Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

“What surprised me about that engine was the amount of wear on the rings, bushes and big end rollers. Yet the cylinder bore was OK!”

You have to take into account , that extremely few of the machines that come into our hands are all original , many will have had odd bits and pieces fitted to them to keep them running back in their working…[Read more]

I did think it should have been V111C , as they were the model used by Allen and Simmonds. Should you ever need one I have a new piston (cast iron) for one of those , along with a used , but good cylinder barrel.
I would go along with your views and measurements , but as you say , we’re not dealing with formula one engines.
Many years ago I fully…[Read more]

A couple of things , which model Autoculto do you have that has an V11C engine.
You don’t mention valve guides , often a cause of bad running and burning oil.

Andy.

Measure the size of the two pulleys along with centre to centre of shafts , give these measurements to any reputable belt supplier and they should help you out.

Andy.

Yes 400 , not the original engine though.

Andy

You obviousy have little to no experience of Millar systems , even when new they produce very weak spark , along with certain types of Villiers. Have you noticed that the newly made coils sold by George or Villiers Services produce a far better spark than the originals , nothing to due with weak magnets or whatever.
And my friend who owns the…[Read more]

Well , I started working on horticultural stuff in the early 1970s , and continued all my life although latterly as a hobbie , and have amassed quite a collection over the years , all of which start , run and perform as they should , and I lay alot of that down to have fully working magnetos , many in the collection have been fully rebuilt , I’m…[Read more]

“Lastly on the thorny and unfortunately contentious matter of multimeters. I would readily agree that specialist magneto repairers have an extensive range of dedicated test equipment that is vastly superior to a multimeter.”

On that I would agree , common sense should tell that IF they could get away with using MMs , why would they purchase…[Read more]

It is truly amazing what some folk will believe what they read on the internet , sorry but I’ll stick to my experince gained from the university of life.

Andy.

You’ve obviously made your own mind up over this matter , aided perhaps by some very dodgy internet info , there are EXTREMELY FEW proper magneto engineers about , but many hundreds of amateurs , many of whom put their extremely limited knowledge on Youtube etc.
I have a drawer full of duff coils(why I keep them I’ve no idea) many of these are…[Read more]

I noticed the change also , have to say I much preferred how it used to be.

Andy.

I guess we’d better agree to disagree.

Andy.

Grahame , proper testing equipment is rare thesedays , and not many folk have them , I don’t actually own one myself , I rely on a good friend who happened to be the workshop foreman when I was a young lad. His is an old school tester , but is 100% reliable , incidentally it will not test the modern magnetron/electronic coil units. George is…[Read more]

I’ve lost count of the ammount of times that it has been said on here that magnetos can’t be PROPERLY tested using multimeters , To do it properly a purpose made ignition tester is required , that is afterall why they were made in the first place. George Shead at Villiersparts has interesting reading on his “ignition” page on his website , and…[Read more]

Your man ripped you off over the carb cleaning , “usually” mine is only on for a 15min cycle , don’t worry about one with a fancy heater , I just boil the kettle and use ordinary fairy liquid , pop it in and it’s job done. With practice you can also add some drain unblocker liquid , but only a very small ammount , you will get the hang of it the…[Read more]

Clockwise as you look at the flywheel.

Andy.

If you’ve got the old one , it’s a simple job to make one up , there are plenty of suppliers who sell the inner and outer cables.

Andy.

Gib head keys are tapered , the idea , provided an amateur hasn’t been at it , is to knock the hub on further , heat may be needed , once you have moved the hub , the key should release relatively easily.
The difficult part may be if someone in the past has assembled it and pushed the hub fully on before tapping the key in.

Andy.

That is Howards own AC120 engine.

Andy.

We’ll need a photo to be able to tell you.

Andy.