igor's E1A Major

[440bbm]

i think some wd40 and some very worn brown scrotchbrite or the fine green colour from a workshop or engineering shop that comes in rolls, will be about the best you will get. they are supposed to be hard chromed but if they are rusted, then i would say there may not be much helping it.

[igor]

All the other hydraulic rams I have here do appear to be hard chromed as would be expected. I was more than a little surprised to see the state of the ones on this tractor.

Our youngest and I had another play with it yesterday. More, including pics, to follow.

[440bbm]

could be a mix of things, they normally only rust once its chipped through or dents in it and has lifted the chrome. so it could be more filth and grot that looks rusty, unless of course you have already checked it... in which case, never mind but  a jolly good scub with some super fine or really worn scotchy and really really soaked wd40 be good for it.    

[tortron]

0000 steelwool and petrol/kerosene for chrome rims and motorcycles  forks. 2 part epoxy for the pits

[igor]

Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen. Will def be giving them a clean with something non/minimally abrasive in the first instance and see how we go from there.

[igor]

[igor]

On Monday last we took a family trip to Te Anau to retrieve the loader that was included in the purchase of the second tractor. Three old barries used a forklift to load it onto the trailer for us. When we got home the boy and I separated the (really heavy) bucket from the frame and lifted it off between us, forklift not required.

 

[igor]

Shortly after acquiring the first tractor I purchased this mower. It was cheap and, as we have recently discovered, a lot more fucked than I was led to believe.

[igor]

It didn't have this tree growing out of it when I bought it.

[igor]

From the serial number we have been able to deduce that the second tractor was made in 1954 so is three years older than the first one.

One seriously annoying issue we have (knew about it from the handbook but it still pisses me off) is that the pto (722 shaft rpm @ 1600 engine rpm) and three point linkage hydraulics do not work independently of one another. It is a case of both or neither. The other tractor has an optional extra raised pto stepdown box which gives 540 shaft rpm @ 1600 engine rpm and most importantly enables the driver to disengage the pto while the three point linkage remains operational. This will be swapped over at some point.

Other jobs on the list include replacing this bodged ignition switch with a key switch. I have a BMC/Lucas switch (purchased a very long time ago for use on my Wolseley then found to be the wrong one) that I hope will work for this.

[igor]

Will need to find some replacement tyres quite soon too.  This is the worst one. It made a weird noise while we were playing with the mower.

[igor]

The seller described the condition of the tyres as "they hold air". I am not convinced that they will continue to do so much longer. 

[johnnyfive]

New rear tyres will exceed it's value sadly...

What are the tyres like on your other one? 

[tortron]

Stitch up, fill with expanding foam. I saw it in an ,surprisingly not Pakistan, American shit old tractor not worth tyres video

[igor]

Very true J5.

Outside duals on the other one are the original tyres from 1957. The other two rear tyres are better than these ones but very probably over forty years old. I have found some more locally on FB marketplace but have not seen how good they are yet.

[Thphantum]

18 hours ago, igor said:

Shortly after acquiring the first tractor I purchased this mower. It was cheap and, as we have recently discovered, a lot more fucked than I was led to believe.

Tis a hay mower. Blades for these are very cheap and it's very easy to make the tool to change them. Can send you pics and dimensions if you like.

[igor]

Thanks Mark.

I think I have some new blades somewhere that came with it. Would be keen to receive details of the tool for changing them as I do not have one.

The main issue with this machine is that many of the bushings are flogged out resulting in several things that should be aligned not being so. This was evidenced most strongly by the fact that as soon as we started it up one of the drive belts began to walk off.

The pto driveshaft is also questionable. It is in better condition than the rest of the mower but we are not convinced that it is the correct one for this machine.

 

[johnnyfive]

I was thinking the other day about the PTOs on that era major, and how they're essentially locked to the gearbox input when engaged.

I dunno what kind of rotating mass your mower has, but there are PTO shafts you can get with sprag clutches built in. 

Helps to avoid you disengaging the clutch, and the spinning mower saying no fuck you we're going to keep driving forward for a while. 

I'm told the 'live' PTO and hydraulics on the later majors was a nice thing. 

[igor]

13 minutes ago, johnnyfive said:

I'm told the 'live' PTO and hydraulics on the later majors was a nice thing. 

It sure is. My other Major has the optional raised pto as mentioned above. Apparently this is about as rare as rocking horse shit.

In other news I have found a pair of reasonably good rear tyres on Fordson rims locally. Collecting them Saturday morning.

You still have a bunch of Majors?

[johnnyfive]

Fingers crossed that'll get you rolling! 

(I think) We have 7 sitting around looking terrible. Maybe 9 if you count the 2 earlier ones. 

Stop while you can