The Classic Machinery Network

If you look for the casting codes on the Fordson skid and the engine no if original you might confirm the date. (the skid would likely only be a few weeks older than the machine)
https://www.selen.nu/cgi-bin/trsnr.pl?lang=en

How does the slew work on the digger?

Must missed the Merton loader Jeremy. What an odd arrangement withe the driver sitting over the engine. Looks like they pinched some of the design cues from Weatherill.

1960 sounds bang on for a Power Major and this model Whitlock.
I believe the Whitlocks are good strong simple machines , the slew works by a hydraulic ram pulling a cable around the bottom of the slew post and this is the achilles heel , they can snap and leave the boom swinging loose. Apparently it is quite easy to get these made up ( by wire rope factor, lifting gear co ??) and it's probably worth having a few spare.

Thanks all. Does anyone know what type of bracket/connector I need to look for on front buckets? Or is it going to be tricky to find one because the ram location is rare on my model?

davidafsimpson wrote:Thanks all. Does anyone know what type of bracket/connector I need to look for on front buckets? Or is it going to be tricky to find one because the ram location is rare on my model?

I would measure the mounting pin diameters (a digital Vernier would be okay if you have access to one) and the centres of the ram mountings and bucket mountings then go from there; try looking on farming sites as many farmers have old tackle laying around you may just get lucky.

Jeremy

Web film pics of Dinkum Diggers working one with nice shiny AEC Mercury-

XS650 wrote:Web film pics of Dinkum Diggers working one with nice shiny AEC Mercury-

The AEC has the dreadful Leyland badge instead of classic AEC but still has the nicer grill. The Whitlock cab looked as if it was cobbled together by an allotment shed designer! Great photos of a bygone era. Must get my anorak off.

Yes Whitlock cabs were odd , can never understand why they persisted with a transluscent roof on all the range through most of their production years as it must have made cab very hot and it is not like they had liitle glass, most looking like greenhouses!

Never noticed the BL badge on the AEC , it is grim . Beginning of the end for AEC.

Shame we are not seeing AEC's deliver ballast now instead of Scanias !

Craig

XS650 wrote:Never noticed the BL badge on the AEC , it is grim . Beginning of the end for AEC.

Shame we are not seeing AEC's deliver ballast now instead of Scanias !

Craig

I concur on all accounts and as for Whitlock cab design; I think designers were just coming to terms with the fact that machines were operated in poor weather conditions so the operator needed to stay dry, but if you got hot just take the window out and that was the closest the early machines got to air conditioning. To be fair the whole attitude to machine operators was much different then, same as truck mechanics, the British truck industry was very slow to catch on with tilt cabs for example, no wonder we got left behind.
Just going back to Whitlock, yes shed or converted cowshed springs to mind I always thought those cabs looked like a terrible after thought, they certainly did nothing to enhance the aesthetics of the machine.

Jeremy