Abstract: In front loaders designed for drive-in attachment to tractors, two telescopic struts are pivotable between a stowed retracted position alongside the boom assembly which carries the bucket; a first deployed extended position for supporting the rear end of the detachable main portion of the loader, aided by auxiliary struts, when it is not attached to the tractor; and a second deployed extended position, in which the struts engage with abutments on the sub-frame which carries both the boom assembly and the hydraulic cylinders for pivoting the boom assembly and are secured to said cylinders, for locking the boom assembly in its fully raised position whilst the detachable main portion is attached to the tractor.

Abstract: Tractor front loaders of drive-in type have brackets fixed to a tractor and engageable with a detachable sub-frame carrying a boom assembly mounting a bucket. The sub-frame is secured to the brackets by close-fitting pins causing removal difficulties, or loose-fitting pins causing loader instability and accelerated pin wear. Easy-release pins are therefore provided, each passing with substantial radial clearance through aligned axially-spaced holes in one bracket and fitting, between the holes, in an eccentric bush which fits in a boss fixed to the subframe and is rotatable by a handle into an operative position in which the pin establishes contact with one side of the holes and the boss establishes clamping contact with a cam-plate fixed to the bracket, or into an easy-release position in which the contacts are disestablished.

Abstract: Agricultural tractor hitches sometimes employ sway blocks fixed to opposite sides of the tractor frame which can co-act slideably with two lower hitch links as these are pivoted by a power lift mechanism. The blocks prevent lateral movement of an implement attached to the lower links when in raised transport position and optionally when in lowered working position. To permit minor adjustment and compensation for wear in the co-action between the blocks and the lower links, pads are secured to the lower links and arranged to co-act slideably with the respective blocks, each pad being tapered lengthwise of its associated link and being adjustable in position lengthwise of its associated link.

Abstract: In a power steering system, for a vehicle, including a reservoir, an engine-driven pump, a double-acting hydraulic piston-and-cylinder assembly and a steering-wheel-operated hydrostatic steering unit which can function as a manually-operated emergency steering pump, sufficient oil for emergency operation of the hydrostatic steering unit must be retained in the system if the connection between the outlet of the engine-driven pump and the inlet of the hydrostatic steering unit should fracture. The reservoir accordingly comprises an outer casing adapted to breath air at its upper end and having an outlet at its lower end adapted to communicate with the inlet of the engine-driven pump, and an inner casing having a port at its lower end adapted to communicate with a port of the hydrostatic steering unit and an oil outlet at its upper end communicating with the interior of the outer casing.

Abstract: Tractor front loaders have sometimes been provided with struts enabling them to be locked in raised position. These struts have had to be moved bodily between operative and inoperative positions. To avoid the need for bodily movement, the struts are made telescopic and are pivotable on loader support frames fixed to opposite sides of the tractor. Loader booms, and the rams of ram-and-cylinder assemblies for pivoting the booms, are pivotable on the support frames in known manner. The struts comprise inner and outer channel sections and are pivotable between retracted inoperative positions in which they are secured to the support frames and extended operative positions in which they are secured in contact with the adjacent ends of the cylinders of the extended assemblies.

Abstract: A diesel engine may have an electrically-actuated cold starting device in its inlet manifold, gravity fed with fuel from a reservoir interposed in a pipe for returning excess fuel from the injectors and injection pump to the vented fuel tank. If the pipe opens below the fuel level in the tank because the latter is full, or if oil is retained in the pipe by capillary action when the tank is not full, air cannot reach the reservoir to permit fuel flow to the device when required. The reservoir outlet to the tank therefore includes a restriction from which fuel emerges as a jet while the engine is running, and a vent hole within the zone containing the jet. The velocity of the jet carries fuel past the vent hole without any loss of fuel through the latter. When the engine is not running, the vent hole connects the reservoir to atmosphere.

Abstract: Lubricating oil pumps for internal combustion engines have hitherto had individual drive means such as a pair of skew gears. To simplify and cheapen the pump drive means, the pump is of the internal gear type and is driven by and housed within an idler gear driveably connecting the crankshaft to the camshaft. The pump body is rigidly secured to the engine and has a cylindrical periphery on which the idler gear is journalled, and the externally-toothed inner gear of the pump is driveably connected to the idler gear by a coupling sleeve.

Abstract: Agricultural tractors usually have an intake for the engine air supply disposed above the hood. This contributes to the noise reaching the driver. To reduce the noise level the intake is situated near the front of the hood, which is displaceable from an operative position covering the engine, and communicates with the front end of longitudinally extending air supply ducting secured to the hood. The engine has at least one air cleaner mounted on it beneath and towards the rear of the hood, and an exit hole in the ducting communicates, when the hood is in its operative position, with the inlet of the or each air cleaner via a resilient sealing ring.

Abstract: A tractor hydraulic power lift mechanism has a known manually adjustable flow control valve for regulating the rate of lowering an implement. However, when the valve is so adjusted that a heavy ground-working implement is lowered to ground level at a rate slow enough not to cause damage, the implement is then very slow to penetrate the ground to the desired working depth. A manually operable overriding mechanism preferably actuated by the main hand lever of the power lift mechanism is therefore provided to enable the valve to be moved temporarily into its fully open position and allowed to return to its adjusted position. The overriding mechanism is operated as the implement reaches ground level and released when it reaches its working depth.