Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Am thinking very much along the same lines. The pulley should be done up tight against the flywheel, the roll pin prevents that. There is a strong possibility that if it is pulled tight it will pull the crank slightly towards the flywheel end. Am going to grind in the valves, so the stator plate has to come off. Will also get the deposits in the flywheel hole and shaft flattened off so I can get near to H7 h6 or js6 in the Limits and Fits tables. Should then be able to put the flywheel on and off relatively easily and see where the problem lies. Can try it with the roll pin and without, tightening the pulley. I think this is a factory bodge and if so, it was done for a reason. It could have also been a method to prevent over-tightening by ham-fisted ‘mechanics’ after the matter was raised. It could have been only done for a small production run, then decided to drop the idea. All I do know is that I do not want to damage an engine that has done little work from new.