[vhgmcbuddy]

Thank you very much to both of you.

Sean, I have the spares and user manual and that has helped hugely. I also scanned it and then coverted it to pdf so I can print it out on a bigger sheet of paper and actually read it. (My eyesight isn’t what it was).

Andy, a very practical summary which makes perfect sense. I was less than keen to bash it around without knowing what I was doing. The wifes computer has broken down which has meant far to much time trying to sort that out rather then getting cold in the garage. Tomorrow is another day.

Keith

[vhgmcbuddy]

I’ve a Danarm Mk II chainsaw fitted with the Villiers 25A two stroke, but it is stored awaiting it’s turn in the ‘to do’ queue. I do have a user manual with parts list. If you need a copy, let me know and I’ll post a link to download it from.

Sean

[vhgmcbuddy]

Restoration is relatively new to me as well. You will see the results of my Coleby restoration below.
There a a couple of bits of advice I can give. Take plenty of photos is one of the most important things you can do before, during and after disassembly. I’ll be doing quite a bit of that tonight on my new project. The other thing is, when you take something apart, make sure you understand how it works and try and work out why it was designed a particular way. If you do this, when you reassemble you will understand how it works and have more chance of getting it together first time.

Keep your working area reasonably tidy. I’m not sure what your set up is, but I started off with a make shift bench with a very cheap and chearful drill vice, a dark badly lit garage, a bench pillar drill on the floor and so forth, none of which is conducive to a good restoration project. I have now a decent bench, good lighting, a small bench vice and quite a bit of other equipment, lathe, mill and so forth, much more comfortable and easier to work.

You will work out your own methods for releasing seized nuts and bots, but plenty of WD40, PlusGas normally suffices, with a good heat gun for the more difficult to remove fixings.

The other thing you have got to consider is why you are doing this restoration in the first place. I had and have an number of goals, most are family oriented. My intention is to show three working Colebys at some shows next year, I currently have two. You may be able to do quite a bit of research into the UniHorse on the internet, but make sure you print everything that you find and put it in a file. This will help with the interest over the winter months when it is particularly cold, should help the the restoration and will probably be of interest to a potential buyer if and when it is time to sell.

Painting. I’m not sure what finish you are after, but if you are thinking of hand painting, use a good quality enamel paint (try Paragon Paints). Normal metal paint is not good if it comes into contact with petrol (I can say this from bitter experience). If you intend to powder coat, try to get everything done at the same time.

Most importantly of all, enjoy.

Not sure that any of this is any good to you but hopefully there will be a few bits and pieces in there to help you on your way.

[vhgmcbuddy]

first time really for a restoration, although i have some mechanical knowledge

[vhgmcbuddy]

Hi Ian,

My 800 was my late farther-in-law’s. It was working (over 20 years ago) so it should not be too hard to get back into working order.

The 800 was a prototype that never made full production. This one came via my wife’s uncle who was senior management at Howard, back in the 1960s/70s. When the model was abandoned on cost grounds, the prototype machines were sold off.

The machine was used on the family ‘veg-patch’ where I have used it several times. I might add, that my father-in-law was a farmer, and he had a good 1/4 acre available on which to grow veg. I intend to renovate it to use on our allotment, and I suspect a few other plots. We have the plough attachment for it so hopefully I will get it going in time for next season.

Ralph

[vhgmcbuddy]

Ralph,

I have a Howard 700 with a Hirth 2stroke diesel engine.
Not much fun todate, looking for someone who could help in renovating the engine to working status as I have no experience of diesel engine setups.

Ian

[vhgmcbuddy]

Thanks Neil, all very helpful… My son has taken the head off over the weekend and we appear to have a crack in the main block, not the best of news. I’m sure we’ll be in touch.. Thanks again Andy

[vhgmcbuddy]

Is this your first attempt at restoration or are you an old hand at restoring old equipment?

[vhgmcbuddy]

Thanks Charlie. Just need to start my next project. Fingers crossed it will work out OK.

[vhgmcbuddy]

Thanks Andy, that is most useful information.

Having thought about why this shroud is on there if we take the view Coleby wouldn’t have put one on there if it wasn’t needed, I would hazard a guess that when you are ploughing or in a wet field, one can assume that the wheels will churn up a huge amount of mud and this will probably get onto the throttle mechanism. The shroud would probably prevent the worst of this. What I am sure of is Fred Coleby would have done a really good job of designing these machine but would have made sure that the machine was as economic to produce as possible.

Keith

[vhgmcbuddy]

Thanks Andy, I saw that in the photo and wondered what it was. I can’t think of any fixing holes on mine where this could have been fitted at all. My later machine doesn’t have it on either but I haven’t looked for fixing holes on that machine but I know this had a “new” engine fitted.

As you can see from the “before” photos, if the shroud was fitted originally then the chances are that it was removed and lost many moons back.

Again, thanks for your interest. It is very much appreciated.

[vhgmcbuddy]

Hi Andy

Thanks for the comment.

My Coleby didn’t have a shroud around the Carb. However some JAP engines did run on paraffin and I have noticed a couple of JAP 55 engines on EBay that had some arrangement around the exhaust and carb, presumably to thin the paraffin and make it flow a bit better. Coleby didn’t exclusively use JAP engines either, there were some with BSA engines (mainly Coleby Seniors and Shires) and the earlier ones had Villiers engines. JAP was acquired by Villiers by 1957 (all the shares were bought by them). I think Coleby and Villiers might have had a falling out since I can’t seem to find any reference to Villiers after 1948.

There was a Coleby for sale on EBay. The seller reckoned that it might have had a Douglas Engine, but I’m not sure that it was the right engine for the machine. He was asking quite a bit of money for it otherwise I would have probably got another Coleby in my collection by now.

[vhgmcbuddy]

One final thing, if you are interested in the history of Coleby Cultivators then I have written an article which was published in the Club Newsletter April 2019 Issue 122. There were a couple of responses in subsequent newsletters which add a little to this article. Mr. Terence Seago recalls fond memories of Max Sy at J. Garrett & Sons Ltd ( See August 2019 newsletter), but this was not Coleby Cultivators in Swanley. Max Sy was in fact Fred Coleby’s stepson. It was common for family members to serve apprenticeships in other similar companies in those days and then be employed in those companies before moving to the family business, which is what appears to have happened in this case.

[vhgmcbuddy]

FURTHER WORK

When I picked the Coleby up, it had been laying in my dad’s garden for many years in the hope that he would restore it. We couldn’t find one of the levers to engage the wheels so I made a couple based on the working Coleby I had. After nearly two years he decided to put up a shed in the same spot as where he stored to Coleby and finally dug up the missing control lever. So now I need to clean up the control levers up and put them back onto the machine.
I need to change the oil in the gearbox and the engine. They are both the wrong grade at the moment but this was intended to be to wash the gearbox and engine out a little before putting the right grade in. I suspect that the gearbox oil will wait until I give it a good run out since I won’t be working with this machine, just giving it run out now and again.
The more observant of you will notice the air filter hasn’t been painted, but this is a fairly quick job and probably best suited after Easter now. I’m not sure about painting in the depths of winter in damp conditions.
I just need to look at the timing on the engine. If I’m not careful, the engine sparks when trying to start it and there is not enough momentum to carry it over TDC pulling the pull cord in the opposite direction. Not good. Any advice would be helpful on this front but I’ll get the manual out in a bit.
The governor needs adjusting to run at a nice 2200 rpm should be fairly straight forward.
Finally start the restoration of a Coleby with a Villiers 25A engine (watch this space)

[vhgmcbuddy]

PAINTWORK
The paintwork was not is a good state. One of the first jobs to get me going was to powder coat as much as I reasonably could. The gearbox was still assembled so this was not a candidate and so was the engine block. Not really understanding colours and the likes, having done a little research, I thought that RAL 6005 was probably a reasonable colour to choose and would be reasonably close to the original. This was apparently British Racing Green or Moss Green. The handlebars were powder coated along with engine cowl, and various other bits which meant my hands stayed relatively clean. The wheels were painted black and although I asked for satin, the painter painted them gloss. It doesn’t look to bad. I have recently bought colour charts and in now looks as if RAL 6001 (Leaf Green) would have been a better choice.

For interests sake, the paintwork does seem to coincide nicely with the date of the machine. Later models were Yellow, probably RAL 1023 with red wheels, probably RAL 3082, the picture of the yellow Coleby is my other machine and is for illustration.

Those of you that are observant may notice that I am wearing a polo shirt with a Coleby logo on it. This is part of the history of the Coleby machines. My father got this produced from an original letterhead, my father being the son of one of the owners (Sidney Ross) of Coleby Cultivators Ltd after Fred Coleby passed away in 1960.

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