Argocat manual

Does anyone know if there's a manual for a Crayford Argocat available online anywhere?

Thanks.

Fairly simple piece of kit - which bit needs a manual?

John

First off the gearbox is loose (it moves separately to the engine!) and looking down the engine hatch I can't see anything obvious that secures it - I don't want to separate the tub halves unless I have to. Also theres a lot of nasty noises from the chains at the front. I haven't looked to closely at this yet but I'm guessing its a tension issue and I wonder if there's a particular sequence that the chains should be checked in as in my experience with things like this tightening one thing loosens another and so on.

Any guidance appreciated.

Rob.

As far as I can recall, the gearbox is held onto the frame angles below it by long bolts that go right through, and have presumably come loose - or maybe one is missing?

The front chains from the gearbox are tensioned by moving the whole engine/gearbox assembly along with a long bolt that goes through the end of the sub-frame - it's ages since I grovelled inside mine and I can't remember if it's at the front or the rear of the assembly - I will have a peer inside mine tomorrow, if I get a moment/remember!

Adjusting that doesn't affect the axle-to-axle chains, they have separate tensioners, and the axles cannot move along anyway.

Rather than splitting the hull, I would take the bulkhead out for better access - mine is pop-rivetted in.

Hope this helps,

John

Hi John,

Thanks for that. I'll have to go and rummage around! It's not my machine but I get stuck with 'can you fix it?!' That said, I also get to play with it so it's not all bad. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers, Rob.

A number of Argo parts/operator manuals can be found on this website.

Useful site, that - thanks Joel. Even got my old 16HP Tecumseh model in it!

Rob - the bolt that pushes the engine and gearbox forwards to tension the primary drive chains is under the back of the gearbox. I think you can access it by taking the floor out, IIRC.

The gearbox fixing bolts (2 off) run through the channel and the 'box, they may need tightening or one may be missing!

Cheers,

John

Ok Thanks, this will be an ongoing project as it's something that will have to take it's place in the queue. Thanks for the links but I've simply not had time to investigate yet!

This one is a 16hp Tecumseh and appears to have an extra sprocket on lh rear axle next to the drive sprocket. Any ideas?

Take 2!

It's got an 18hp Briggs twin in it, but a TB serial no. so it should be Tecumseh, a home made exhaust and currently only 7 wheel drive. Also some of the hubs appear to be keyed to the axles with old valve stems!:wow:

This isn't going to be a five minute job.

Get comfy, this could be a long read...

Firstly, thanks for the guidance and input, made things a lot easier.:red:

Done very little to it as it's been mostly sat in the shed but I get a message that says 'It appears to have an electrical fault'. What has happened is a wire came loose and rubbed on the front axle 'till it caught and wound around the axle. That pulled another wire and so on untill most of the loom was wrapped lovingly around the axle! Funny thing was that as it's a ground switch cutout and all the wiring was no longer attached in the correct manner, the engine wouldn't shut off until the petrol pipe was removed.

Anyhow, as a full rewire was just one of several things needed and it's not going anywhere anytime soon I thought I'd start with the gearbox. I took the bulkhead out (yes riveted in, but done by someone who got a riveter for christmas!) and could then see the gearbox mounting bolts which were very loose so that's now fixed. Also clocked the tensioner bolt so I now know where it is when I need it.

The rewire gave me the opportunity to remake, reroute and secure all the wiring and dispose of the much altered and modified (twisted, crimped, and scotchlocked) mess of copper that it came with. This one also has an aftermarket electric fan to draw air into the engine bay. Once I got it going it was rubbing on it's cowling so after about an hour of mucking around I put a bit of extra clearance in it. The fan is still under the bonnet and the cowling is in the scrap!

Next it's onto the 7 wheel drive. Right 1 is freewheeling. Made a couple of pins from some hardened steel haybob tines and beat them in. Then found the pin that locks the hub to the sprocket on R3 is missing. Found it in the greasy gloop under the drive chain and hammered it back in - problem solved. No, not quite. a couple of laps of the field and the pin is nearly out again so it now has a jubillee clip round the axle so as to cover the pin ends and keep it in place. Question is - the parts book seems to suggest these are supposed to be rollpins but none of the hubs on this one has them. They are all solid pins and appear to be 'interfearence fit'. How are they supposed to stay in place?

Looking at the diagrams, am I right in thinking the axle/hub drive pins should be 5/16" x 2 1/2" roll or spirol pins? (or the metric equivilent?)

Scroll forward a couple of months and most of the hub pins have been replaced with ht bolts, now I have a fuel problem.

Started suffering from crud in the fuel. Cleaned the tank and blown the lines out but the environment it gets used in means keeping it clean isn't easy. Got tired of cleaning the carb so I fitted a filter. It would appear that the little pump on the side of the carb may not be man enough the drag the fuel through so I intend to fit an electric pump to help things along.

So my question is would a 12v pump from an old car produce too much pressure for the carb to cope with?

Would I be better off with a pump from a motorbike?

What would the current draw be?

Does anyone know what grade of oil is used in the gearbox? Apart from 1 brake not pulling hard enough on 1 side, it is coming on nicely.