Indeed the written word does not covey nuance unless time is taken to compile the text. The forum is not the primary reason I have decided to not renew my membership.

The committee rejected all suggestions of how to cut club costs and voted for the status quo with an across the board rise in membership fees of 50%. They did this…[Read more]

Sadly, I have tried to use the forum in the way it is intended. But have been met with either apathy, or at times a degree of negativity. It is one of several reasons that has formed the decision of not to renew my membership next year.

You are correct, a condenser and a capacitor are different words for the same component.…[Read more]

The clean cut on the crank vividly demonstrates what can happen when an engine suddenly stops stone (pun intended) dead and…[Read more]

There was no felt seal around the edge of the stator plate.

Believe the engine cowl has never come off since it left the Alcon w…[Read more]

The roll pin is actually 3off, 2 larger ones and a c…[Read more]

Had another look at the engine yesterday and indeed it does have a head gasket. When I took the head off on Saturday I only took a quick look at it, noting it had numbers stamped on the contact face. It was covered in thick green paint. The numbers were an imprint of those stamped on the cylinder and into the soft head gasket. A…[Read more]

I would agree that a 2A is a very simple engine to work on. Where we will diverge hugely is that because the flywheel was all but welded onto the crankshaft, it was a devil of a job to get it off. Your method would have failed in the first instance. Persisting in it would have damaged or broken associated parts.

Attached are more images…[Read more]

Please ignore the text in my last post. Am chatting to a chap in Australia who has done a 2A up and asked him about removing the flywheel too. I did the original text to him, them slightly edited it for you. Copied it to paste into the VHGMC forum box and for some reason (think because I had not saved the Word.doc before editing),…[Read more]

The exhaust valve was stuck open and managed to tap it closed through the plug hole. But still no compression, I think the engine has not fired in decades, so…[Read more]

Fantastic video. The seal I took out of the Villiers/Alcon pump was all covered in crud and breaking up. Vulcan Seals asked if I could send it to them so a replacement could be identified and also they would have a record of it on their database. Just looked it up and it was in 2011 when I got the new seal. I cannot recall what the…[Read more]

Took a couple of pictures of the one I got at the auction. Also my old original Villiers pump to add context. The JAP pump has a nameplate on the cowling with the first number being 1943. Do not know if that is the date it was put together, or if it is a coincidence. Also do not know if Alcon purchased the engines unpainted, then…[Read more]

You may try this supplier https://howard-rotavator-spares.com/shop/ But I purchased an expensive clutch friction plate from them for a MkV Gem and the holes did not align with the drive plate. Got back to them, the reply was to tap the pins to fit as they were most probably bent. That was wrong, the pins were fine, it was the…[Read more]

Glad I can assist and hope the testing identifies the problem. Am unfamiliar with the machine or engine, but from the photos it looks like it has a Kettering ignition system where the ignition is run from the battery. The black wire goes from the ‘hot’ side of the points to the coil. You can test this with the multimeter and for tes…[Read more]

If you have not done it already, firstly I would remove the points, hone any pitting out from the contact surfaces, refit and set the gap to 0.015”, also clean all terminal connections. With the plug cap removed, hold the end of the HT l…[Read more]

I do not know the model the armature plate and flywheel came from. I purchased a Clifford roteo with a Mk25c engine about 15 years ago. The vendor was honest and said he thought the coil had packed up and suggested an external coil from a Honda C50 could be rigged up as a fix. Did try, but through lack of knowledge I think I omitted…[Read more]

Une restauration fantastique, bien faite.

Meilleurs vœux,

Grahame

It looks like you have fixed it. This is my experience of them.

Over the years have had several leaking Ewarts fuel taps. Did once get some replacement corks, but they were poor quality, still got leaks. Have tried PTFE tape, nitrile cord, soaking the original corks in an oil/paraffin mix. Nothing really worked. Have had a couple…[Read more]

Great that with some more work you managed to get the carb to work well. From what I could see of the pictures you posted it looked like there were potential faults in the design. The float may have not moved freely up the central column, it could twist and then stick. How it pivoted against the needle meant it would not hit the…[Read more]

Have thought several times of fitting a modern carb to an industrial engine. Bought a cheap Chinese copy for a Honda for around £12 and was amazed of the quality and how they could sell it for that amount. Am not a fan of some older type carburettors, they are quite crude in comparison to more modern versions. The float/needle…[Read more]

Fantastic descriptions and pictures of your precision engineering skills. You remind me of an old boy who does a few little jobs for me. He has made scale stationary, steam and aircraft engines from scratch. What he can do amazes me and he is in his eighties.

Without those abilities people like me have to try to work with what we…[Read more]

Am presuming the mower has a Briggs & Stratton engine. If so, I have found they sometimes need fine tuning with the mixture screw to run well. Have a 12HP model on a Ransomes Bobcat mower and even 1/8th of a turn on the screw can make a big difference. Do not think a normal compression tester is the best tool to use on hand start…[Read more]

My Villiers engined Alcon pump is definitely 1½”. It does have a model number on it. I got it from a retiring market gardener, who sold me all the delivery and suction hoses too. It ran poorly, so I did my usual top end, points and carb service, it then ran well. It was noisy though under load and drank fuel. The Honda GX160 is a…[Read more]

Have a 1½” Alcon pump powered by the Villiers engine. Got it in the 1980’s and used it for irrigation. But then got sprinker rotor heads that needed a higher pressure (30 – 35 psi) than my original ones. The pump also started to take an age to prime. Fitted a new seal kit I got from Vulcan Water Pump Seals, it improved the suct…[Read more]

Many thanks for that. Cox and Turner is one of the suppliers I have for parts and they are usually my first port of call for engine spares. Can get rings a bit cheaper from a manufacturer, but prefer to use Cox and Turner because they are fellow enthusiasts.

Have fitted new rings and ground in the valves on many engines. But some I…[Read more]

Did not see your posts until this morning. I set the tappet clearances on a Jap 5 & 6 to 10 thou on the inlet and 20 thou on the exhaust. These figures are stamped on the inside of the inspection cover. Have also fitted new rings if required and can vouch for the increase in compression when this is done. Have two Douglas SV54…[Read more]

Many thanks for the post. Just to clear up one point about ignition systems on small engines and tractors. They all work along the same principle with a current flowing through the primary windings of the coil generating a magnetic field. Which in turn saturate the secondary windings with lines of magnetic force. When the current…[Read more]