The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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Atco 14 - Villiers Midget Mk 1

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Richard Robb Thu, 14/07/2016

hi all,

first post for me as a new member.

first up, I'm a total amateur, with very limited experience and know how, so any help you can offer would be really appreciated. Also, I apologise that my understanding is not great, and I don't intend for my questions to come across as dense.

ive recently been putting an old villiers midget back together for a 14" atco mower, and I'm having some trouble getting it going. It's my first go at it, and something I'm quite keen on taking forward as a hobby. I'm fairly confident that the spark is ok, although not 100% on the timing. I ended up with a job lot, and three magnetos have different timing marks on them. Either way, I'm definitely concerned with compression, and was wondering if anybody knew the minimum operating psi? It's currently kicking over at 80psi. Also, it appears to be 'over-fuelling' insomuch that after repeated attempts to start it I get quite substantial leakage, primarily from around the exhaust gasket.

can anyone recommend a course of trial and error action?

many thanks in advance.

rich

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wristpin Thu, 14/07/2016

I've never seen any compression figures in any Villiers manual but someone on this forum may have an idea of what to expect. As a rule , if the engine has a distinct lump when it's kicked or cranked over it ought to be ok . It's as well to remember that a two stroke relies on crankcase " compression" as much as cylinder compression so good main bearing (crankshaft) sealing is important .

As far as timing goes I would disregard any marks and work from basic principles  as the marks that you are seeing may not be correct  for your engine.  Briefly, set the contact breaker points to the specified gap, find Top Dead Centre  ( piston at the top of its stroke) lower the piston the specified amount  and then move the flywheel so that the contact breaker points just start to open at that point. Then without moving the flywheel in relation to the crank tighten the flywheel  retaining nut. 

Get the spark right and the engine running and the " over fuelling" may well disappear.

Edit

Points 15thou

Timing 5/32" BTDC