What have I been up to.

Yep, I've been quiet on the posting side of things trying to get projects finished or close to it before Dee n I hit the road again for a few or more months. In no particular order I have made a wire mesh cooler for the top of the water tank on the 3hp Buzacott, fitted a water pump, made a pulley for said water pump n cut n joined the belt to drive it. I have not yet connected the hoses in or out as yet.
Next I started another mower project if you want to call it that, the Allen Oxford Scythe. All painted n running lovely.
then the mother of all challenges, a Villiers Master-Torque mower with a seized engine. Many told me it cant be fixed, i really hate disappointing peoples views so ive got the engine now sorted. I have never seen ball bearing races badly rusted with pitting n frozen rock hard. They are special size bearings too just to be different. 52x9x20 and 52x10x25. Online prices were just under $200 each. Scarey stuff but local bearing shop shopped around n got them for $40 each, still dear but i had a challenge to settle. It had electrical issues but had another Villiers 7F engine for spares so i raided it. Engine is unusual in fact its throttle control n not auto throttle. Yet to finalise how it works but have a theory.  I started on the base last week n decided to cut 30mm off all round n weld new 30mm strip on. That went well but did find a small cràck around one engine mount holes. So drilled a hole each end, veed out the crack top n bottom n welded it up. Then a mate brought 2 go karts around. One had a Victa 125cc engine lacking compression so a set of rings, hone, 2 new seals on the crank n new gaskets, bingo  its a goer. The other piece of crap had a B&S 3hp on it. 1st issue carby. It was a pulse-jet carby. They are a long carby that sits on the fuel tank. So badly blocked n impossible get clean without breaking the plastic pick up tubes. Diaphragm was also stuffed. Mate had a spare carby which turned out to be good. Diaphragm looked suss but worked. Spark was an issue on this one too. Removed the coil, cleaned up the 3 poles n magnet. Coil tested good so set a 0.010" air gap. Good spark but no start without a sniff of either. Once it fired i could stop it n start up no issues. Got it running nicely but no cold start. Turned out to be a bit too lean by about an 1/8 of a turn. This one had a centrifical clutch so I had to try it out. Bugga me it flies.
so hopefully will be back on the Villiers from tomorrow finished before we hit the road.

Nice work Cobba.
The B&S carby diaphragms and parts are readily available on ebay if needed.

Love it when someone says it can't be done.
I bought some second hand raised rear leaf springs for my four wheel drive and Old Mate said you can't get the standard front bushes (they have a steel outer) out of the springs, you have to buy new Nolathane bushes. I don't like the hard nylon bushes as they wear out the spring material and only run rubber bushes. By inserting a thin wedge in the spring eye the bushes do come out and go back in just fine. I learned this trick removing and fitting shackle bushes on trucks.

 

Cobbadog,
I don't know which amazes me the most, your ability to fix things or your boundless energy in finding more things to fix. 
 

Morris it just keeps me out of trouble n busy. I like having to   think about how to fix whats in front of me if I can. Somehow when thstuck i think Pa send s me some clues or good old Google search helps out.
Both go karts went back to the owner today and the B&S starts like new even though it is about 40 years old and a little bit tired. Would not hurt to have a hone with a set of rings and the valves touched up but that requires a special tool for the valves and a lot more motivation on my behalf as I dont like B&S stuff. 

Lotta years ago I fixed a busted Villiers go kart for Palms kids ......first run he got it jammed in underneath his grandfathers new Mercedes.............so he brought it in to the tractor yard ,and we used to derby around the dirt yard doing broadsides ............the woman at the service station next door reckoned we were mad ........she also reckoned we never did much work ....which was true..........also had a Honda monkey bike I fixed that the kids wernt allowed to ride .....so that was raced around the tractor yard too.

Great work Cobba, as you know small engines aren't my forte, not even close to been anygood at them, except Chondas as they just keep going and seem relatively easy to fix

Paul

This base has given me grief with the paint. It
wanted a bright yellow to Ho with the gloss red but found after 3 coats it was not covering. Gave it 3 days out in the sun then sliced it back using 400 wet n dry then after another 2 coats it finally had covered so I put one more coat on. Then a fly committed suicide on my pin  bastard. 

Also painted the height adjustment n made new axles

cobbadog wrote:

This base has given me grief with the paint. It
wanted a bright yellow to Ho with the gloss red but found after 3 coats it was not covering. 

Cobba, not sure what colour you were trying to cover, but if it was red, a trick is to paint/spray it with silver first to stop the red bleeding through.
Just something from the memory bank.
Steve.
 

Hi Steve,
Initially it was bare metal and this paint says no primer required but this yellow would not cover. So i spray a Dulux metal primer, light grey, over the base then sprayed 3 coats of yellow over that. But could still see through it. So let the paint really dry then rubbed it back and the fianl coat was #6 which finally covered and looked right.