Vintage garden machinery. Auto Culto doing Cultivating!

[MrSpeedy]

So, if you endured my restoration thread on my old Atco mowing machine here; retrorides.proboards.com/thread/182462/1938ish-atco-motor-mower-silence then you will know that I also had an old Howard Bulldog rotavator.
However, after doing a little research I decided to sell it before the main worm drive broke!



This left me without a simple (and more fun) method of working over my vegetable plot.

So, after weeks of unsuccessfully searching for a reasonably local and sensibly priced 'Merry Tiller' I just missed out on an ebay sale of something interesting.

A quick message to the seller and a wait of a few days resulted in him offering me the deal as his buyer had dropped off the face of the earth.
Needless to say, I shot off at the earliest opportunity with cash in pocket to procure these beasts


We'll start with the biggest. A 1950s 'Landmaster'







I have most of the missing bits off the engine, and it'll get a full rebuild.
Truth be told, I'll probably sell this on as it's a bit big for my needs.

Next we have a 1950s Shay RotoGardener





A screaming 80cc 2 stroke, but unfortunately it's been left standing with no spark plug, so it currently doesn't turn over.
Again, it will get a full rebuild


Lastly, we have this Auto Culto by Allen and Simmons;





Coming complete with plough (which I'll never use);



And finger bar mower (which I'll alsoprobably never use);



But this is the one that I really fancy keeping. Again, it's way too big for my needs, but I just have a feeling about it!

[MrSpeedy]

Again, if you've seen my Atco thread, you'll have an idea of which way this is heading!

[georgeb]

I have no garden or need for garden machinery but loved the Atco thread, so bookmarked!

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

I saw a 'The Royal Court' garden roller dumped today at a scrapyard near where I work - quite a contraption, with a hefty counterweight sitting in the roller, and all cast-iron construction.

[MrSpeedy]

Waxoyling Lyrical you should save it. Things like that are disappearing, and you'll never mind a new one

Thanks georgeb This may be a little slower as the two bigger machines need a fair bit of work.
That said, work has begun

[MrSpeedy]

So, work has started. I forgot to take pictures of the first few jobs.
The MK15 Villiers had a stuck exhaust valve, and no amount of fiddling would release it so, off with its head.
Good job really, as the valve seat had all eroded away and needed recutting.

Anyway, the engine would occasionally get caught up and stop spinning. The flywheel magnets were all rusty so that had to come off.

Up on the bench and we could investigate the internals;





VERY rusty chains, so a good quantity of WD40 was prescribed;



And as can be seen here, the inside of the chaincase is full of everything except oil!;



The amount of curse word in here now dictates that it will have to be a full strip down and split the chaincase to clean it properly.

Unfortunately, whilst removing the magneto back plate, it broke a piece off due to a little over enthusiastic levering and a stuck bearing (I wasn't in the workshop at the time of this 'incident'!)
Anyway, a strip down of the back plate and some magic sparkles from the Tig welder and it's all back in one piece;

[winchman]

Your mad but its excellent breathing life in to all this old stuff. Just bought an old mower for my son to learn about engines

[turbom]

love a rotavator or two.
My grandad had a few years ago.
Have a flymo dm myself a merry tiller style rotavator.
keep the updates comming as book marked too.

[MrSpeedy]

Well, you 'lucky' people. It's time for an update! (Hopefully you won't nod off during it)


Next on the agenda, removing the cultivator attachment and giving it a good going through.
No shortage of grease. The quality of which is dubious though;







The old tines were well past being useful;



So a replacement set was made;

[MrSpeedy]

We wanted to replicate the original signwork;





So we (my Daughter and I) picked out the original so we could trace it as a master for signwriting;






Once that was saved, I could clean and paint the tinwork;

[MrSpeedy]

Inbetween drying intervals, attention has been turned to the main chaincase
Completely stripped, cleaned and treated with Bilt Hamber;



Previous tenants have now been evicted. A total of 7 mummified mice;



And the remnants of their home;



And now it has a coat of primer;

[MrSpeedy]

The drive wheels have ratcheting hubs to aid maneuvering. They also have locking pins, which act as a diff-lock for ploughing etc. Sadly one of these pins was missing.

No problem, Dad was mooching around the workshop so he made a new one;




Something else that is missing is the rear stone guard/dropdown flap thingy.
Having studied what illustrations and pictures can be found, I set about making a new one out of some 16swg Galv sheet we had kicking about.

First off, cut a pair of side plates;



Then cut a piece for the main flap. Rolled around at the top to fit around the hinge bar, and a safe edge folded on the trailing edge;





Run the sheet through the rolls to give it some shape and tack together;



Yeah, that looks good to me. Weldy weld and sandy sand. Slot cut for the depth skid and job jobbed;

[georgeb]

Damned fine work - as ever!

[MrSpeedy]

Just one pic today as I've mostly been out doing 'proper' work

First coat of colour on the main casing;




Not much chance of me losing it in the garden eh?! lol

As usual though, these light colours don't cover well, despite the light grey undercoat, so there'll be at least 1, if not 2 more coats yet to get a decent body to the paint.

[grizz]

Good job !!

I wonder if the mice were the result of rat poison, all ingested as a family.

[Stigian]

Some very good work going on there, a good job with the dropdown flap thingy.

[MrSpeedy]

Thanks for your comments guys!

So, it's been a little quiet at work this week, so more progress has been made.

Cultivator re attached;



Gearbox cleaned and refitted;



Engine mounting refitted and engine mounted;





Chainguards cleaned and polished;



New HT lead fitted (an old one from my Vitesse), engine timed up and tinwork fitted;



Very pleased as it now has a very healthy spark just by flicking the flywheel over by hand.

Just a few more little jobs now and she's almost ready. Waiting for a pair of wheels to arrive (that's another story)

You may have noticed an absence of fuel tank. Well, after cleaning it up there were a few holes found in the bottom. Sadly all too common on old equipment like this that stands. However, at a sale last weekend a good original one was found for the tremendous price of 2 quid! Just need to copy the signwork off that and it can be cleaned up and fitted.

[MK2VR6]

Can't wait to see this up and running!

[MrSpeedy]

Well, it's update time!

So, next on the agenda was fueling. The original tank was perforated with rust, so with new a tank acquired a fuel pipe was needed;








Now, earlier on I mentioned the wheels. Well, I found some nice cheap new tyres as the old ones were totally shot.
However, it transpired that bigger is not always better. Originally these machines were fitted with 3.00 x 8 tyres when used with the cultivator. The ones I bought are 4.00 x 8. And whilst I could get them on the machine they wouldn't clear the cultivator drive on the PTO.
So, as luck would have it, I found a pair of original wheels with useable 3.50 x 8 tyres. These were subsequently cleaned and painted before fitting;





Following on from that, something remarkable happened;

[MrSpeedy]

Now, whilst it is indeed running, it's not happy.

It sounds laboured, won't rev up and whiolst the blue flames out of the exhaust look cool, it's not right!

A quick strip down and clean of the carburettor revealled a load of crud, and the ignition timing was way off. I think the flywheel had slipped a bit (no keyway on these Villiers) so that was also reset.

All of which resulted in this;



Altogether a whole lot happier. Just need to fit a throttle cable and get the signwork finished off and we can put her to work!