Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Equipment Shed => Topic started by: rossco on September 21, 2010, 11:34
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Hi all, I managed to win this on eBay the other day and am going to pick it up tomorrow night!
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b128/rossco_99/_1284970126276.jpg?t=1285065061)
It looks pretty good to me and apparently the sellers father has just finished doing it up and it is in excellent working order.
Just out of interest how much do people think I should have paid for it?!
Also, I normally see rotovators with a clutch lever on the left handle. This only appears to have a throttle cable and adjustment on the right handle. Is this a particuarly old model with a different way of engaging the drive?
The serial number is M1 / 16468 and I've been told that the last 2 digits represent the year (1968?).
Thanks
Ross
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Any ideas guys?
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Hi,
Looks like it has been completely re-conditioned. Can't really offer any advice other than I purchased a Mountfield M1 last week after losing out on loads of machines. There is a picture on the post about a Mountfield M1 Tecumseh Aspera engine of the engine. It is very old, probably antique rather than classic, runs fine and I paid £75 for it. Gave it a service thanks to Gwiz's advice and hopefully she will run for another 40 years.
Mine only has a throttle with choke on the right handlebar.
Honeymonster
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Sorry, you push the handle in the middle down to engage and turn the tines. The belt is hidden in the red housing at the front. Not sure what the engine is, mine has a 3.5hp Briggs and Stratton.
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Hi Rossco,
It really does look like new :)
As for how much? I've no idea. Some things can sell for a lot of money on ebay, and rotovators fall into the "can fetch silly money" category.
Go on, spill the beans, what did you pay? ;)
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Hi Rossco,
It really does look like new :)
As for how much? I've no idea. Some things can sell for a lot of money on ebay, and rotovators fall into the "can fetch silly money" category.
Go on, spill the beans, what did you pay? ;)
I paid the princely sum of £82! Which I thought was excellent.
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Do not forget to change the slashers over they are mounted backwards ::)
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Oh yes, so they are! Just need to swap one side for the other I presume!
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Without been a doom and gloom merchant, sometimes I consider a “nice paint job” as a cover up for really mechanical issues.
I would rather have an honest looking unit, that shows what it is rather than a “fur coat and no Knickers” type.
The fact that the simple error of rotors on the wrong way might raise alarm bells???
But apart from that looks a nice machine and not too much paid.
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Without been a doom and gloom merchant, sometimes I consider a “nice paint job” as a cover up for really mechanical issues.
I would rather have an honest looking unit, that shows what it is rather than a “fur coat and no Knickers” type.
The fact that the simple error of rotors on the wrong way might raise alarm bells???
But apart from that looks a nice machine and not too much paid.
I agree - but it's cash on collection and I've asked him to start it for me and give it a once over so if it doesn't look any good I'll leave it :D
Also, it has been advertised as in excellent running order so I would hope that it should be pretty good. I'll find out later!
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So, before I go off later and pick up this thing, what should I look out for when he fires it up?
Are there any tell tale signs of things not quite right that I can look out for?
Thanks
Ross
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realy just like you would do for a car.
Make use he has not pre-warmed it, you need to see it started from cold.
Does it have all the fluid where it should, and right colour (and smell) and nothing leaking (to much)
Get it digging, and I mean some un-dug stuff.
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Similar to mine - I've posted elsewhere about it but basically I was fortunate enough to get mine free on Freecycle. Mine had been 95% mechanically refurbed & after 15 mins of tinkering with the carb I've got it running. From the info I have, I believe you're right about the serial number dating it to '68. Mine is '65, and a 6HP Tacumseh Aspero engine. I think yours may also be an Aspero, as I've heard these are identifiable by the white plastic fuel tank, although I could be wrong. Basically, as you'll find elsewhere on here, that's nothing to crow about as the Aspero's tend to put the con rod out through the crankcase as soon as look at them, but, if it's survived 42 years without doing so then hopefully it'll last a while longer - but just make sure you keep the oil topped up at all times. Pricewise, probably about right. Mountfields are basically good machines, but older ones will never fetch as much as the hugely popular Merry Tiller with it's first class parts availability. Good luck with it ;)
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Well, I have picked her up and she seems a goodun'!
You are right, it has the Tacumseh engine. But the whole machine looks like it has had very very little use. When I got there it was stone cold and I had to wait for the father of the seller (who had done it up) to come around. A pump on the primer and 2 pulls and she was away, not a puff of smoke or anything! The oils are topped up, couldn't see anything leaking. The belts look good too.
I asked the story behind it and it belonged to the grandfather of his son-in-law who had recently died. They were clearing his shed out and came across it - covered with a sheet in the back corner. Said that no spares were required and that he literally stripped it, cleaned it up and painted it, then put it back together. I pointed out that the tines were the wrong way round and he didn't know there was a right way! basically he's a retired guy who likes little projects to work on.
I think for £80 it should be OK, I'll just keep my eye on those oils! Just for future reference it has the following oils marked on the side to use:
ENGINE - CASTROLITE
GEARBOX - CASTROL HI PRESS
Any idea what the modern equivalents are or if you can still get them?
Thanks,
Rossco
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I'm going to take the old girl for a workout today, I'll let you know how she performs!
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Good luck with it! :)
I've done a little searching around regarding your query about the oils.
The engine will run fine on a standard SAE30 lawn mower oil but the gear oil (EP140) isn't readily available from motor factors (well, not around here) You can buy Castrol Hi Press though, I've just seen it on Ebay £9.99 a litre plus postage. With any luck, you might find a motor factor near you that'll sell it a bit cheaper. EP80/90 will be too thin, and is more likely to find its way out of the gear casings.
At work, we often use a little "liquid grease" in the older kit as well as the correct EP grade oil, just to make sure ;)
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My son & I have taken our 'freebie' M1 out for it's first workout this weekend and it worked like a Trojan! We had struggled in our first year to get our two plots under control - we'd hand dug about 2/3 of one of them, almost killing ourselves in the process - had plenty of produce off of it, but the remaining plot & a third just reverted to jungle. Digging was so hard with it being clay just below the surface, and it being either waterlogged, or baked hard.
Anyway, we started last week with a petrol strimmer and cut everything down on the uncultivated plot. And then we tried the M1. At first, with two sets of times, we found it difficult to break the surface as the long grass was just balling up around the times. So we strimmed the grass even shorter & gave it another go. It worked a treat - the machine coped with everything we threw at it, and didn't even struggle with a length of buried carpet it found - though we quickly turned it off and wrestled the remaining length out of the ground ourselves!
We tried it with just one set of times, thinking the reduced weight distribution would help it run deeper, but that made it harder work to operate as it reduced the forward drive motion, so we put the second set back on.
Definitely the best Freecycle find ever - I'll post some pics next time :D
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Well it wasn't too bad although it definately wasn't running 100%.
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b128/rossco_99/617aaa10.jpg)
I think I may need to strip the carb down and give them a good clean. It seemed to only want to run when it was on full throttle, barely off of choke. Also seemed to hunt a little.
Does anyone have any tips on this carb (I've never stripped a carb) or should I just take it to bits?!
Help!!
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Good luck with it! :)
I've done a little searching around regarding your query about the oils.
The engine will run fine on a standard SAE30 lawn mower oil but the gear oil (EP140) isn't readily available from motor factors (well, not around here) You can buy Castrol Hi Press though, I've just seen it on Ebay £9.99 a litre plus postage. With any luck, you might find a motor factor near you that'll sell it a bit cheaper. EP80/90 will be too thin, and is more likely to find its way out of the gear casings.
At work, we often use a little "liquid grease" in the older kit as well as the correct EP grade oil, just to make sure ;)
Thanks Gwiz! I'll try and find some :)
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Well it wasn't too bad although it definately wasn't running 100%.
I think I may need to strip the carb down and give them a good clean. It seemed to only want to run when it was on full throttle, barely off of choke. Also seemed to hunt a little.
Does anyone have any tips on this carb (I've never stripped a carb) or should I just take it to bits?!
Help!!
It's just a float carb, you might find there's a bit of muck or moisture in the bottom of the float bowl or partially blocking the jet. Carefully undo the nut on the bottom & withdraw the bowl, taking care not to damage either the float or the rubber gasket. The float is a doughnut shape pivoted on one side, so it will drop down on it's hinge as you take the bowl off. Just clean out the bowl and blow out the jet & make sure you can see through the hole, before carefully reassembling. Make sure the float is not snagged as you put the bowl back on, and don't overtight the nut & squeeze the gasket out.
The other thing to watch for is you've got no air bubbles in the fuel line - make sure you've a reasonable depth of fuel in the tank, and, if you've got a primer button (on later carbs) give it plenty of good hard presses to work any bubbles out.
I also find mine will only really run on full throttle, and even then you need it to warm up for a minute before you go into action, or it'll probably stall, but once up to speed, there's no stopping it :)
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Excellent tip - thanks! Here is a pic of the carb:
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b128/rossco_99/P1040077.jpg)
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If someone could tell me what the two screws are for that would be great.
I presume one is mixture, is the other idle speed?
Whatever they are, how do I set them optimally?
Thanks in advance,
Rossco
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Whatever they are, how do I set them optimally?
The MK1 ear is the best tool for setting up engines like this. i.e just turn untill it sounds right.
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Well after fiddling around for ages with the carb I couldn't really get it running that well so took it to my local garden machinery mechanic. I have just spoken to him and they have found a different carb and an old fuel tank (the original was leaking) for it and apparently she is running sweet as a nut now!
Looking forward to picking her up on Saturday :)
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Best of luck with it, let us know how it goes. Unfortunately ours died. The tie bar that holds the whole thing together sheared off inside the worm gear casing and so far all efforts to retrieve the remaining part have failed (steel bar in ally casing - 'welds' itself in by electrolytic action. Bad news, I'm afraid :( ). Scoured Fleabay for a non-runner for spares, but it seems this is a frequent cause of the sad demise of Mountfield M1's - most of those for 'spares or repair' have suffered the same fate.
Hopefully yours - and the Tecumseh engine - will buck the trend ;)
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I sure hope so!
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21+ years ago we used to run a yellow M1 Popular as part of a small hire fleet. It was a very useful machine due to its abilities in tilling and handles that could turn and fold down for transport.
Its central stud pulled out and I seem to think as the stud was out and the casting thread was ended that we had, I think, 2 horizontal holes drilled through steel box section and through the casting to then use bolts and nuts as securing. I can't remember much about this but we must have similar done with the back casting.?? However, drilling with stud remains in place would not be nice...... :( Think very carefully before attempting anything like this..in case my memory is playing tricks :blush: and in case the stud can be removed and a helicoil fitted along with new stud...well worth it to return a fine machine to use. :)
I hope I haven't just dreamt this :ohmy: :unsure: :blush: ...it was long time ago ;)
I seem to think that the central stud was originally screwed in then drilled and roll pinned...again might have dreamt this.!!..or was the pinning a previous repair attempt by another.?
Eventually when the drive box failed a new old stock one was found and that saw a return to long stud securing...all then ok and it saw the engine out...another engine was found and it was sold off.
Replacement then was a Merry Tiller Cadet...very nice...and with fold down handles. :)
"Dori"
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21+ years ago we used to run a yellow M1 Popular as part of a small hire fleet. It was a very useful machine due to its abilities in tilling and handles that could turn and fold down for transport.
Its central stud pulled out and I seem to think as the stud was out and the casting thread was ended that we had, I think, 2 horizontal holes drilled through steel box section and through the casting to then use bolts and nuts as securing. I can't remember much about this but we must have similar done with the back casting.?? However, drilling with stud remains in place would not be nice...... :( Think very carefully before attempting anything like this..in case my memory is playing tricks :blush: and in case the stud can be removed and a helicoil fitted along with new stud...well worth it to return a fine machine to use. :)
I hope I haven't just dreamt this :ohmy: :unsure: :blush: ...it was long time ago ;)
I seem to think that the central stud was originally screwed in then drilled and roll pinned...again might have dreamt this.!!..or was the pinning a previous repair attempt by another.?
Eventually when the drive box failed a new old stock one was found and that saw a return to long stud securing...all then ok and it saw the engine out...another engine was found and it was sold off.
Replacement then was a Merry Tiller Cadet...very nice...and with fold down handles. :)
"Dori"
The stud is indeed drilled and roll pinned - we removed the roll pin & soaked the sheared off stud within the casing for several days with releasing fluid, the remaining piece of stud was then drilled through it's centre & a bolt remover (left handed thread) screwed into it to try & turn it out but to no avail. I guess the only course of action may now be to align the casing on a pillar drill and drill it out to the diameter of the stud, or slightly larger & then tap it & fabricate a new tie bar to fit - but I would need to find a friendly local engineering firm to do this for me as it's a bit beyond my capability now :blush:
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I have in the past removed broken steel studs from ali castings by sharpening a drill bit to drill anti clockwise,then by drilling into the stud very slowly(drilling in reverse), with luck the stud will turn out.
I was taught in my youth that the 3 P's are required with broken studs,patience,plusgas and propane.