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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Suffolk Super Punch 17 inch Cyclinder Key Slot

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Hi,

I noticed some play when turning the clutch (about 8mm on clutch outer drum).

On further investigation I found the nut on the end of the cylinder shaft was slightly loose so tighten it.  It ran OK for a couple of weeks then it happened again.

I just re-checked the shaft/key slot and it is quite badly worn (I assume through many years of cutting stones!).

The key seems OK as does the chain wheel but when the key is in the slot there is about a 1 to 1.5 mm along the slot!

Other than try and find another cylinder is there any way to salvage the present one!?

Thanks

 

 

 

Forums

wristpin Sun, 30/08/2020

You need to find a "Duncan" -  The man in a shed with a variety of machine tools and the know how to use them who did all our jobs of that sort. He would either cut a new standard size keyway on the opposite side of the shaft or enlarge the existing one and its mate in the sprocket to take a wider key. Sadly he's moved to Scotland .

Alternatively you could try reassembling it with a new key and the strongest grade of Loctite.

hortimech Sun, 30/08/2020

I think you are saying that the key is no longer a tight fit in its slot, I seem to remember this being a problem with Suffolk's. Not a frequent problem, but a known one. We used to weld the slots and then get a local engineering firm to re-machine them. It helped that we looked after the mowers belonging to the owner of the engineering firm.