Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

I didn’t realise there was no quick reference section, so please don’t waste too much time looking for it.

From the conversations that I’ve had so far with his niece it appears that he only had dealings with BSA Engines, Enfield Engines and Villiers if that narrows it down at all.

Hi, Angus,
The edit button seems to work for me. What can/can’t you see on the posting at your end? Have you got the row of buttons to the right of the date and time?

No pictures this time, but I’ve managed to separate the piston from the barrel. After boiling in oil then cooling down for 24hrs whilst still in the oil bath I was just cleaning it off ready to have another look at it; tapping with a piece of wood onto the piston got me nowhere and I was thinking of taking it to work to press it out when I had an…[Read more]

Thanks for that, Andy. No doubt you remember the track rod ends fitted to the Ransomes Motor Triple- they were off the Hillman Imp as well!

I think I’m leaning towards the prototype camp still. I have just sent Paul Childs an email detailing all of the part numbers that I’ve found inside the engine. We’ll see if he can identify it from the photo’s, otherwise it may be that the person that built it used a combination of parts from established manufacturers to cut down the cost of…[Read more]

I’ve now got as far as I can get with it. The crankshaft is out, the big end is off, camshaft out and the barrel removed from the crankcase. One thing that I can’t seem to do at the moment is to unstick the piston from the bore as it’s corroded itself together. I don’t want to damage either and so excess force is out of the question, at least for…[Read more]

In the background is a drill press and my Clarke compressor/jump start pack behind that. Unless you’re referring to an earlier photo with the Tecumseh ignition tester in a purpose-made case?

Not home and dry yet, but much closer. I’m not too concerned about the surface rust on the crankshaft and camshaft gears. It can make things look much worse…[Read more]

This engine definitely isn’t giving up it’s secrets easily. I’ve spent hours tonight trying to get the two halves of the crankcase apart and finally succeeded. The problem is that all of the bolts are badly wasted away and are in such inaccessible positions that you can’t get any tools near them to remove them. In the end I had to resort to…[Read more]

Not a bad idea, Charlie. I’ll wait until I’ve dismantled it completely first before I start to put pen to paper.

I’ve treated it to a steam clean at work today so tonight’s effort won’t be quite so difficult (I hope). I’m starting to wish that I’d left the muck on now!

Here are tonight’s pictures. It’s turning into quite a saga, isn’t it?

To recap, I made a puller to tension the flywheel and was intending to heat it whilst under tension. After I put a tension on the puller I thought that I’d tap the puller with a copper mallet and to my surprise the puller became loose. I kept turning and the flywheel kept…[Read more]

I’m starting to think the same myself. It does have one or two features that a mass produced engine wouldn’t have, but until I’m sure I will keep digging away at it in the hope that the conrod, piston or crankshaft will have some identification mark.

You may even see it on a Trusty yet, Andy!

A few more clues tonight. The flywheel nut is left-handed and fitted with a locking tab- have a look at the photo. I can’t shift the flywheel by all of the short-cut methods, so I’m going to have to make a puller to get it off.

Until the flywheel is off I can’t separate the crankcase halves. The split is through the main bearings and the halves…[Read more]

A good point. It’s so easy to overlook the obvious when you’re trying to find that elusive clue!

Such a shame that it hasn’t been stored in a dry place. Everything is corroded and wasted away; even the magneto cap screws didn’t give in without a fight, then when I got the cap off it was full of white powder. At least it shouldn’t be too difficult…[Read more]

I reckon it’s of British origin. The head studs are 3/8″ Whitworth (16 threads per inch) at the bottom where they screw into the barrel and 3/8″ BSF (20 threads per inch) at the top where the head nuts screw on.

I can’t find any identification on the Wipac CJ magneto, although the master parts listing that I have lists JAP and Petter as the only…[Read more]

Still no idea yet, but the head gasket looks very much a like a one-off. See for yourself on the photo’s, and the head bolts don’t follow normal practice either with only six of them. Two holes for the head bolts are very close to a cooling fin which makes it impossible to put a socket onto. All of the bolt heads are severely wasted away and I’ve…[Read more]

It makes me feel better now; I thought somebody was going to reply and say that it was definitely a so-and-so! I think I’ll keep exploring and take some of the cowlings off and give it a clean up to see if it reveals anything.

Another avenue may be the magneto type if I can find a plate on it, then look up the applications.

Keep trying!

The tuning of the carburettor has to be done in sequence and somebody that isn’t used to these carbs may not appreciate that.

Firstly you want to screw in the main jet until you feel it stop, then turn it out one turn. Do the same with the slow-running air screw on the side of the barrel. That should be sufficient to get it running.

When it’s…[Read more]

We use an ultrasonic cleaner in our workshop but we find that it isn’t foolproof. By all means use it but more often than not we find that we have to clean the carbs the old fashioned way with plenty of clean petrol on hand, an airline and even a small piece of soft fuse wire to poke the holes out in extreme cases.

Don’t think I’m advising you to…[Read more]

I’ve found that these carbs do block up readily, probably because they have so many fine drillings in so many different places it doesn’t take much in the way of debris to start a blockage.

Trouble spots are usually confined to the brass main jet and holder which needs to be removed and thoroughly cleaned, including the cross-drillings in the…[Read more]