At the recent Bristol &SGSEC rally, I came across a JAP 3 on what was otherwise a fairly ordinary boot stall. Snapped it up for £15! For those who are unaware, the JAP 3 is the original maker's designation for what is much more generally known as the ALCO Featherweight.
Clamping the unit in the vice & filling the carb had it running quite quickly & it sawed away on the governor as there is a screw missing from the carb, so the mixture was less than accurate. Other than that, it was fine - even had an exhaust box to which I've added a stainless steel pot scrubber as a baffle as it was quite unfriendly in its noise making.
It was devoid of paint except for the steel bits & someone has previously vapour blasted the fan case and rocker box lid, both aluminium. I've decided to freshen up the rather cracked & dull red paint that graced the ferrous components & am investigating a small bronze pump I've had about for a while to give it something to do.
This set me to thinking. I've only seen these units used to drive a 300 Watt
12 Volt dynamo - surely they were used for other tasks?regards,
Kim Siddorn.