The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Worn Silens Messor bronze cylinder bushes

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cartera

Does anyone know if it's possible to still buy replacement bronze cylinder bushes to fit a Greens Silens Messor, please?

I've stripped my machine down to the individul parts and wasn't surpsied to see significant wear to the bushes as the cylinder had a lot of play in it on the opposite side to the chain. Having cleaned the bushes I can see there are in fact two different sets, one in bronze with a 'GREENS' stamp to them (the most worn), and a pair in brass (clearly a later replacement).

If it's no longer possible to buy replacements, does anyone know if they can be custom made at an economical price. Otherwise, any tips on salvaging the existing bushes would be very welcome.

Forums

Mowing Wurzel Mon, 09/03/2026

Good Evening,

The Cylinder bushes are sadly no longer available, with production ending in the 1930's and the  Greens of Leeds original  company closing in the 1970's.

Two options if you wish to use the mower:

  1. Buy phosphor Bronze billets and get a local engineering company to machine down.  The cost of Bronze bar is astronomical and a lot is wasted.  I had some made this way for a SM I restored.
  2. Get an engineering company to sleeve the cutting cylinder spindles a few mms oversize then depending on how worn the original bearing's are, mill / bore out according.

 

cartera Thu, 12/03/2026

Thanks so much for the advice, this is very helpful. It's very interesting to hear of your experience of getting replacements made. Sounds like you did a very thorough job on your mower.

Option 2 is probably a bit more realistic for me given that new bushes sound like they would be very expensive. It's not a deal-breaker if I can't get the machine cutting properly again as I'd settle for a cosmetic restoration only if needs be. But I'll definitely try some enquiries first with local engineering firms. I hadn't considered that the spindles could be enlarged in this way. 

Thanks again, it's much appreciated.

Mowing Wurzel Sat, 14/03/2026

Yes, this is what we frequently find when tackling a Silens Messor cutting cylinder bearing.

William Proudfoot Wed, 22/04/2026

I've always managed to get mowers to cut well even with the most worn of bearings. The worst pair I have dealt with were on an 1860s machine which were so worn they had cracked top and bottom meaning the whole bearing was in quarters rather than halves. I like to keep original stuff where possible, and so I glued the flat sides of the two halves to steel plates to take the force of the bolts top and bottom, then carefully filed and scraped the bearings back to round in the usual way. Amazingly this machine ended up being one of the best and smoothest working SMs I've done, and I've used it many times to cut my father's lawn. 

The real problem is getting rid of the front to back wear, as you have to file out the top and bottom of the bearing surface then file the meeting faces down. It's a lot of work, and I guess the old repairers years ago were very much more skilled at it than I am, as they would have done it literally every day. That is the joy of these split brass bearings, you can keep re fitting them until they are actually worn away, unlike a sealed unit ball bearing which you have to replace once it has any play in it. the other thing to remember is that the bearing mustn't be able to move front to back in the housing. This is not a finely machined slot on an SM so you may need to shim it. Even if the top and bottom bolts are quite tight it is surprising how much they will still wobble front to back if there is movement available.