also fits the JAP 5 engined tractors, but some of the other engines such as Douglas SV54 or the JAP 6 need a taller lower clutch casting because the crankshaft is about 1″ higher from the chassis plate.

[trusty220]

The only way to diagnose the fault is to approach it methodically. Start with the plug (try another that you know is good), check the HT lead for damage and that it’s connected to the coil (it screws into a bakelite adapter which has a carbon brush on the other side which makes contact with the coil).
Once you’ve done that you can check that the points haven’t closed up or got some debris between them. Condensers can be difficult to diagnose and will give a spark when cold which fades out as it gets warm- try another condenser that you know is good. The same can be said of the coil- some coils will spark when cold but fade out as they warm up- and the only way to check this is to replace with a known good coil.
Does your spark come back when the engine cools?
The only other thing that it could be is the start/stop switch; disconnect this to rule it out, it should connect to a spade connector on the rear of the stator plate (the thing that the points/condenser/coil are screwed to).
I hope that helps. Above all, don’t try to take any short cuts; a methodical approach will always find the problem but a short cut can lead you down many a false alley!

[trusty220]

Could you send me an entry form, Kevin? I’ll bring a Trusty, Trusty Sawbench and trailer.

[trusty220]

More reports have now come to light- I think someone may be trying to keep it quiet- but the party that was arrested with the ladder claimed that it wasn’t his because he was afraid of heights.

Of course this could have nothing to do with the Lincolnshire window cleaner who struggles to do upstairs windows because he has to keep at least one foot on the ground for safety.

Maybe the person arrested was just looking after the ladder for someone? We’ll have to wait for the court case!

[Author]

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