Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

Workshop pottering. No real progress. Went to visit the man who sold me the rotary hoes, he said they last ran some time before 1999, he was amazed to see it running again but said there’s problems with the timing, so the head is off, the chains’s off, all the oil lines are off, oil pump is off, in fact everything that does anything is getting a good inspection.

Then the little Villiers, that’s had nothing done but I wanted to see how it would look next to the restored casing. Looks good I think. I need to make piston rings for this engine so that’ll be fun. Got most the rest though. Might see about getting the exhaust welded up tomorrow.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Good progress. JAP 600 head cleaned. Lots of oil residue around the plug and earth in the fins. Wasp nest stuff too. All gone. Inside was a lot of carbon and lead buildup, also gone. Looks a bit naughty. We would have called that a chode at school!

 

[Morrisman]

Who doesn’t like a 2stroke diesel

Ship I once worked on, Detroit Diesel 12v71 motor running a big LMF air compressor, it consumed 12 gallons of engine oil a day. A screaming, howling, whirling dervish of an engine, two blowers, four turbos, 48 intake valves, piston ported exhaust………..

No wonder they were phased out.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Ship I once worked on, Detroit Diesel 12v71 motor running a big LMF air compressor, it consumed 12 gallons of engine oil a day. A screaming, howling, whirling dervish of an engine, two blowers, four turbos, 48 intake valves, piston ported exhaust………..

No wonder they were phased out.

I worked on Wabco 353s years ago, twin 12v71s, two Allison transmissions, 500hp in the front and 450 in the rear. A beast. Screamed like a banshee!

 

[JMS1972]

I want a dozer. How much fun would it be, I can grade everyones gardens for them

Whether they like it or not

 

[Dieselman 63]

I can now move the Gem about with the new tyres. The engine has now been removed, and the overhaul can begin. All the gaskets have failed, there’s oil leaking out at every join.

Next I will have to remove the gearbox and replace it with my spare gearbox. The previous owner said that this machine has a fault and it needs a change so I’ll look into that. I might strip the replacement box and see if I can do a component change instead of having to remove EVERYTHING because that’s going to be a complete pain.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Well… I bought another

 

[octo0072000]

Well… I bought another

View attachment 449811

that's a lot newer one with the free wheel hubs in free wheel engine off you push it along to the sound of click click click

 

[Dieselman 63]

that's a lot newer one with the free wheel hubs in free wheel engine off you push it along to the sound of click click click

Nah still very early with this engine type. Will be 1945 or 46 I think.

It’s home anyway, and I have one wheel off. Everything on this is a bit more free than the other one (that had sat outside for years!) but still a pain to get free. Lots of paint on this one. It’s been ‘refurbished’ at some stage.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Got it mostly apart. Gearbox is full of emulsified oil. Same early Mk XI C villiers. Piston and rings look almost new. Tacky carbon residue, this must have run fairly recently.

 

[Robotstar5]

Just looked up the Mk 11C and Villiers started making them in 1928!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Just looked up the Mk 11C and Villiers started making them in 1928!

Yes that’s right, very interesting little engine. Production started on the scythes around 1935.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Two washed castings for the gearbox, and a rebuilt flywheel for the Villiers.

I had real trouble with the four screws that hold the flywheel together to the impeller, they had rusted through and bonded to the aluminium. It took a whole heap of work trying to drill them (hard when the drill wanted to bite the ally instead) and pressing them out. As luck would have it, a hardware store near me sells new Chinese made BSW machine screws and BSW lock nuts (no NC or NF stocked, weird). These went in beautifully and now the two parts are one, again.

The gearbox castings were very dirty inside and out, the oil had gone all hygroscopic and the outside had spray paint over ancient crusty grease. I degreased and water blasted til the water came off clear.

Lastly, as a favour to a mate, I picked up and stored a motorbike for him for about a month. When he picked it up, he gave me this beautiful little Kayes oil can. I love it, and it works nicely too.

 

[Dieselman 63]

@Robotstar5 you are a gem. I found a post of yours off google on the forum about how to build a puller for removing taper keys. Mine is very crude compared to yours - drilled out a template of the shaft and key (hole saw died almost instantly) so it was a million drills and a lot of chiseling and filing. Then I couldn’t find long screws so I made my own with high tensile thread bar and a nylock/nut combo nipped up. Rattle gunned the thing off. It was on really, really hard! Made it out of 12mm plate, the key was banging as I pulled it up, it would jump a few mm at a time!

 

[Robotstar5]

It doesn't matter how crude it is as long as it works keep an eye on market place for a Claas key extractor, it's worth having one in the armoury.

 

[Brad93]

It doesn't matter how crude it is as long as it works keep an eye on market place for a Claas key extractor, it's worth having one in the armoury.

Google doesn't bring much up, what is it?

 

[cheb]

Looks like the top one in the photo, and is about 250mm long:

More detail on how to use it here:

Gib Keys

 

[Robotstar5]

Google doesn't bring much up, what is it?

 

[Dieselman 63]

View attachment 452299

View attachment 452300

I reckon the clamp must be modified on the other side to accept a shaft, as whenever I’ve clamped onto a shaft it’s slipped off.

 

[Robotstar5]

I reckon the clamp must be modified on the other side to accept a shaft, as whenever I’ve clamped onto a shaft it’s slipped off.

Normal clamp, it only has to apply slight pressure to keep the extractor against the key so I hold it in place with one hand while hitting the extractor with a hammer, the extractor slides under it.