Saying hello with my Dennis

Only had one regular customer with a Paragon and the one thing that sticks in my (retired) mind is that we could never get the split twin helix cutting cylinder to cut paper as nicely as we would have liked in the workshop but we never had any complaints from the owner's gardener so guess that it cut grass OK!!.

I have a Paragon parts book dated 1971 with no mention of a Mark - one or otherwise, but looking at the parts diagrams it looks like the cylinder bearing carriers are secured to the chassis side plates with hex head screws (3 in each carrier) and once these are removed the cylinder will drop out. The drive side plate is slotted to let the protruding shaft drop out without having to juggle anything. You may have to remove the drive sprocket to get at the screws at that end.

Before you can do this you have probably got to drop out the bottom blade carrier/solepate which appears to be secured and pivoted on a large shoulder screw at each end plus the push/pull adjusting screws bearing on the "horns" at either end. So, slacken off the adjusters, remove the pivot screws and it should drop out - heavy!!

Once you have the cutting cylinder out you can use a couple of levers or a puller to remove the offending bearing.

Many thanks for your reply. I have only loosened the bearing in question to see what happened, it flaps around a bit! Iam quite handy but this has me stumped. I love this machine, it's dangerous with the sit on bit attached, chop your legs off if you corner and accelerate?. I will loosen the other bearing (4bolts!) and see what happens. I spoke to Dennis and they said the bearing would be available from a' bearing supplier'
I bought a brand new carb last year from villiiers as it does rust up ! So will not give up on getting it back to rude health. My neighbours have haters ,sp, and they look in envy at my stripes and love the sound of the "thumper" .

From what you say it seems that your machine is a little different from my illustrated parts book as "my" bearing carriers are clearly shown as circular with 3 screw holes not 4. Guess that yours may be rectangular ?

Your bearings will possibly have a number on them but your local bearing supplier will be able to "mike " them up and identify them. My parts book only quotes their in house part number with no indication of what size they are.

I'm a bit intrigued by your comment about the carburettor "rusting up" - sounds strange!.  

You were right, it does just drop out the bottom. The fourth bolt on the drive side was for the cut out for removal. It gets worse though, the non drive bearing had seized and the cylinder was rotating inside the bearing, now it's worn. So a new cylinder is needed! The float within the carb rusted, I now take the carb off over winter. Strange I know as it looks copper'ish , it actually had holes in it. Once again many thanks for your help.

I am not familiar with the Dennis mower to know the diameter of the worn cylinder shaft so this may not be a suitable repair. However it may be possible to have the worn shaft machined in a lathe to true it up, following this your tame machinist could then machine a steel bush to shrink on to the shaft, this bush replaces the damaged metal and is then machined back to the original size to suit the bearing. But do investigate the cost of this repair before committing to it, especially if you are using a commercial machine shop rather than a friend with a lathe. You must also satisfy yourself that the remaining shaft diameter is actually strong enough to make the repair viable. Ray.

That's a bit of a B*****!!

Hillsider's suggestion is probably the way to go but as he says, unless you are on good terms with someone with a lathe and the necessary skill, it could be quite pricey - all depends how much value you place on the mower. I would guess about £30 for the job from the people that I use  here in the South East  - but I am on pretty good terms with them! An alternative is building up with weld and then turning back to size - again a job for a suitable equipped and skilled person.

I suppose we should ask the question as to just how worn is the shaft? If a new bearing is just a loose sliding fit as opposed to slopping about there are ways and means of dealing with it that may not fall into the category of best workshop practice but in the real world, on an old machine, are quite effective!