My Week this Week, My workshop videos

[hermetic]

Hi All, We complete the MOT work on the Volvo, only to find we can't get a test booked till next Wednesday! No matter, we have plenty of field work to complete so it is on to clearing out around the new fence in the Field and a couple od days of "Osswork" It nearly kills us, but we just survive! It has made a huge inprovement, and I can report that Saturday morning I am feeling better than I have felt since before getting covid in November. Even though the work is very hard, even the icy blast from the north on friday, complete with sleety rain Couldn't stop us!
Phil, sun wind and sleet in East Yorkshire

 

[hermetic]

Hi All, The Volve passed its MOT! so keith is back on wheels again! So tis back to the fencing, and a day in the workshop doing a few jobs on the tractor, and mending a pillar drill spindle for the FIL! Bitterly cold north wind blowing, and snow forecast for next tuesday! I may stay in bed!
Phil, the north wind doth blow and we shall have snow in East Yorkshire!

 

[hermetic]

Sorry folks, no video this week, went to the workshop monday had a good tidy up and did a few little jobs, reached for the camera only to realise that the case was empty and the camera was back in Driffield on my desk! then the weather turned and was very cold and snowy and Langtoft was suddenly very far away!! Back with a vengance next week!
Phil

 

[hermetic]

Hi All, We take advantage of the gradually warming weather to finish the fencing on the dog run, and then clear out the rest of the bank top in prepeation for the new fence up the side of the field to the house. Wednesday I am back in the workshop, and thursday its another mixed bag of Antique repairs and appliances on friday!
Phil, It could be spring in East Yorkshire!

 

[hermetic]

I started the week with a couple of days of small repairs in the workshop, then went up to the field, and continued with our big clearance in readiness for the new fencing. Fixed a hydraulic leak on the tractor tip pipe. I also ordered the PTO clutch for the tractor, and on sunday, went to Catwick to buy a very reasonably priced machine lamp which is the exact one for the Harrison milling machine, but more of that next week!
Phil in windy, rainy but definitely springlike East Yorkshire

 

[nononick]

Hi All, The Volve passed its MOT! so keith is back on wheels again! So tis back to the fencing, and a day in the workshop doing a few jobs on the tractor, and mending a pillar drill spindle for the FIL! Bitterly cold north wind blowing, and snow forecast for next tuesday! I may stay in bed!
Phil, the north wind doth blow and we shall have snow in East Yorkshire!

Hi,
Just a long shot, and I realise there are probably lots of Whitleys in Yorkshire, but might you be related to Joseph Whitley who had an engineering company in the Leeds area, and with his son Jack worked for many years in the 1880s & 90s with a Frenchman Louis Le Prince (who married Joseph's daughter), trying to develop a motion picture camera and projector? I have been reading the book by Paul Fischer, "The man who invented Motion Pictures, A True Tale of Obsession, Murder and the Movies". In my working days I was a documentary cameraman.
Nick

 

[hermetic]

Hi,
Just a long shot, and I realise there are probably lots of Whitleys in Yorkshire, but might you be related to Joseph Whitley who had an engineering company in the Leeds area, and with his son Jack worked for many years in the 1880s & 90s with a Frenchman Louis Le Prince (who married Joseph's daughter), trying to develop a motion picture camera and projector? I have been reading the book by Paul Fischer, "The man who invented Motion Pictures, A True Tale of Obsession, Murder and the Movies". In my working days I was a documentary cameraman.
Nick

I am in fact that person! My grandfathers uncle or great uncle I believe, Joseph was a brassfounder! I can remember my grandfather telling me all about it, and remember my dad taking him up to Roundhay Park to see the last relative surviving in the fifties

 

[hermetic]

Hi All, A short week again due to the recurring Covid symptoms that many people seem to be suffering from! Monday I started the rewire of the British Legion Hall which is about to become my brothers workshop, Then a blur of headaches, stiff necks etc followed by a very productive friday whence I fitted the over run clutch to the fordson, and stripped and painted my new machine lamp for the Harrison millimg machine. In all we are moving forward, unlike the weather which has regressed to wet and cold! All we need is a couple of good drying days and we will be grass cutting!
Phil, It is wet and cold in East Yorkshire!

 

[Steamchick]

Phil,
When is it not cold and wet in Yorkshire? I am in Sunderland - due to it's location the North East coast and Humberside is ALWAYS COLD! but fortunately not as wet as the Yorkshire Dales, Moors, etc. Just wear 2 T-shirts like Geordies? - And Brylcream keeps the rain off the bonce?
Love the Family History by the way...
K2

 

[hermetic]

Hi Steamchick! The problem is we were spoiled, 2 weeks ago we were fencing around our field in T shirts and bright warm sunshine, It is not so much always like that, as it has gone BACK to being like that, we were really convinced that spring had come! Better today (Sunday) with clearer skies and bright, but still cold. although you are absolutely right about the East Coast copping all the weather from Russia and Scandinavia! Roll on climate change!!
Phil

 

[vk7krj]

Roll on climate change!!
Phil

I made my own climate change almost 50 years ago Phil- a nice kind school teacher, late for work, knocked me off my motorbike. The compo. from that enabled me to leave Sheffield for sunnier climes in '73, and have not regretted it for a millisecond!
It took a while to get used to the wall-to-wall blue skies on the mainland- then we moved to Tasmania, which is in the roaring forties, and I had to relearn the art of taking a coat with me whenever I go out.
We have a saying in Hobart- if you don't like the weather now, come back in 20 minutes...
That's down to having a 4000ft mountain just over the other side of the river. On the mountain it can go from brilliant warm sunshine to life-threatening blizzard in a mere 20 minutes- makes running on the mountain "interesting" at times.

 

[Steamchick]

"What I did Yesterday..". well bad days happen, but nothing major, just a bit more work than planned. Been there? - Happens all the time to me... Must be the Climate Change or Age or something else we have to "suffer".
So to the merry tale...
A year ago I checked the brake fluid - with my new fangled moisture tester for brake fluid, cost £3 and uses 1 battery - then you don't use it for a couple of years and the battery has leaked and destroyed the tool...
But it said the car was "2-yellows" = Change it in a year, and the Moto Guzzi brake fluid showed a RED LED illuminated - so "Wet" and needs changing. "Wet" relates to a boiling point of maybe 200C to 230 deg. C., instead of the 330C to 350C of "NEW" fluid - caused by the brake fluid dissolving moisture from the atmosphere over time (we have a lot of moisture in the British atmosphere!). That doesn't mean "You will die", but as I could one day be doing the speed limit on a motorway, during a heat wave, and need to do an emergency stop with a single brake, after the traffic has forced a couple of hard stops in close sucession, then perhaps the fluid could reach boiling point and the brakes suddenly fade, with serios consequences...
For those of you with new cars, the service interval is "CHANGE FLUID EVERY 3 YEARS", and for the rest with older transport it is "CHANGE FLUID EVERY 3 YEARS"... or suffer rust and seized pistons as a result, like me!
So the new fluid was purchased and winter set in, and a 1000 other jobs, and yesterday it was time to change the fluid.
I drained the old fluid, checked the brakes, found one piston seized (RUST FROM "WET" BRAKE FLUID!! - I have learned my lesson), and re-filled the brake lines with new fluid. But there is a quirk... The 1 hour job (bad planning!) took 6 hours. The seized piston needed the re-filled system to be used to break it free, hydraulically, and it needs a new piston and seals (the aforementioned rust). The "Easy-Bleed" kit didn't do anything, as I do not have a correct adapter, and the one I made leaked..., The system doesn't drain with vacuum pump applied to the bleed nipples - as the bleed nipple simply draws air not fluid when cracked open to bleed the system, I can't reach the bleed nipple spanner on one caliper while pumping the brake pedal with another hand, it was like playing Twister with a couple of contortionists! etc. etc.
And when full of air, the master cylinders (2) that are remote from the reservoir, take ages to pump the air out through bleed nipples and draw-in the fresh fluid.
Finally, the Service manual says... "bleed the brakes, check they work enough to use the bike carefully, then after a few rides, bleed them again - until FULL braking performance is achieved".... So after bleeding twice, and no apparent air in both circuits, I now have VERY spongey brakes that need more bleeding... to try and get the elusive air out. At one stage during the filling/bleeding I was drawing a frothy mix of air and fluid from both systems. - suggests to me that something in the design (in the master cylinder?) causes this - and the "micro-bubbles" take time to float to the top as large bubbles that can be drawn out with more bleeding? I have done this process 3 or 4 times (changing fluid) in the25 years of ownership, as far as I recall, but had forgotten it is so weird. Doesn't happen with cars that have reservoirs attached to master cylinders!
So more "bleedin' fun" today!
K2

 

[Steamchick]

Well! Darn my Picturs!" Just spotted this... A special bleed nipple: as it says, "The innovative Stahlbus bleeder valve allows you to change the brake fluid yourself without assistance.
Linked Guzzi brake systems are notoriously tricky to bleed, this special bleed nipple can save you hours of tedious squeezing and pumping! This bleed nipple is slightly longer than the standard part so some thread will be left showing even when fully closed."
Maybe I need these?
K2

 

[hermetic]

Been there and I am right with you! First experienced this on my Morris 1000 van! master cylinder is in the floor below the drivers feet, and if you push the brake down too far the piston, which is not attached to the pedal rod, goes to the end of the master cylinder, and stays there, as the spring is very weak and will not overcome the vacuum in the system,so you have to pop it out with an air line or fluid pressure from a bleed nipple!I have found that the eezi bleed is by far the best way, drill a hole in your existing cap and tap it and fit a bung, making sure that the bleed hole in the cap is not blocked! motorcycle hydraulic systems can be a nightmare especially when the cap leaks and a mist of hydraulic fluid covers you and the bike!!
Phil

 

[hermetic]

I made my own climate change almost 50 years ago Phil- a nice kind school teacher, late for work, knocked me off my motorbike. The compo. from that enabled me to leave Sheffield for sunnier climes in '73, and have not regretted it for a millisecond!
It took a while to get used to the wall-to-wall blue skies on the mainland- then we moved to Tasmania, which is in the roaring forties, and I had to relearn the art of taking a coat with me whenever I go out.
We have a saying in Hobart- if you don't like the weather now, come back in 20 minutes...
That's down to having a 4000ft mountain just over the other side of the river. On the mountain it can go from brilliant warm sunshine to life-threatening blizzard in a mere 20 minutes- makes running on the mountain "interesting" at times.

just at the moment I would appreciate some of your climate! we are trying to get the Fordson and topper out on the field, and it has done nothing but rain!
Phil

 

[hermetic]

Hi All,

This week I get to redecorate a machine lamp for the Harrison Mill, and a main switch for the legion rewire job. As usual we have a tidy up midweek, and then spend Friday removing the old fencing in the field The weather was not kind to us this week, we had two days of beutifull sunshine and were all set to give the tractor and topper its first outing on Wednesday, and it rained! we need about three days of clear breezy weather to get out and cut it! It will happen,but it needs to be soon as it is slowly beginning to grow.
Phil, April showers in East Yorkshire

 

[hermetic]

Hi All, A week of field work and a lot of rain means that the grass will be growing, but too wet to cut! We are assaulted by wild dogs, and I get in the machine lamp rebuild as well! All in all, a productive week, and got to meet a new friend called Noah who is into boatbuilding and wildlife preservation! Have a look at Carl Wilsons channel where he is refurbing a Harrison milling machine with an identical lovolite. A true perfectionist! Phil, In biblically wet East Yorkshire

 

[hermetic]

Hi All, The Fordson comes into its own, and proves how tough it is! after an hour or so of clearing brambles the engine sounds sweet as a nut, the oil pressure and temperature are rock solid, and she is not smoking from the exhaust, it was always a good starter, but after an afternoons working it seems to be even better, The hydraulic leak has dissapeared and everything works as it should. I am beggining to understand how to set up the topper, and we have decided that after we have cleared all the brambles, we will drop it down a notch and do another cut, weather permitting of course.
Phil, and warm and wet East Yorkshire.

 

[maybach_man]

Hi Phil... Looking good Bear in mind i'm not a farmer (a man outstanding in his field), but im pretty sure that doing it the way you are really needs a front topper. With your rear one you do it driving in reverse to get the whole width of cut without ruining the front of the tractor until its short enough. This will also allow you to reverse up to the slope and let the topper drop down the slope using the jockey wheel.

Best

Geoff

 

[hermetic]

You are of course correct BUT! we only have a rear PTO so it would have to be a self powered Topper, and also no fixing points up front!, the good news is that we have cut all the deepest brambles without marking the tractor front at all! I put the tractor into the brambles half its width, and the front wheel crushes them down before they get near the bodywork, and by the time the pop up again they are under the Topper, job done!
Phil.