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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

ATCO TIMING

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How do you set up the timing on one of these ?.

atco timing

 

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wristpin Thu, 12/11/2015

First, does it actually need to be re- timed or is it just a case of no spark? Try cleaning and adjusting the points first , but if you do need to re-set the timing, proceed as follows.

Undo the flywheel nut enough to release it from the crank taper by turning the nut anti-clockwise . The nut will slacken then go tight again, Further movement will " break" the grip of the flywheel on the crank.

Set the piston to top dead centre and then rotate the crank anti-clockwise enough to drop the piston the specified amount down the bore.

Taking care not to move the crank itself, move the flywheel to the position where the contact breaker points just start to open. (Having first cleaned the points and set the gap)

Then without disturbing the position of the flywheel relative to the crank tighten its retaining nut to lock that setting.

The flywheel nut will be tight and you may have ro strike the spanner with a soft faced mallet or dead blow hammer to shift it. Villiers used to supply a "flogging" spanner or socket for that purpose. The job will be made easier if you have a strap wrench of some sort to assist with holding the flywheel.

The. whole procedure of finding exact top dead centre , moving the piston to the required firing position and the flywheel to the points opening position can be a bit hit and miss so unless you are either lucky ( or talented !) expect to have a couple of goes at getting it right!