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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Ransomes Twenty Four Mk2a

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Hi

I'm new this week to the OLC. I have two Ransomes 24s, both with Villiers F.15 engines that I'm in the process of rebuilding, just for fun. As there is little info on the site (manuals, transfers etc.) regarding either the mowers or engines, I'm assuming that these too recent to be regarded as 'old lawnmowers'. If so, what is the cut-off age?

Thanks,

Pete

wristpin Wed, 25/10/2017

Welcome to the forum from another Twenty Four owner. Please note, Not 24! But in the interests of brevity -24 will suffice.

The absence of Twenty Fours from the forum  - in no particular order, manufactured numbers,  survival rate, space and weight  requirement for both restoration and subsequent storage and their potential as a working classic - lawn acreage etc.

The 24 was a bit of an anomaly - neither truly a scaled up Marquis nor a scaled down Matador and included some non-Ransomes low maintenance features such as no user lubrication for the cutting cylinder and rear roller. The lack of cutting cylinder bearing lubrication often resulted in seized bearings and the need to replace them annually. The machine was aimed at the domestic market in competition with the Atco and Webb  24" machines , so possibly Ransomes thought that it was unlikely to get much in season owner maintenance, so left out that provision and saved some cost in the process. When I had a mower repair business we found a way to add lubricators to the cutting cylinder bearings so that they were properly lubricated at service and also that the means to do in season lubrication was available to caring owners. 

As far as dating the 24 production goes I turned to Brian Bell's Seventy Years of Garden Machinery, but it's not much help , including an image of a Twenty Four captioned The Ransomes Fourteen! * However in the text it does state that production ceased in 1981 - and that would have been for the Briggs and Stratton engined Mk3M (metric bearings). *May have been corrected in a later edition.

From memory the original Twenty Four had a Villiers Lightweight engine, subsequently replaced by the F15 and ultimately a 5HP Briggs and Stratton unit. I believe that the F15 would have been introduced in the mid to late 60s . Hopefully someone can supply a more precise date.

The following may be of assistance

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3j9lfue7ijap25/Ransomes%20Twenty%20Four0001…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qcj176ljzvt47vb/Villiers%20F150001.pdf?dl=0

EDIT .Should have added, if the above is of use I suggest that you print it out as at some time I may deleate it from Dropbox to free off free space.

 

Potlid Wed, 25/10/2017

Wristpin, many thanks for your time with the info! The two documents especially will be a huge help. 

Pete

Gnasha Wed, 25/08/2021

HI, I have just read this post, I'm in a similar position having just acquired a Ransomes Twenty Four MK2A. I have searched for manuals for the operation and maintenance and I'm struggling to find anything.  Would it be possible to have access to the above links?

thank you