Member postings for Ian Bowers

At least it still fits in the base

Well I’ve managed to kill another coil ! It’s ran maybe 20 hours or so but now the spark has gone! I think I may have left it on for 20 minutes or so with the coil signal energised with 5v, I’m not sure about this but I done think the 5v trigger pulse is too long as it’s on for one sixteenth of a revolution of the timing gear which is maybe 10ms.

So I’ve gone old school with a conventional motorcycle coil and condenser I had laying around, I’m still using the relay as points ….. I wonder how long it will last.

ian

Hi,

I can have a look at my draw bar in the next day or so, I’m not sure if it’s original as I have spacers on it.

There is no spindle lock I just use a low gear!

Ian

Hi,

My engine seems to work fine , it has ran for about 3 hrs the only electrical issue is a sooted up plug! Here’s a picture of the wiring in the engine base. I used 6mm aluminium for the tank base so I could screw things on to it, the 5v transformer is just taped on top of the relay, I also managed to pare the plastic of the coil output and thread it m4 ready for the plug lead.

You look to be making good progress Colin, my drawing didn’t mention silver soldering the bush to the sleeve it just buts up against it.

Any way now I have sparks ( see John Purdys Red wing post) I just thought I’d see if we had life. So I spashed a bit of petrol in the plug hole and after a few spins it fired up for a couple of turns. So I rigged a temporary fuel tank up and after a fair bit of adjustment to the mixture screw it fired up and ran ok but it was tricky setting the mixture.

As I was happy with the ignition timing I rechecked the valve timing and it was out so I set it as specified and pinned the cam. I think the cam had moved.

After a bit of trial and error I’ve found the best position for the mixture screw and it starts easily and runs very smoothly. I ran it without any water as I’m waiting for the oiler kit and even after ten minutes the cylinder was just warm .
I just need to sort out the correct nuts and bolts, finish the fuel line, tidy the wires then paint!

An update on the Red Wing Ignition, I tested the coil just using 12v to the signal pin all ok, then I tried the other method using the 1K resistor……this burnt out the coil, I wasn’t quick enough to disconnect it as I thought the smell was my soldering iron!

I think this happened because I am using a 12v battery (I don’t have a charger for 6v) looking around the internet I think the trigger signal is 5v and the spark is generated at the end of the pulse. So I bought a 12 to 5v car USB charger and pulled it apart to make a neat little transformer. To get around the Red Wing points configuration I have used a relay that energises when the points close and I’m using the normally open contacts to send the 5v signal to the coil. This looks to work ok as the engine actually runs!

The only thing I have noticed is that the coil pack is getting warm, it may be I’m paranoid about killing another one or it may be normal, have you noticed this on your set up John ?
I have read somewhere that maybe a resistor is needed in the circuit somewhere but I’m not sure why. The other thing I need to avoid is leaving the engine stopped with the points closed. I could avoid this with a one shot timer relay.

ian

Got a coil today, £28 dealer price and it’s a Lucas! Had a quick test using a 12v battery and works fine with conventional wiring. I’m just waiting for the 1k resistor to test properly.

John you are correct you do get a bit of a belt when messing around 😲

Ian

Thanks John

It looks like the coils are pretty cheap now so I’ll get one bought .

Ian

Hi John,

I am also building a Red Wing, I’m 80% done and I’m looking at doing a similar ignition system using a car plug top coil and I was wondering which Nissan coil you are using.

Ian

Hi Colin, I’ve spent a fair bit of time on it lately (maybe too much!) to answer your questions

I haven’t got round to drilling the timing shaft locking screw.

There is a locking screw on the crankshaft pulley

And yes the ignition stud goes all the way through to the oilte bush.

Just wondering what do you need to silver solder?

ian

I made two of these as well Colin! I damaged the D shaped sides of the slot when I did the threading, the die caught and snapped one off!

Hi,

Red Wing progress is good, base machined, recess for fuel tank base done and all holes drilled and tapped. I’ve made the base from 6mm aluminium and it fits nicely.

Cylinder bored and honed.

Main bearing caps done.

Ive just machined the main bearing surfaces on the body and am about to drill the holes, one side is about dead centre on the curve of the casting but the other is off centre , see photo below.

The question is do I drill it say 0.5mm to the left so the casting shapes line up better or stick to the original dimension?

Ian

Thanks Colin

It’s the PM Research kit and it’s my first model build but I do loads of stuff for trials bikes and agricultural engineering repairs. So I’ll be keeping an eye on your progress here for tips!

I’ve got a Beaver VRPB MILL and a Baileigh PL 1340 lathe (same as the Warco GH1340).

As for your crank would a tight press fit suffice like we use on motorcycles? Once together they can easily be aligned with a hammer. My kit had a ductile iron casting

Ian

Look what Santa has brought !

Ive just finished fettling the main casting which was quite rough and one flywheel and now the Dremmel is dead! Ian

Thanks everyone I’m all sorted now it’s just a matter of mathematics!

As long as the pitch will divide into the distance between the marks on the dial it should work! As long as the number of marks used divide into the total distance of one full turn of the indicator

Ian

Here’s a photo of the chart

Hi I’ve got a Bailiegh GH1340 lathe but the thread dial chart is incomplete! Is there an easy way of working it out?

lead screw pitch is 3mm

Dial divided into 12

The gears for the dial are 28, 30 and 32

thanks Ian

Hi,

I was looking for different feed change gears for my MK1 VBRP as I only had the 48 32 combination and after finding them in the HPC gears catalogue I did a bit more searching and found the Myford ML 7 gears fit, even the hole size and keyway are correct, the only difference is they don’t have a boss like the originals so I just made up a couple of washers.

I got a 59 and a 21 from RDG and they work fine, the 59 looked like a Myford part but the 21 looked like a pattern part and the teeth needed a bit of filing.

The good news is they are around £10 each and there are loads of sizes available

ian