Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

Opening up the rollers. It’s annoying, there’s obvious signs of machining in here, no felts, new oil seals that have rotted away in the mud, and water and grease. Another nightmare to tidy!

Anyway for those interested… the dust caps need popping off, this involves a bit of work prying with the screwdriver. Then I use a brass tube to knock the top hats and seals out of the housing. And that’s that. Ready for cleaning!

 

[Dieselman 63]

What grade are they?

Agricultural grade

 

[Dieselman 63]

Time to thread on a nut to 116 bolts then put them in the vice, cut, and done. Where’s the guy that volunteered to do it with a hacksaw? Grinder much easier

 

[not done it yet]

Held in lathe jaws with head against the rear of the jaws and cut to a stop. Consistent without measuring, after the first setting. Neater finish, too.

But you got the job done and it works, so no worry.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Yeah, I get the mentality of a neater finish but… the track bolts spend most of their life in mud and are rarely taken apart (if ever). Swiss machining this is not

God this is taking forever. No room to get anything but spanners in and it’s a quarter turn a time due to the size of the opening. Twenty two links to go!

 

[not done it yet]

No space for a slim ratchet spanner?

 

[pint]

feed a ratchet extension through the opposite hole ?

 

[DuncanCallum]

They nylocks too?

 

[Dieselman 63]

They nylocks too?

They are nylock. No room in the links, the walls of the sockets will hit. Spanners all the way!

 

[DuncanCallum]

Minging mate....

 

[Dieselman 63]

Minging mate....

What?

 

[DuncanCallum]

As in a horrible job winding all those nylocs up

 

[Dieselman 63]

feed a ratchet extension through the opposite hole ?

Good idea. Skinny Koken Z drive just fits through.

Still a ‘see you next Tuesday’ of a job to feed all the bits through.

One more link added!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Currently at ten links. I began questioning the meaning of life so I went to find other jobs.

Actually I couldn’t go more than ten links because I ran out of track washers. The holes need enlarging from 12mm to 12.5mm. It’s another hyper-boring job that just seems endless!

Then over to the engine from crawler 2 currently installed on crawler 1. A rather severe oil leak developed from this opening whilst running, so I took it off and found another gasket delaminated. This was removed and the hard gasket material scraped off. The block was washed with petrol, so it looks worse than it actually was. New gasket coming tomorrow, plus a potential oil change too! Bought another 5gal tin of Castrol GP50. Wish Morris still did a tin instead of the plastic bottle.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Hole sealed. Then after enough faffing around, the side brace is on and all the nuts put back on and tightened. One roller yet to fit… track laid over the top for a look at what it ‘might’ be like hopefully soon.

 

[not done it yet]

Unless cheap, I would make my own gasket for a simple application such as a cover gasket. Ball pein hammer with suitable gasket material or perhaps a hole punch on a cork sheet (for the holes).

 

[Dieselman 63]

Unless cheap, I would make my own gasket for a simple application such as a cover gasket. Ball pein hammer with suitable gasket material or perhaps a hole punch on a cork sheet (for the holes).

This is made by me. Drawn, cut, punched. This tractor is 73 years old.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Super Crawler, master and slave, coming soon!

 

[minimutly]

Now you can have a race! Or a tug of war.....

 

[Dieselman 63]

Now you can have a race! Or a tug of war.....

Want to get married and put my fiancé on the other one garden wedding, race to the aisle… whether they get left ticking over hasn’t been advised yet!