Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

Nice work as usual DM
Shame about the apprenticeship but do keep at it as you'll have a qualification for life once it's done! I wish my eldest boy would do something like this.

I’ve been on this path since I was 26, six years ago, which feels ages ago and I felt an old man then! I was one of the oldest people on my course of 30 but only one of six to graduate, which was a good feeling.

The industry feels as though it’s been gutted and they’re looking for more reliable, older people nowadays, gives us old ones a chance! It’s never too late.

 

[dobbslc]

Old ones

 

[Dieselman 63]

The cover has been washed with kero and wire wheeled, it’s in good condition.

I made a new gasket with the excellent Boehm kit. Then I fitted all the bits to the cover, ready to put it on.

Just the gear lever and snap ring, then I’m ready to box this back up.

 

[Dieselman 63]

The lid is on.

Had a bit of trouble as this is the lid from a different machine, the other one was cracked, so two bolts won’t fully line up. I’m going to get a carbide burr and open the hole out a bit, as all twelve others do.

I’m quite happy, now I need to look at putting some other equipment back on. Someone’s giving me a Howard Gem book which I’m going to enjoy reading.

Thoughts of putting a Derbyshire County Council purple decal on have been permeating my mind as I read these were used by councils, and the orange reminds me a lot of the old DCC land rovers and mowers I used to see when I was at school.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Frame next.

This will be some effort I think. I’ll have to get quite a bit sandblasted. I’m glad I have the book, as there are lots of levers here.

The petrol/oil tank is off, and a bit of a decal remains. You can buy new ones on the web, maybe if it works again I’ll treat it to a set.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Primer on, it’s getting down to -1°c overnight so that’ll be a beautiful curing temperature!

Then, onto snapping metal with this old thing. It really did not want to come apart, even heat hasn’t really helped, but I’m confident I can remake a lot of this. The book is really amazing for this sort of work.