sidevalve@44

Hi Charlie,

The fuel was fresh, I put it in only a few minutes earlier.

Thanks for the advice, I will remove the head bolts and clean accordingly.

The coil, points and condensor are all brand new and the valves were ground in and gapped at .010″ex and .008″in (no data for Aspera so, I used B&S figures) so, these shouldn’t be a problem.

By the way, what should the torque figures be for the cyl head bolts ? My B&S…[Read more]

Hi Wristpin,

Jon Cruse has advised he should have the parts to repair the fuel leak. I’m waiting on him for a price.
Re. The governor. Am I correct in interpreting what you said as meaning, the governor should be holding the throttle wide open when the engine is not running ?
I have since found out that the metal cover that goes over the top of…[Read more]

Thanks.

After I get the new fuel tap etc. I’ll run her up and see how she performs and adjust as necessary.

One thing I did notice when I ran it yesterday was how noisy it was, even with a new “silencer!” (Tiny little pepper pot thing with about one baffle !)

I think I may have cracked it. The Governor arm can be adjusted a little on the spindle to the left or right. I had a look and found it was too far to the left, meaning it was holding the throttle open at all times regardless.
I slackened the screw and it moved slightly to the right and immediately the throttle shut. Operation now seems to be…[Read more]

One reason why it may have been running flat out was I had not connected the gearbox. It has no clutch, so the drag of turning the gears would of course slow it down a bit.

£11.26 for a coil is cheap I know, but it fits and it works, so I’m not complaining.

Villiers coils are expensive.

Tecumseh ones were about £30.00+

I’ve located and bought a new (pattern) coil for £11.26 plus condenser and points for £8.99, all on-line.

Gaskets will have to be re-used with Wellseal or made.

Looks like I’ll soon have it running !

Hi Wristpin.

Thanks for the advice.

I checked the resistance between the HT lead and earth and the reading was 0

I then checked the resistance between the lead from the coil to the condenser (condenser removed) and the reading was 2.2 with the multimeter set on 200.

I also got the same reading if I applied the probes to the coil earth wire and…[Read more]

Gas flow would certainly have been all wrong.

Timing would be unaffected however, as that is dependent on the position of the piston relative to TDC, which would be unaffected by which way round it is in the cylinder.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have fired off an email to Meadowbrook and will see what happens.
Engine had no spark when I tried it so, and as I have no way of testing coils I am assuming it’s all U/S. Points are probably OK after a clean and I have seen a condensor on the Meadowbrook page that looks identical.
I will need a new head gasket as I…[Read more]

The rotor shaft seals on my old Howard 200 leaked badly. I replaced the oil in the gearbox with liquid grease and all I got was the occasional drip coming out.

Thanks Jim ! I’ll pick it up on Tuesday.

By the way, you were right re. the old clutch: the friction ring had become detached and was stuck to outer drum. Came off in one piece, so all I need to do now is clean it all up and re-assemble it, after glueing the ring back on.