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We used to hire out an Allen Scythe with a Villiers F15 four-stroke. We bought it second hand and always assumed that the F15 was original but it may have been a conversion.

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Westwood made nearly everything ‘in house’ apart from the Peerless gearboxes and Briggs engines which were bought in. Even then the engines might have been what Briggs happened to have ready that day!

In the early days things were a bit hit and miss with the parts books being rather fond of “use as necessary” when it came to shims and thrust washers. I remember buying a pack of three cutter spindles and there was 5/16″ (yes 5/16″!!) difference in length between the longest and shortest.
That aside they had to be admired for having the guts to come up with a home built product when the alternatives were expensive imports. Any one remember their first powered grass collector – friction driven off the back wheels?

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Not strictly Anzani as the original version was the Easi-Mow made by RFRanger of Ferring near Worthing Sussex. Anzani later acquired the design and developed it into the more common machine bearing their name.

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[wristpin]

I agree about never having seen a straight shaft Sloper on a Marquis and also the issue with the Briggs’s incompatibility with the centrifugal clutch although Ransomes did offer extra strong clutch springs to alleviate that issue. However a Marquis with a Briggs was never as nice to use.
There was a similar issue when replacing worn out JAPs and MAGs with Kohlers on Mastiffs,
there again, stronger springs were available. Ransomes solution on later machines was to take the drive from the camshaft on Kubota and Honda lumps modified to run anti- clockwise (at the flywheel end) so that the half speed drive of the cam was the correct rotation for the machine.

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Going back through the earlier posts in this thread I see that in your post of May 31st you say that Meetens rebuilt the carb. The term Rebuilding is a bit non specific, did they itemise what was done?

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It’s a similar configuration to an Alpina reciprocating long grass scythe that graced our workshop in the 80s but that was pale blue.

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Some good news, at least you can mow !
Ultrasonic cleaning is the way to go but even that is not always successful. Borrowing another carb could be a way to go but I guess that they are few and far between . I’m sure that you have, but double check for air leaks between the carb and the inlet manifold and the manifold and the engine. If you have had to reuse existing gaskets a good smear of heavy grease or Vaseline on all mating faces is a good get out of trouble fix . Should also have said to check all mating flanges for flatness , especially any alloy ones that may have bowed due to over tightening in the past.
A way of checking for induction air leaks is, with the engine running, to spray or squirt WD , thin oil or Redex around the flanges and joints between the carb and engine. If there is a leak it will suck the stuff in and change note and make a bit of smoke.

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The origins of the Nickerson ground care products was a company called Horwool but I believe that the owner of Nickerson went on to acquire the Lwyland tractor business from BMC and that those tractors went from blue to Harvest Gold and were marketed as Marshalls together with the orange Track Marshalls, but I’ve no knowledge of what happened to the ground care products .

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Cam or valve problem – maybe?

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This may be of interest, I hope that you can print it out for easier reading!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/33v45tlt239r0ur/Villiers%20Mk25c%20two-stroke0001.pdf?dl=0

I notice that someone has noted an alteration to the BTDC timing dimension – may be a clue there?
I also see that on page 3 the plug gap is given as the “expected” 25thou but on page 7 18-22thou.
Fair amount of suggestions under “engine four or eight strokes” and “engine lacks power”.

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A couple of my Shay cultivators

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[wristpin]

This may help but it looks as though there were two different sized belts depending on the series of Titan.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wie035wrdvg03k3/Merrytiller%20belts0001.pdf?dl=0

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Just to enlarge on the governor situation. When it cuts in it is a very distinct sound as the engine in effect four strokes or may be even eight strokes – once heard, for ever remembered, but not what I would class as rough running, as soon as the load goes on the engine starts to sing.

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My guess would be a blocked main jet in the carb.

Also worth having a look at the “other end” – carboned up exhaust port or even a choked muffler.

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it has to be the ignition coil- no more testing required.

Hmmm a dangerous assumption – if I may say so!

For a start, does it have a low oil level cut out? If so is it working correctly or is there a safe level of oil?
Then if it has an electronic trigger rather than points and condenser there’s a better chance that it is the trigger (igniter in Nippon speak) rather than the coil.

But there again you may be right!

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