EW80 thoughts

Due to Nick Highfield's kindness, I have two more or less complete Edgar Westbury 80 watt generators & another in bits. I had a few hours yesterday, so fished out a magneto & discovered that it worked! Thus enthused, I cleaned the points & fitted it to the gaping crankcase, the mag being driven by a disk with a slot in its edge which fits over an extension of the crankpin, it being an overhung crank design. An HT lead was found, the plug cleaned & a squirt of Gypsy's breath in the plug hole proved that it will fire and run.

Now, there are not enough bits to make it into an original unit, so I'm now thinking about what to do with it. The engine/genny unit is complete (needs an exhaust) with mag, carb and alternator. The latter shows an output when it is spun over with the pull cord, so I suppose that the addition of a modern rectifier would return it to duty and at 15cc it should neither break the bank or deafen the neighbours. Looking at some notes, I see that it produces current of quite high frequency and that it becomes inductively saturated well below the designed speed. Therefore, the output is flat. Not so useful, I note that the carb actually isn't & that the main jet is located in the fuel tank normally fitted as the base. The one I have is full of holes & resembles rusty lace! Where can I get a carb suitable for a 15cc engine, preferably free! ;o))

Lateral thinking shouts to me that the pull cord pulley is flat & broad enough for a narrow belt as well as the cord, so I am casting about me for ideas, one of which involves a Stuart Turner compressor, the one based upon the "Sirius" high speed hydroplane unit. I'll mock it up this afternoon & see how it looks.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

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Kim Siddorn
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35cc actually ...... Finger trouble regards,

Kim Siddorn

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Kim Siddorn

I had a look for a likely carb today. Amongst my junk, - sorry, Useful Spares - I have a couple of Bridges Mini Drills. One is just a donor scrapper & it had a carb on it of the correct bore size ;o)) It even has an air filter. The stud spacing required a little adjustment, but cleaned & stripped down it seems almost unworn. It is a diaphragm carb of course, but I don't see that as much of a problem with a small fuel tank mounted just above the carb so as to keep the head pressure low.

Mounting the carb is going to be a bit of a fiddle & I may have to skim off a few mm from a head fin in order to get a nut onto the stud. It'll be the only throttleable EW engine in fifty years!

The alternator indicates about 25 volts off load for the brief moments I have had it running without a carb (petrol dripping onto the air filter!) .

I was right about the small compressor & the scale is just right. The drag might make it hard to crank over, so I have a plan to fit a spring loaded jockey wheel to allow the belt to be free during starting.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Further news. The carb is on - dinky little thing, I can close my fist around it entirely. The engine now runs, revs up just fine & I am experimenting with throttle, choke and needle jet. It shows a propensity for revs which surprises me, the inlet tract being so small & it being a side valve engine, I'd not have thought the breathing would be so good. Like all small engines, it is very fussy low down and I've yet to even approach a tick over. I'll stifle it a bit with the equally dinky air filter & see how it likes that!

The filter is retained in an unusual manner. There is a hole drilled in the side of the carb body & into this fits a plain round bar, bent through slightly more than a right angle. The long end is threaded at its end and you fit the filter over it, the angled pipe on the filter sliding over the carb. Apply nut & tighten. Sounds a bit nasty but it actually works very well as long as the air flow doesn't mind swirling around the bar.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

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