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

Atco Groundsman - fallen at the final hurdle

Enter a word or two to search the forum section and click the Search Forum button.
Scott S Sat, 27/06/2020

Good evening All, 

 

Hope you are all well. 

My restoration of an old Atco Groundsman 'was' complete, but have struck an issue with the home straight in sight. 

Basically I am unable to move (push/pull) the mower when all the chains are attached and the clutch disengaged. 

However when removing the chain that drives the rear roller it rotates perfectly. Also with the chain in place, I can rotate the shaft from the clutch which in turn rotates all the sprockets and the roller. 

I feel that I am missing something really simple here, but cannot see the wood for the trees. 

Any help greatly appreciated, some pictures below of progress so far. 

Scott

Forums

wristpin Sat, 27/06/2020

Possibly you have one or more of the chains too tight. A little bit of slack in all of them may solve your problem. Also is the manual disengagement for the cutting cylinder disengaged? 

Edit. Thinking about it , and with no memory of ever trying to push a Groundsman, it’s possibly only that you you are pushing against some fairly serious step down gearing which in reverse is equally serious step up gearing. 

Scott S Sun, 28/06/2020

Hello, 

 

Thank you for your reply. The cylinder is disengaged /locked out. 

Looking at the pictures I took pre disassembly, the chain that drives the rear roller had a lot more slack in it. I'll have look and see what I can do, but they were pretty tricky to put back on!

Thank you again for your help. 

 

Scott

hortimech Sun, 28/06/2020

If memory servers me correct, the large sprocket moves about to tension the chains and they need to be slacker than you think, or you get the problem you have, you cannot push the machine :)