Guldner AK 1959

This page is dedicated my Guldner AK 1959 model. I am the second owner, former owner from the tractor was new is Rasmus Rasmussen from Utsira west of Haugesund (Norway). Rasmussen traded  the tractor in  for a new Hurlimann tractor from Åse Landbruk in 2000.

It's an old tractor, and it's not looking like new anymore. And I didn't know if  the engine would run when I brought it. But after a few attempt it started with a nice sound and loots of  black smoke. Almost everything is working like it should. (except the dynamo, lights and some other simple things) It runs at amazing  20Km/h in high speed gear and approximate 1.5Km/h in low speed gear. It has six gears forward and two reverse. The biggest problem is some rust, especially in the fenders. (the rest of the chassis is of aluminium) Have been working with the tractor sins 2001 (VERY slowly!) to get it in a better condition. My hope is to get it in good working order, not in a "better than new" state.

From the handbook.
 
 
   
   
   
 

TEST RUN: The pictures above  where taker right after I got the tractor in 2000. I used it a little that summer, just for the fun driving the old machine. The engine sounds almost like an old boat engine! Its actually fun to drive, very light, it goes almost everywhere. The engine is small and as you guess not powerful, but the gearing is low, so if you want a slow drive this is the one. Have never seen a tractor having so low gearing. I first gear (low range) I would guess 1-2 km/h at full speed. It have a differential lock, separated brakes on each back wheel, 6x2 gears. 540 and ground speed PTO. A warm day it will start on the battery, but otherwise I have to "help" it a bit.

 
   
   
 

DISMANTLING: This row, just started disassemble the old machine. Winter 2000/2001. Doesn't look good, but it's not as bad as it look, everything work, nothing needs to be completely changed! (Well so I thought, comment 2005) Under the blue colour there was a green colour it not rust. So I am not sure if the blue one is right. It looked like it had been repainted some time, long ago.

A phone call to the original owner, confirmed that it wasn't repainted so I decided to go for the blue colour scheme. The tractor had been all its working life on an island called "Utsira" on the far west coast of Norway. Utsira is surrounded by saltwater and they have some heavy weather out there. I am surprised it wasn't more rusty than it actually was.

 
   
   
 

REBUILDING: Summer 2001. Here the tractor body is painted and the time have come for putting it all together again. Will take some time sins a lot of parts still are in the condition like when I got it. The colour is not original but as close as I could get from the original paint. This is my first tractor "restoration" Have been working some with motorbikes and cars but not a huge job as this, so I had to learn it the hard way. A lot of mistakes have been done, and I have learnt a lot....

Picture at left: February 2003 have not been working on it for over a year, hope to start over again in a short time! Well I was wrong in at this moment I was also working an a far newer MF235 witch got most of my time, but that's another story. It should go long over a year before I concentrated on the Guldner again. At this time some major problems had occurred. The hydraulics pump and the steering worm . First the hydraulics: The oil seal on the pump hydraulic piston was clearly in a bad shape. It fell apart when I dismantled the unit. Happily a local company "Bauer Nielsen" in Haugesund could help. I measured the piston and they found a oil seal in their assortment range witch should fit.

Fall 2004: Picture at left,  old and new oil seal. I now understand why the lift capacity was so low....

Pictures at left: The hydraulics unit from behind and the new oil seal on the piston. It wasn't the easiest task to install  the hydraulics unit  on the piston. But at least it now seems to have the right compression.

Next big problem was the steering. You could turn the steering wheel almost one turn before the wheels started moving. By dismantling the steering worm it was clearly that sometime in the past there had been three ball bearings (marked by arrows in the pictures) I was not able to get new bearing from any dealer so new ones had to be made.  The solution was a nylon stick and a friend with a lathe. Thanks to Knut Aase who helped me with this problem. He made them in one day and now the steering works perfectly. When this problem was overcome it was time for putting it all together again.

Summer 2005: In the last picture, row above time had come to start the Guldner. All the parts wasn't ready, the hood needs to be renovate, the fenders need some big rust removing and the tree point hitch isn't ready. And a lot of details need some more work to be ready. But the engine was ready, the steering and breaks work so... big was the disappointment when the diesel pump (picture right) didn't deliver fuel at all! A closer look stated that the pump had sized. I was able to get it in working order again but the engine would just run on full speed or not at all. The regulator worked okay so it must be the pump. What ever I did, it didn't help. Luckily my neighbour Kåre Grind had a Kramer KB180 witch was "kaput". The Diesel pump made by Bosch was the same, even the type number was the same.

 So, out with the original pump and in with the "new" one. The tractor is still hard to start if its cold in the weather but ones started it runs like it should have done nothing else.

Nov. 2005: At least its moving on its own power.  Big parts like the hood and fenders have to wait until next summer. This winter I will try to get the details right, replace damaged fasteners, new grease nipples, put the instruments on etc. The nozzles have to overhauled and hopefully the hydraulics will work. Installing the three point hitch, so on. One minor problem is a "hole" in one of the engine top covers. (picture at right) Have no idea how this happened, the no. 1 cylinder is "leaking" throe it, but I thing that should be easily fixed. So summer 2006, then I think it should be complete.

 
              Last updated Nov 2005  
 
 

Some technical information
Description Data
Engine type two cylinder diesel, 4- stroke,
Displacement  885 ccm
Output 13 Hp
RPM 2300 rpm
Fuel capacity 19 litre
Gears ZF, 3 x 2 forward, 1 x 2 reverse
PTO 540 rpm / ride independent
Electric 12V

 
     
 

To be continued!

 
     

 

The manuals  
 

The former owner Rasmus Rasmussen is a man who take care of his stuff. With the tractor came the original manuals that followed it from new.

That contains user  manual in Norwegian and German language  and a manual for the hydraulics in Norwegian. Her is a few samples of the German manual.

I have scanned the German manual, you can download it here. PS: It's 68 pages saved as compressed  jpg pictures in a ZIP file, totally 4.6Mb

The other manuals will be scanned later.

 
   
             
 

To download the zip file: right click on the download pic at left and choose "Save Target as" or just click on the picture!  
  Note: the original format is A5, the scans are similar to A4  
 

Hit Counter

 
  -My other web pages.-  
                 
  Home, main.   My homepage   Laetitia Casta   Massey Ferguson Tractors   Guldner Tractors   Kawasaki Motorbikes   E-mail me.   Sign my guest book.  
          Last update:   10. februar 2011