Skip to main content
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Marquis mutterings!

Enter a word or two to search the forum section and click the Search Forum button.

Eighteen inch Marquis on ebay just 10 miles from home. Had a decent grass box and good cylinder and was said to be a runner. Stuck a bid on it and ended as highest bidder but reserve not met. Two weeks later it pops up again so bid considerably less that the first time, forgot about it and won.

Fetched it home last week and other than the kermit green paint job and terminal woodworm in the front rollers, not a bad machine and well worth the money. Pulled it apart this afternoon . Nothing drastically wrong with it but a few images to illustrate what one may find on a tidy but unloved machine.

Clutch centre adjusting nut attacked with a hammer and punch instead of the correct tool .

Landroll sprocket given the same treatment and, by the looks of it "cleaned up" with an angle grinder.

Clutch sprocket bush suffering from lack of lubrication - both quality and quantity . Just in time - will be ok properly oiled

Clutch body top hat bush - dry but ok on this one, but.......

This is what can happen if not properly installed and lubricated. £50 replacement and as far as I know there is no suitable off the peg substitute. So if you are scrapping a machine and the bush is in one piece, leave it in the hub and save it for later!

All the bearings are fine, the landroll halves aren't seized and the ratchets are engaging, and the engine looks and feels good. No outward signs of it being an oil burner . All looking good - so far......

 

 

 

Forums

wristpin Sun, 04/04/2021

Session two - the engine.

The chassis strip was uneventful with no nasty surprises but the engine although straight forward, suggests that the machine may have spent time exposed to the elements

Quite a bit of corrosion to the head bolt shanks and threads, suggesting rainwater damage. Two of the bolts (not the longer ones) resisted the battery impact wrench (a light weight 3/8 drive one with limited torque) and required heat on their heads and plenty of Plus Gas . All eventually removed with no damage, cleaned up with a wire brush and a tap run through their holes in the block.  

Cylinder head as found. virtually no carbon build up and no gouge marks suggesting a careless de-coke. Both valve clearances within tolerance , no carbon build-up on the underside of inlet valve but a fair amount on the exhaust . However discolouration of the inlet stem and micro pitting (but no rust) on the face, again suggests water ingress at some time in the past.

The horseshoe valve collets and no "BSA" on the crankcase suggests that it is a later engine.

 

The valve heads are slotted for screwdriver lapping but not marked In or Ex, but in minute lettering below the collet slot on each stem they are marked with position and part number (sorry, forgot to take a pic) 

Micro pitting confined to just one small area , seat stained but unmarked. A very light reface and lap gave a satisfactory finish.

Valves back in, the inlet needed a couple of thou off its stem to compensate for the refacing. The valve chest cover was predictable distorted so had a good session across the face plate to give a new gasket a fair chance of bing oil tight. The head back on and then on to the ignition. Points and condenser removed and Meco electronic trigger unit fitted. Nothing wrong with the points and condenser but the Meco is an insurance policy against the points corroding during storage etc, and means that the flywheel is unlikely to have to be removed during service. Flywheel marked "electronic" to warn a future repairer. All totally reversible if a future owner desires originality.

Now for the bodge of the season - the fuel tap! This had apparently been leaking and a previous repairer had "Araldited" the plunger into the body of the tap; and for good measure done the same to the plunger retaining screw. The saved parts box supplied a new tap but I may get creative with the Dremel tomorrow - just to see whether the bodge can be reversed.

 

 

 

hillsider Sun, 04/04/2021

Looks as though you have been tucked up in the workshop keeping out of the cold winds.
Re the Top Hat bush there is an Auto Certes around somewhere (assuming that it is still running) that has a bush machined out of Brass bar but then that was the advantage of having access to a well equipped workshop. 
Re the Araldite on the fuel tap you may find that if you can get under it with a sharp tool you will be able to break it free from the tap body without damage to the tap. Good luck.

wristpin Tue, 13/04/2021

Fuel tap all sorted, even managed to save the little retaining screw for the plunger .

The machine is now reassembled. Just turned up a set of beech wood front rollers and given them a couple of coats of yacht varnish but resiting fitting them until the varnish has had a couple of days to harden.

Various odds and ends along the way.

Traction clutch push rod components. If the ends of the rods a badly worn, and the adjuster is at the end of its travel,  one can always pop in a second ball bearing.

 

Traction clutch operating arm. The little hex head adjusting screw and lock nut are nearly always seized and are a lot easier to deal with while the assembly is out of the machine.

Freed off and lubricated , so that it wont fight when assembled.

Cutting cylinder bearing holders.  Sometimes the cutting cylinder bearing dust covers are a loose fit and wont stay in place  - particularly if the bearings are over lubricated and the hydraulic action is too great.  Squeezing them in the vice is counter productive as it just distorts them without tightening them but " belling" the centres pulls the edges in and makes them a nice snug fit.

 

The above will distort them but supporting the outer diameter on a suitable ring and pressing the centre pulls the rim in evenly.

Cutting cylinder adjusters. Always renew the self locking nuts - easy before reassembly, not so easy afterwards!

 

 

RedLeader Tue, 13/04/2021

Looks like things are progressing nicely. Some really useful information and pictures there - especially regarding the dust covers. Well done on recovering the fuel tap from the previous bodge too!

wristpin Wed, 21/04/2021

Had a bit of a break from the Marquis to deal with a Hayter Harrier 56 with a carburettor issue and another 56 with a totally shot rear roller - an expensive job if using new parts but I just happened to have a very good assembly saved from one heading for scrap for other reasons, six months ago.

Anyway back to the Marquis and time spent on the wood lathe making a new set of beech front rollers to pattern. Very therapeutic and at fraction of the cost of the Ransomes parts.

But to keep them pristine while the machine is being moved a bout, a protective jacket made with a length of plastic downpipe.

Next job is to sort out splits in the grass box where the weight is taken from the chassis side members. Quite why over the years Ransomes have never managed to get this issue right, it has been present on both 18" and 20" machines of all Mks for as long as I can remember.

 

RedLeader Fri, 23/04/2021

Those rollers look very nice indeed, and a very cunning way of protecting them from damage in the meantime!