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My first rally

hello all,

first of all sorry i have not been on in ages ,due to the fact my computer packed in on me , so i now have a brand spanking new Dell !

my first rally was great cráic and went off without a hitch .

a photo of my now fully restored bamford is in the my first rally folder on my webshots page at :

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!

i am truly proud with this engine now , and also the fact it starts from cold on the first crank , and very rarely now kicks back , again i have to thanks a mr .arthur griffin -for his starting assistance and a wico 'a' points cover , last but not least i have to give great thanks to mr.philip thornton-evison for in helpin me with the restoration of the engine by giving me a pair of mag cover clips - i hope seeing the engine before and after photo's will give you some satisfaction .

my lister d and 'new ' lister pump pumped all day , only requiring a plug clean every 4 hours or so .

also to be seen in the photo is my late grandfathers fairbanks 'Z' 3 hp .

i also made some very interesting display boards that really did give the crowds an insight onto the engines working life . i even had an old man have a chat with me reminising about his old lister d that powered a milking machine , and i really think is made him happy seeing my 'd' tick over .

belive it or not i was the only exhibitor at the rally , with 'proper' display boards , and i think it paid off - the cameraman who makes a video of the cooley rally every year , filmed my engines for 5 mins for inclusion on the cooley vintage rally 04' video ! it will be available in mid september i was told - so i cant wait !!!

again thanks for all who helped me with my bamford - your help and advice was greatly apprecited .

i am now looking for my next project -a lister A' junior hopper cooled , anyone know of one for sale , maybe in ireland or northern ireland ??

thanks alot , john dungan ( 16 next monday !)

Reply to
john dungan
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Good for you John. The engines look great and you obviously had a really good time. Makes a pleasant change from us miserable old gits moaning about this that and the other ;-)

Oh, and happy birthday for Monday!

Reply to
Nick H

Nice job on the Bamford, John. Well done on the display boards, I think they make all the difference for the visitors, and they make people stop to read them and chat.

I had hoped to get over to an Irish rally this Summer with the "oul fella" once I'd got our harvest done, but I'm still waiting to harvest. It's going to be next year now.

How many engines were at Cooley? I'd be interested to hear which you think is the best Irish engine rally. Have a good day on Monday.

BTW - have you been to the stationary steam engine museum in Straffan? Any good?

Regards, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur G

Well done John, a first class restoration job on those two engines of yours. Much better than anything I could have done at that age :-) I was only to happy to be able to help out with the mag. clips and donate them to a good cause!

Hmmm, I would have thought it should have run for longer than that before needing a clean, even off load. What plug are you using? I would suggest a Champion 8 Com, or a D21, or a Lodge 3BL. Something a bit hotter running to stop carbon fouling. Also make sure you don't run the engine too rich when it is hot, turn the mixture down as far as you can commensurate with even running. Oh, and one final point. I have it on impeccable authority that a tappet setting of between 5-10 thou. is correct, NOT 1/32 of an inch. I have set my own engine to 8 thou. and it makes a very noticeable improvement in overall running, and reduces the noise from the tappets considerably.

I'm sure it did. If only a few more exhibitors would follow your excellent example.

Happy Birthday for Monday!!!

Regards

Philip T-E

Reply to
ClaraNET

A cracking job - VERY well done!

The trick is to turn the mixture control down until the engine just starts to miss, then turn it back up by the tiniest amount.You'll find that the position running light will be different to when she's on load.......... I trust I'm not teaching Granny to suck eggs - if so, sorry!

Brian L Dominic

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Reply to
Brian Dominic me

A good job well done, John ;o)) Nice to see a young enthusiast actually getting something - well, several somethings! - done AND getting it all out where the public can see it!

I'm convinced that good signs make all the difference to a display and some of mine are quite detailed. It is not unusual for MoP to stand and read them all the way through and then ask pertinent questions.

It'd be worth experimenting with modern hot running long nosed plugs on an engine that runs light all the time. An extended nose will always run cleaner than its short snouted brethren. Try an NGK BP6ES for a kick off.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

Reply to
J K Siddorn

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