Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

Here I’m doing a ‘dry’ run of the lifting gear. The handle will be welded back onto the piece that for some reason was cut off. I have a suspicion it was cut because of alignment with the piece above it which requires a locking pin. I’m going to cut some of the bushing off so the weld doesn’t interfere with operation. It’s all gone quite well, though. Had to straighten a few bits in the vice. You can see how the PTO shaft would make fitting this piece impossible with the long handle.

 

[Dieselman 63]

About time some actual welding happened. My friend welded this up for me, I was very grateful. It’s now fitted and installed back on the tractor.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Then I re-fitted the PTO box and put a new gasket with some hylomar on. These nuts are really hard to get to. I filled it with ep140 up to when the drain plug started weeping. Then, time for the rear bearing.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Now the PTO is in and running. This is really good, as I took it out without knowing I was going to get the lift parts, but to install them you need to remove it. Happily both are working well.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Since things were going well I decided to replace the fibre washers on the final drives - 40¢ each from Wurth two for each side, plus one that went on the PTO box.

The oil seals on the drives work a bit unusually as they’re designed to weep, which pushes things out. A build-up of dirt like this should be expected, however it’s important to check the level from time to time.

There are two plugs, a drain plug and a level plug - when this starts to weep, you’ve filled to the correct level. If you over-fill, oil can seep into the brake boxes and foul the bands, which would cause slipping. As I was replacing the washers, I did an oil change. The manual recommends a Castrol EP140, which you can still buy 71 years later

 

[Dieselman 63]

Todays running session went really well - well, until I managed to wedge the tractor between a tree, fence and planter (dismantled the fence to free her!).

I heard some light squeaking/squealing from the track, so took it into the workshop for an investigation - up onto jack stands, track off… this is when things took a bit of a dive.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Back in a (remarkably tidy) workshop and I noticed the rear hub was leaking something black. I’ve recently received the manual and read through, it said under no circumstances should grease be used. This is bad as I’d been greasing the load bearing rollers (the two small ones at the bottom). These rollers have some interesting felt discs in, I’ll get a pic when I’m certain of how to rebuild them. They take an ep140 which is handy as I mistakenly ordered two cans a while ago.

Back to the back… and I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at when I popped the steel lid off. The usual ingress of dirt? Another knackered bearing? Two knackered bearings, and a totally blown apart oil seal that seems to have become so fatigued that it’s perished. Grease everywhere. The nipple was hidden under dirt, so hasn’t been done in at least the time I’ve owned it - the bearings are made by a company that went under in 1995! (Could have been new old stock, but this is sad to see). The other side will need doing, I’m sure. Four new bearings and four new seals needed. I wanted to have this in the a show in a month, I think this has killed that idea.

A) it’s cheaper (a LOT cheaper) to buy bearings from England than it is locally

B) I have no money after Xmas, and I need to save up for another 450km run for parts. I wanted to do that within the next month.

 

[Dieselman 63]

All is not well here. These idler wheels are not meant to have bearings, but bronze bushings. The bearings in at the moment are metric, sleeved to fit. They came out really, really easily, not the best sign. I’m thinking of re-making bronze bushes, I suspect they may be oilite though.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Tractor aside, I’ve also got the toolbar project to contend with. I picked up these very old wheel hub assemblies the other week, well - I now know them to be, thanks to forum help. I’m going to use them on the toolbar, as shown in the illustration. Need to find some tyres for them but first they’re off to be sandblasted. I’ve turned a sacrificial wooden plug (European beech rounds I had left over from a larger turning job) to protect the bearing surface.

Speaking of bearings, a before and after of the Pollard needle roller bearings. They’re a bit worse for wear but come up good! Good enough for the guide wheel on a piece of horticultural equipment, anyhow.

Thanks for the sad reacts, ‘tis a bit of a let down chaps! Still, wouldn’t be as fun if it was brand new

 

[Dieselman 63]

For fun I decided to paint the brake lever blue. Yes, 10pm in-situ spray can special. I really like all the different blues and reds on the machine. It’s rough and ready, clean paint is indicative of something new added.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Moving on.

Weight carrying rollers - two each side, fitted with nipples and a decal I’ve seen said ‘lubricate often’ so I’ve been feeding them a squirt of grease now and then. Big mistake!

They’re meant to take EP140 oil, so it’s out with the screwdriver to pop open the pressed steel rim, take out the felt, clean everything (I used petrol) then reassemble and oil properly. The correct amount of oil is until it oozes out the other side, so a fair amount. Only three more to go!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Then the wheels from the other day have been blasted by a guy I know. It was going to be just a Christmas goodwill gesture however he’s bought a little lathe and the plate was all fouled up and unreadable, so I offered to restore it - he knows and appreciates my work, which is nice!

 

[mylesdw]

Wow! the plate looks brilliant. How would you go about restoring a lathe tailstock where the scale has worn away?

 

[Dieselman 63]

Wow! the plate looks brilliant. How would you go about restoring a lathe tailstock where the scale has worn away?

Thank you!

Honestly I’d have no clue. @Pete. didn't you re-engrave increments to something, or am I thinking of someone else?

I saw this on the Myford page on Facebook, the holder is 3D printed.

 

[Pete.]

Thank you!

Honestly I’d have no clue. @Pete. didn't you re-engrave increments to something, or am I thinking of someone else?

I saw this on the Myford page on Facebook, the holder is 3D printed.

View attachment 325967 View attachment 325968

Yeah easy to do on a lathe tailstock. Just mount a pointy cutter in the tool post, wind the tailstock out whatever increments you decide and use the cross slide to make the marks.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Wheels are back, and paint is on!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Checked the left rear idler and the oil seal was intact, so that was great a lot of grass all wrapped around under the cap, as well as the usual oil and grease, that got cleaned out. Then I cleaned the bolts - these were caked in hard grease, scraped off, wire wheeled, good to go. De-greased the rest of the hub just to keep things tidy. You can flip these to make a medium or wide track variant, but you need spacers. As always, a fun machine to work on, it’s just like giant meccano.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Wheels are coming up good. Found some 2BA screws in the workshop, ideal for the hubs. Props to the old folk who stop this old gear ending up in the scrapyard. Old and silently rusting away, clean it up and it’s ready to go back to work.

 

[Dieselman 63]

More parts from the blaster’s, these are 4x tine holders and 1x wheel adjustment screw holder. I need a heap more of those V plate things, too.

 

[prepman]

Pulls things

Ah....shame if you want push things. Do they do a different version?