Allen Scythe Flywheel Problem

[Phil-vB]

I bought an 11C Villers Allen Scythe earlier in the year to cope with the unmown areas of my large lawn in Old Sodbury, South Glos., having tired of using an English scythe.

It hasn't started for a couple of years and on trying to get it started I suspected a duff solenoid. Put it off for several months and finally bit the bullet today, having bought a new solenoid - but disaster struck.

On trying to loosen the flywheel, the captive nut sheared off, leaving me with no way of removing the flywheel, which is meant to be drawn off the taper by the captive nut.The flywheel will not be levered off at all.

Does anyone know of a solution, or know of anyone in the South Glos area who could get it going for me?

Failing that, is anyone interested in an Oxford Allen Scythe for spares or repairs.

 

[tomlad]

I have one symular
Not touched for many years
I couldn't get fly wheel off, i thought as i unscrewed that nut it would pull off fly wheel as u described , but it wouldn't shift .
It is many years ago, i think spanner plob needed a bigger clout to shift taper, i could turn nut , its somewere lower down on my to-do list.

 

[tinman]

Any chance of a picture of the rest of it, I have no idea as to what this scythe thing is but I'm sure we could help, if I knew what I was looking at at least..

 

[Ruston3w]

How tall are you? I would try one somewhere before spending much time on it. I'm not being sarky…...I love old stuff and have wasted 35 yrs gathering junk but the Allen scythe should be consigned to history...IMHO

 

[Ruston3w]

A friend went to a farm sale near here when he was around 10 with his dad, when they got to the farm a gathering of old boys were pointing at the farm pond and laughing.....my friend recalls asking his dad what was so funny- all he could see in the pond were a couple of bent bits of waterpipe poking out of the mud- apparently the retiring farmer was a cranky old sod and the Villiers pushed it's luck once too often.

 

[Phil-vB]

Any chance of a picture of the rest of it, I have no idea as to what this scythe thing is but I'm sure we could help, if I knew what I was looking at at least..

Hi Tinman,

I've added some photos.

Rgds/Phil

 

[colhonk]

Barstuard of a thing they were. We had one as above with the trials bike tyres on. yes, you needed to be tallish, a good runner and a very good temprament, or a dictionary with lots of new words in it.Ok for the council to use on parkland flat stuff but no good on thick rough farm track grass sides.

 

[topcat2006]

I can't really see with the picture. Would it be possible to fill the area round the shaft with blutack, don't a suitable drift and knock the blue tack in behind the shaft thus forcing the flywheel off?

 

[tinman]

i could be badly out here and never having seen one but it kinda looks like to me that the flywheel was threaded on maybe?
the long nut you wrung the head off possibly was designed to come out so far and then take up on the flywheel to loosen it but i could be way out here.

i cant see where the collar sat of the long nut from the pics, what was the idea of it do you think?

 

[Kevm]

Not familiar with the 11C but on all the later villiers engines the nut is captive so you unscrew the nut then keep undoing it till it hits the backstop then when you continue undoing, it pulls the flywheel off the taper, there is no key on the taper so they have to be done up tight or they will move a bit and lose the timing.
Depends when it snapped, had the nut already come loose or did it snap straight away?
If it is still tight then you have a major problem, can you remove the pull start casting or is it bolted from the inside, if you can get that off you may be able to punch the nut undone.
For spares and advice try george shead at villiers spares.com

 

[DrWazzock]

If it's only friction and interference holding it on the taper then drive some wooden wedges in around the fliywheel if possible. Then sledge hammer a drift into the hole in the middle of the flywheel onto what's left of the end of the crankshaft. It might just come off with a bang. Or might break up. It needs one big clout so it doesn't rivet the end of the crank even tighter. Better to get an assistant to hold the drift with long tongs then give it one substantial clout. Other option is to borrow a puller kit but without knowing full details it's difficult to say. Tension up the puller to within an inch of flywheels life then clout the drift of the puller to release it. Kill or cure. BE careful. They can come off with a jump after the puller is tensioned up.

Alternatively hurl it in the scrap skip. The end of the crankshaft where the nut came off is probably knadgered now anyway, and not an easy repair.

Good luck. I was toying with the idea of buying an Allen scythe for the farm track verges, but you have helped me come to a decision.

 

[tomlad]

Will it be left hand thread?,

 

[Av Gorritt]

Quite apart from the Allenscythe application , I think Villiers engines were the work of the Devil . I pulled the bliddy starter rope on a Villiers until I was blue in the face . Often with no success I might say . I'd cut my losses and just keep it until the scrap price rises .

 

[tinman]

so according to kevm and the good doctor its on a tapered fit, and if so then what they are saying is about all one could do.
that flywheel is going to be like glass so its going to be a case of softly softly with a clout.
a bit of heat maybe but its going to heat up crank and all so it may not be much help but possibly worth a try.
cover off if at all possible and a multitude of home made wedges out of a hard timber, then a clout in the shaft end with something that dosent damage the threads but still hard enough to move it.
if it moves a smidgen its off but its getting it to move that's going to be the tricky bit.
id be marking my timing before id attempt to pull it, the timing may not be right but its all you have to go off right now.
id say its a case of 50/50 that it comes off in one piece tbh.

 

[fenhayman]

Dammed things are the work of the devil.
Don't ever buy one or accept as a gift

 

[TripleSix]

A couple of big screwdrivers/prybars behind the flywheel, get someone to apply pressure and with a copper drift and a hammer sharply strike the end of the crankshaft in the middle of the flywheel.

She'll come off

Don't poke the prybars too far behind the flywheel, there's stuff behind there...

 

[DrWazzock]

Will it be left hand thread?,

Looking at the slots for the starter rope I'd say you are right. Looks like you spin the flywheel clockwise to start it so the nut would have a left hand thread to it tightens rather than loosens when the engine is running.

 

[DrWazzock]

Here's a thought. Why not convert it to battery power?

 

[Kevm]

It's not a left hand thread and yes you could try prying behind the rim of the flywheel but be careful of what you are prying against as you could easily start snapping out bits of the magneto casing.
If rebuilt with a decent coil, points and condenser then timed right it would run fine for another 60yrs.
You could convert it to battery ignition but you would still need to get the flywheel off.