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pepperami
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PostPosted: 10:40 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

mudcow007 wrote:
Just spoken to a bloke/ lawnwer repair place who have quoted to sharpen both blades £20 unpainted an £35 painted


as you more than likely know , cylinder blades need to be sharpened by back-lapping them.
Give them to someone who does it for a living to do .
£20 for them to do it right is a good price.
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MCN
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PostPosted: 10:46 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

mudcow007 wrote:
Just spoken to a bloke/ lawnwer repair place who have quoted to sharpen both blades £20 unpainted an £35 painted

for all the hassle, i reckon i will just give them to him, will try an get the old girl running tonight

My garden is tiny, 10m x 10m ish a petrol mower seems abit ott but meh


A crucial point in petrol mowers is re-fueling.
DO NOT FILL THE TANK ON THE FECKING GRASS.
Petrol + Grass + Sad

And after you cut the grass brush out the cuttings from the mower. Maybe even hose it out.
And apply WD40 or something similar to protect the 'Posh New Edges' from rusti-poo.

The blade will probably be mounted on a suspension system. Better makes are adjustable cheaper ones are tamper proof.
This is another area where there may be some attention needed or repairs/replacement parts. If dead old then spares are very difficult to find. This being the main reason auld mowers are junked.
But they can still give many years of service (and engineering pride in a Fred Dibnah sense.)

Edit: Cutting Frequency is most important. First cuts should not be too severe and just top the grass. Too deep and the grass will be stunted. (Really as 'grass' is a mix of many varieties, when you cut the longer you lose colour as the shorter ones have been dormant due to the lack of light longer grass hides short grass. Another deep subject.

Do a first cut 1"-1-1/2" then your subsequent cuts can be 3/4" until you get to the length you like. Too short will be susceptible to drying in summer unless watered and the cooncil's gross and incompetent mismanagement of public water will hose-ban your arse.
And longer grass can hide imperfections in the lawn soil surface.

Prepare to wage continual war on lawn weeds. Lawn weeds are specialised to hide below the blades the wee bastirts. Lawn Feed and Weed products work by boosting growth. This means non grass grows like fuk so you can cut it in it's prime. Grasses are not stimulated to grow as quickly as 'weeds' so the growth factor in the chemicals do not effect them.
Persistent weeds will need specialised attention either dig them out or chemical attack. Either way will leave a bare patch which you will have to re-sow.
Re-sow using a repair kit that contains corr (peat stuff) that holds water and makes patch repair a piece of piss.

Keep bitches off the lawn and they dump their bladders in one go and the piss will kill the grass. If you see it being down then pour a bucket of water over it to dilute the pish. Dogs store pish and dribble it out to mark their place. so not such a problem.
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andyscooter
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PostPosted: 16:05 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

MCN the Teflon mike of the lawn mower world Laughing
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MCN
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PostPosted: 17:29 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

andyscooter wrote:
MCN the Teflon mike of the lawn mower world Laughing


I'll take that insult as a personal slight and compliment in one Sir.

Smile

Edit: I saw the Tefers Effect take form as soon as I hit submit... Embarassed
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 19:57 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought it was a deliberate piss take post tbh, but realised that the lack of random capital letters and words, and no section about doing clutch on the Suffolk colt meant it could not be. Laughing
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 23:00 - 31 Mar 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Progressed with it tonight

New plug = healthy looking blue spark Thumbs Up

Stripped the fuel tap, it seems it doesnt stop the fuel flow even when shut Thumbs Down

Changed the oil, stuff that came out was literally black goo...

Foam in the airfilter as soon as I touched it, disintegrated into dust which was nice

need to figure out the throttle linkage, as when you pull the lever on the bars it moves a bar on the carb which looks like its doing bugger all

updates to follow
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 00:59 - 01 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

The bar on the carb should have several holes in it. There should be a linkage with a spring that goes into the fan shroud, and connects to the air vane governor. There will be another linkage rod that goes from the flap to the throttle spindle.

Tbh if you have a lever throttle on the bars, you can get away with no governor on a cylinder mower as there's less load on the engine when cutting grass due to the way it works.

If it's an auto clutch version, you can replace the lever with a twist grip, as it's rev and go anyway.

A working governor is essential on a rotary mower though, as it needs to be able to quickly react to different loads, and they run at about a fixed 3000rpm, to efficiently cut the grass.
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 08:46 - 01 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c81/mudcow007/20160331_195916_zps2rhvxbbm.jpg


Yeah I have the bar/ linkage thing on the carb which links to the vane. when you move the throttle it just doesnt seem to move much on the carb, i reckon the linkage is misaligned or something


Last edited by mudcow007 on 12:07 - 01 Apr 2016; edited 2 times in total
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 09:39 - 01 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

It looks like the spring might be damaged or weak that connects to the air vane pivot arm.

The throttle basically pre loads the spring and thus opens the throttle arm indirectly. The air vane flap is linked with that rod to the carb, and the give in the spring, is so that when the engine speeds up the fan air blows the air vane forward and slightly closes the throttle. If the engine slows too much the spring will pull the flap back as the air flow drops off, and thus opening the throttle. Its a very simple governor system, that reacts quickly to changing loads. The weak spring is the part that often bends or causes problems with it.


If your not bothered about keeping the governor, you can just make rod from an old bycicle spoke etc to link from the bar at the top of the carb to the throttle spindle. I did that when I used my Suffolk engine for a water pump.
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 12:07 - 01 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh something else i noticed the isnt quite right, there is a lever at the side of the cutters (red handle?) that turns it into self propelled or manual - i think) this lever doesnt move at all - im hoping its just full of crap an needs grease etc
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 12:22 - 01 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Id clean up the linkages with de-greaser, and oil all the pivot points etc. The spring at the top can be connected to one of the other holes in the bar to increase the pre-load on the governor. The throttle wont open all the way with the cable arm pulled back as the governor is there to set the engine speed when under load.

I think the Suffolk colt series had a fixed drive from the engine to the cutting blades, and the clutch is driven from the shaft driving the cutting reel. It'd be worth taking all the side covers off to see whats what really. I cant remember if they are belt or chain drive to the roller?

The Webb and Atco mowers have the clutch at the engine output shaft, so nothing moves until its engaged. But on the Atco or some of them there's a knob to disengage the self propelled drive to the rollers too. Stuff that though as its more fun to rig up a trolley and let the mower pull you along if its a big enough lawn. Laughing
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MCN
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PostPosted: 10:12 - 02 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's a handy mower tuning tool

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Hour-Meter-Tachometer-Small-Engine-Spark-For-Motorcycle-Boat-Bike-HOT-BL-/291269115157?hash=item43d0fdfd15

It is sort of important to get the RPMs at a correct speed or you will end up out of breath chasing the hoowur. Smile

Not such a problem on cylinder mowers though as you can tweak the speed to suit just by following the mower.
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 23:46 - 02 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheers MCN, just ordered one of them Thumbs Up

update



(scene from Frankenstein) It lives muhahahahah (evil laugh)

Put some fuel in the old girl tonight an it fired on the third go!

Fuel does indeed leak (really badly) from the fuel tap, so that will need resolving

Also the engine was really really racing, possibly due to carb settings? I only have the manual for the Suffolk Punch, hopefully the carb settings are the same for that as mine....?

Oh i think i have figured out the lever for self propelled etc, there is a bracket that was not allowing the lever to move, I slackened that off now i can select self propelled!

things I learnt today, its loud as funk an its scary the engine going basically flat out an seeing the blades spin Shocked
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 21:09 - 04 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

OP if you want to be bored out of your skull check out bbc4 now, as James May is re-building a Suffolk colt in all its hi tech glory! Laughing
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 10:30 - 05 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

dammit, i missed it, will catch up on Iplayer

cheers

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MCN
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PostPosted: 11:42 - 05 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevo as b4 wrote:
OP if you want to be bored out of your skull check out bbc4 now, as James May is re-building a Suffolk colt in all its hi tech glory! Laughing



Fap fap fap. Embarassed
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 14:55 - 12 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

bit of an update (should this be in projects?)

New exhaust delivered. The old one was a bit of pipe welded onto what was left of the original, no wonder is was loud as funk

New front wooden roller, getting turned at work as I type. Gone for oak as it weighs as much as a small battleship so a bit more weight wont hurt

New governor linkage/ plug/ airfilter and a rev counter

gonna see how it runs tonight
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Old Thread Alert!

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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 21:05 - 19 Apr 2017    Post subject: Reply with quote

update yo!

Sort of trying to get this thing running again.

had it running in the garden after stripping the carb an replacing the jets. on full chocker it scurried across the garden at a rate of knots

so...

just in the process of removing the cylinder to shot blast it in work, then get it an the bottom blade sharpened.

hoping to replace my Flymo which seems to low down to use...it knackers my back to use
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natefz6
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PostPosted: 09:50 - 20 Apr 2017    Post subject: Reply with quote

Needs more pictures Smile

Did you get the new roller and exhaust on before this years test flight?
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mudcow007
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PostPosted: 09:58 - 20 Apr 2017    Post subject: Reply with quote

I fitted the new exhaust last year, seems to work well.

https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c81/mudcow007/20160412_194954_zpsykcwnjrs.jpg

Removing the cylinder

https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c81/mudcow007/20170418_193416_0_zpsft0lbnox.jpg
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myvision
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PostPosted: 10:52 - 20 Apr 2017    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've an old suffolk punch i think it is that i need to sort out but never seem to find the time.
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The last post was made 6 years, 343 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful?
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