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Power Unit.

During conversation whilst looking over an Unstyled 25 power unit exhibited at the 2013 Massey Expo in Paisley Ontario, the connection was made to a surviving Styled 25 Power Unit sitting with a collector in Ontario which had spent its working life driving a sawmill. 
Over the remaining months of 2103 a deal was secured and the collection of the Power Unit arranged for our Annual Massey Trip in 2014 prior to the Expo in Rushville Indiana.
After meeting John in Toronto airport off we went in our hire truck, soon experiencing the air conditioning was NOT working, windows open for some fresh air. We met up with the local Massey Collector who put me in touch with this rare piece and off to see it for the first time, we soon had it loaded with some mechanical aid, of course passing by "The Home of Massey" Newcastle, Ontario on the famous 401, we had to call in at The Massey Restaurant for our afternoon coffee and cake.
The Unit was then dropped of with Terry Danson for shipping together with several other of our items to Lyn Jones in South Wales whenever his next container was leaving Canada.
Finally the container arrived across here in November 2014, so an early morning journey across country from Eastern England to West Wales, meeting up with John there before the containers arrival. All hands on deck to assist Lyn and his team unloading then head in our separate directions loaded with treasures.
That's a brief history of twelve months and the following June I got round to mounting it onto the M-H steel wheel running gear previously bought in an Ontario auction, the cleaning up and mechanical restoration started in readiness for a Massey featured show in Norfolk June 2015 during the time of the Massey Collectors visiting here from the USA, I know Joe enjoyed the journey to Norfolk following the trailer with the Power Unit on.
Now we fast forward to this past month and finally the mechanical restoration moves forward to the first run a couple of weekends ago.

Attached are a few photographs of Power Unit Serial Number 40077 and its dramatic journey of change over the past three years.

Malcolm.



Attachments
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RE:Power Unit.

Malcolm,

I am glad to see you got it running! Now you need to put an overhead line shaft in the rafters with drop down belts to all your tractors so you will only need to start this power unit and bump start all the others...

Here is a link to your video for all others to enjoy...

Click here  

   https://youtu.be/C0mm25U9Dgo 

Joe

RE:Power Unit.

Or you could drive all of M-H barn machinery off a line shaft driven by it. We are all full of ideas for you to try Malcolm!!!!! Alan

RE:Power Unit.

Hi Malcolm, All,
Sounds lovely 👍
Do you know how many of these stationary power units were made, and over what period? Im guessing these are very rare these days no? 
Cherrs Jon. 

RE:Power Unit.

Malcolm,

It grieves me to hear these folks giving you and your engine work!!

May I suggest that a better way for you to enjoy it is to park it beneath your bedroom window and each night put jut enough fuel in it to run for 15 minutes, start it and go to sleep with that wonderful sound saturating your ears and brain.  Heaven? 

John

RE:Power Unit.

It's another pouring wet morning here again today so it's time to up date and answer a few points on the Power Unit.

Attached is a photo of the green un-styled unit with serial number  40007
My red styled unit already pictured above has serial number          40077
Attached is a photo of the other red styled unit with serial number  40104

So from this small number run we can presume if the numbering started at 40000 there was at least 105 of both un-styled and styled "U" frame 25 Power Units produced.

I would be very interested to hear of any others known surviving around the world.

From the suggestions above maybe I need to be looking for a stone or brick barn to set this display up, it would certainly look the part driving al the M-H barn equipment  from line shafting as Alan suggests, that all sounds pretty expensive and time consuming so may well have to settle for John's solution and enjoy the "sound of music from the exhaust"

Malcolm.



Attachments
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RE:Power Unit.

The only advertising material I have come across for the Power Units is in the yearly Canadian Handy Catalogs, below is a photo of the un-styled unit in the 1937 90th Anniversary edition, the next mention of Power Units was the styled one in the 1939 edition.

Malcolm.
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RE:Power Unit.

Malcolm 
Looks like a 25 power unit was used as a replacement engine for this 25 tractor.
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RE:Power Unit.

Thank you Graham that's very interesting, I wonder how many more Power Units met their fate and were re-cycled in this same way. You never know the short U frame and bell housing casting could still be lying near the shop on the old farm, hope you can locate it.

I have noticed on mine there is no engine serial number stamped into the raised flat on the front left corner of the block casting.

Malcolm.


RE:Power Unit.

Here is more advertising from the Canadian Handy Catalogues of the next generation of Massey Harris Power Units.
Now moving on from the old U frame design to the "Hercules" flat head or (side valve here in England) four cylinder engine as fitted into the first GP tractors.

Over the years I have seen a few of these power units in North America with a smaller radiator with the Hercules name in raised lettering, I presume these were made by Hercules themselves?

I have recently heard of a Massey Harris "Hurcules" unit being restored with the same radiator as a GP tractor with the pressed out raised lettering of Massey Harris, I presume this is a surviving example of what is pictured below, I look forward to seeing it in the flesh later this year.
I look forward to hearing more about these and further surviving examples.

Malcolm.
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