Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[jinjahbiscuit]

My favourite is the subsection of stationary engine officionados that display trench compactors. Just stand there all day with it bouncing around

They're fun though! I once saw a guy stamp union jacks into the grass of his display area all day long.......

 

[Dieselman 63]

Got it off the jacks so that I could turn it around and put it back into the jacks starboard side isn’t turning as freely as port. Could do with a little Union Jack for this, maybe a tiger tail too

 

[Dieselman 63]

So an update. I got the tracks back on and left it for about a month as I had other things to do. I think this was early April when I took it out for a bash, flattening vegetation. It performed well but an oil leak was coming from what I think is the main seal, I suppose the rocker cover? At the front of the engine.

I decided to pull the cover, disassembly was straightforward except this lug in the centre, it’s just a straight pulley with a key, had to use a puller and a lot of force. It did come free eventually.

Then a guy in the UK sent me a 7/8w ring spanner, perfect for the idler nuts. This is a seriously big spanner! Britool too, my favourite.

 

[Dieselman 63]

So thinking there was no rush, I had the engine all wrapped up in material and the parts all stored under it. I gave the cap screws a bath in brake fluid to dissolve all the paint stuck in them. They were hard to remove when I pulled the engine cover, so I wanted them to go on a bit easier! BSF so hard to find new.

Of course there was a sudden rush, a tornado came through my town!

Aerial images show destruction caused by Levin tornado

Drone pics from the Horowhenua District Council show the trail of destruction left by Friday's weather event.

www.1news.co.nz

This somewhat motivated me to get to work. Three trees came down in my garden, one of them was quite big, I couldn’t access it properly with the chainsaw and knew it needed to be dragged out.

So, instead of hanging out with my girlfriend on Friday night I spent three hours in my cold workshop cutting and preparing a new cork gasket, cleaning bolts, reassembling the engine, diagnosing a clutch issue and then a subsequent throttle issue. All sorted, I gave it a test fire at 7pm, then went back inside.

 

[Dieselman 63]

First up, my lovely apple tree had fallen into another one. I would be sad to lose this tree, so I’m planning to try and save it with bracing. Firstly though I needed to right it. I dug the area up where the roots had been uplifted, then used the crawler to pull it back. This thing has immense power for its size, it’s quite incredible. Temporary brace is in, but I’ll make something more suitable in the near future.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Then I started dragging trees about, and the sled too. The sled makes working alone really easy, just load it up and off you go. Then I carve the lot up into manageable lengths and sizes for it to be fed into the chipper.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Things too large to chip get broken up with the chainsaw. Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic of the largest tree to fall, probably because I was too busy dealing with it! I had to drag it about five metres, the centrifugal clutch was smoking and the engine rhythm slower and heavier, but it moved it. Really cool.

The job is now done, three trees processed in two days, I’m happy with that. Couldn’t have done it without this thing.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Treated the old girl to a new bit of hose for the grand total of $15. Old one was well and truly toast. Norma clamps are just lovely bits of engineering!

 

[not done it yet]

Do you drive your chipper with the MG5?

 

[Dieselman 63]

Do you drive your chipper with the MG5?

No, the chipper has a little Honda engine which I must say is really reliable, starts first pull. It’s quite hard to stall it, too.

We didn’t have the MG when we got it otherwise I might have considered a PTO drive one, though it is handy to have it all as one unit. It’s a Hansa C7.

 

[Dieselman 63]

So today I did what I’ve been meaning to do since December, go and recover another tractor! I’m still not entirely sure why I’ve bought this, but it was (relatively) cheap and I got discs with it too which is great

This machine is definitely not complete, and will need a heap of work doing to it which is a bit of a shame. It’s an early one though, with pressed steel drive covers (later ones were iron) and it has a pto (optional extra) along with the implement lift, a feature missing from my other one.

Expect updates!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Back home. This… didn’t work. The new tractor is seized and the wheels were dragging on the lawn so I jacked it up and ratchet strapped the front wheels onto the sled, the trailing wheels spun freely so all was well. I can’t drive the tractor on the textured concrete so I used ply sheets, was a pain and they started skating under the tracks.

I decided to switch motive power and use the Peugeot. This got it further but then oh no! The fwd Pug got bogged in the very wet lawn. Great. Now we have a Peugeot that can’t go forward trapped behind a tractor that’s immobilised.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I decided if I could jack it up, get it off the sled and sit it on the concrete, I could get the engine crane on it and lift it in. But then a fantastic thing happened.

The drive wheels do not contact level ground, only the idler wheels. These were spinning freely so I rolled it down and shuffled all the cars around.

That was a great result, and finally the crawler is in the workshop.

Then I tried to use the running crawler to move the discs. Then I stopped. Hmm. A little too noticeable! I’ll move them on the sled some other time.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I’ve started stripping the track gear on the right side to inspect the drives. They’re dirty and had water ingress. I pinched the lift bar from the new one and put it on the other one which actually does run.

Then I popped the gearbox. To my delight it has been refurbished quite recently and it looked really good in there, also the brake bands look near new. Note the crown wheel, 6/49. This is an early MG5 with it’s pressed steel drive covers, later models had cast iron.

 

[Seadog]

The diff looks to be in amazing condition for the age of it.

 

[not done it yet]

The discs should be adjustable such that they tow without much cutting in (let alone trying to disc with them, as you seemed to be doing.

 

[Dieselman 63]

The diff looks to be in amazing condition for the age of it.

It’s been rebuilt, sealed, then sat for seven years after the man who did it sadly died. The last two years have been spent outside, which haven’t done it any favours. The central pin that the track gear sits on was all seized up. Fortunately this one has a nipple (the other one just has an oiling hole) so I forced heavy gear oil into it, which broke it free.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Found a couple of stowaways who must be very confused after travelling for seven hours on the back of a trailer, these east coast snails are now west coasters

 

[Dieselman 63]

The discs should be adjustable such that they tow without much cutting in (let alone trying to disc with them, as you seemed to be doing.

I think you’re right, but the problem is everything is quite badly seized. I’ve only just managed to get all the bearing boxes turning properly.

 

[Dieselman 63]

By comparison this is the diff from the other tractor