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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Atco midget engine start issues

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Midget engine start issues. Rebuilt mower and ignition on engine.  New coil fitted and points/condenser checked. Started ok and ran nicely. On trying to start again,no joy. Plenty of fuel and good spark. Change plug etc but nothing. Poured neat fuel into engine,still nothing. If you put plug over spark plug hole and flick fluwheel, flames from engine through hole. Put plug back in,nothing not even a single fire. Put inline HT tester and it lit up ok. Will not fire even with Easy Start. Compression is good and timing spot on,it was running fine. Flywheel magnets seem good. Any ideas?

Forums

Adrian Sun, 05/07/2020

The only thing I can think of is have you checked you timing SINCE it stopped? I once had a similar  problem with my Standard and eventually found that the backfire when it stopped had caused an insufficiently tightened flywheel to come loose.

wristpin Sun, 05/07/2020

Timing slip is a distinct possibility. A twin cylinder diesel that I was familiar with was always stopped by opening the decompresser as, if not, the last bounce against compression tended to shear the key of the rather large and heavy flywheel.

Another thought, have you removed the the drain plug in the bottom of the crankcase and drained out whatever may have accumulated there ? Sometimes cures starting issues. 

frogeyeman Tue, 07/07/2020

Thanks for suggestions. When it ran initially I accidently engaged clutch and mower ran into a post(no damage). On checking the timing it was out,also the flywheel markings did not correspond to TDC. Set points to 15 thou and then set flywheel so points were just starting to open 5/32 before TDC. Then marked flywheel with settings and tried again. Still same fault. Then set up external 12v coil using points in flywheel for timing and it ran without problem. Looks as though the cheap coil I purchased was not up to the job so have ordered a Villiers one (1634).Will keep you posted.