Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Well done stubborn little beggars when they want to be! No choke cable required.
Bring it along to Malvern at the end of February.

Lots of small jobs today, made a replica of the Vokes air filter pipe, fitted fan belt, I have used a joinable belt on the basis that to replace the belt you have to remove the engine or at least slide it out of its mounting. Fitted the patent flash at the back which is 1/16 of an inch bigger than later ones of which I have a stock so Chris at…[Read more]

engine back in today, bolted gearbox top back on with new studs, fuel tank mounted with leather cushions as per spec. Can’t fit drive wheels until I have completed pin-striping, waiting as long as I can to make sure paint is dried through.

Made a very stupid mistake yesterday, I masked up the pinstripes on one side and painted them in only to realise that the side I had masked up was only final painted the night before as I peeled of the making tape it removed the topcoat down to the grey primer! Managed to redeem the error with the amazing cellulose putty I have which filled the…[Read more]

Moved on a bit today, one final drive fitted, drawbar seat mounts and lift system fitted and final painted.

Finally managed to put a coat of blue on the whole tub, had a disaster yesterday primed one side and top coated another only to find that both paints came up in little blisters due to moisture on the surface, the primer settled back but the blue dried with a surface like sandpaper which required half a day rubbing back to smooth. Increased the…[Read more]

Finally managed to put a coat of blue on the whole tub, had a disaster yesterday primed one side and top coated another only to find that both paints came up in little blisters due to moisture on the surface, the primer settled back but the blue dried with a surface like sandpaper which required half a day rubbing back to smooth. Increased thge…[Read more]

Having used Upol filler to skim over the marks remaining from welding up the scars on the tub caused by worn track idler bearings, I decide to try using celulose putty from a tube to fill the remaining rust pitting, it has worked well and is a lot quicker than filler due to the finer grade of the paste enabling you to literally apply a smear over…[Read more]

Todays tasks have been plating the carburettor parts, throttle lever,rebuilding fuel tap and reassembling carb. The slides of the carb were originall quite worn and a sloppy fit in the body, by plating the body and main slide with Nickel it has now restored the slide function to a neat sliding fit in fact I had to rub the slide down a bit with…[Read more]

Yesterday I sandblasted the kettle because it was black and very dull. Today I set up my nickel plating kit and spent a lovely time sitting in a comfy armchair watching molecules swap over. Chuffed with the results the sand blasted fuel filler bowl from the carb has come out a dull finish ( what I wanted ) and the de compressor lever has come out…[Read more]

Yesterday I sandblasted the kettle because it was black and very dull. Today I set up my nickel plating kit and spent a lovely time sitting in a comfy armchair watching molecules swap over. Chuffed with the results the sand blasted fuel filler bowl from the carb has come out a dull finish ( what I wanted ) and the de compressor lever has come out…[Read more]

The offset is probably more than it needs but seems to work ok

A significant part missing from 137 was the starting handle, these early machines were notorious for wrist breaking so I need to get it right. Today I discovered that the female starter dog off the later TB engine was a perfect match for the male dog on the T engine. It took me hours to machine down a TB receptor they are a shrink fit and then…[Read more]

Joe I have an identical MG40N with a red bonnet which I imported from the south of France it cost much less, currently there are 6 MG Crawlers for sale in France on the Leboncoin site. If Santa wants to make me an offer I am happy to go and buy another one!!! You are right about the fitments the hydraulic pack is French but I understand they were…[Read more]

Today I have been restoring the carburettor which is a brass cast Amal, nickel plated. Over the years it has been bruised and bashed and had a number of nasty vice marks. I polished these out with my Dremel but did not like the shiny finish as the original would have been peat flour sand cast. After a bit of thought I dug out some brass plumbing…[Read more]

Seems I was wrong about the Ransomes number stamper being dozy, Anthony has found an ITW which is numbered 350 and so it would appear that Ransomes had a different numbering sequence for some of the industrial machines. Has anyone else come across this?

Malvern is beginning to seem awfully close and I still have a lot to do on 137. Progress is slow but steady, basically every component was badly rusted and in need of rebuild. The engine is now fully rebuilt , new clutch, track rollers rebuilt with new bearings and seals, final drive bearings and seals, new steering brakes,cooling fan rebuilt,…[Read more]

Chris at Vintage Brass Plates now has the originals of the i.d. plates off both skimmers and 137, he has identified that the numbers of the sand skimming tractors are 310 and 311 not 1311 as I thought. This means that either Ransomes started a new numbering sequence for the sand skimming tractors or the bloke that stamped them was half asleep and…[Read more]

If you want to give me a call on 016974 78292 I can help, failing that if you have a look at the parts listings it can help show what goes where.

Reached a milestone today finally managed to complete the rebuild and paint of the drive wheels I seem to have been on with them for months. Having to be careful that I dont get carried away with finish I keep looking at other original machines to see what level of marks/gouges etc were sent out from the factory I do not want it to be better than…[Read more]