Well, I found a spark on the Allen - lots of them in fact - blue ones Whoever would've thought a villiers engine would lose them? They were hiding under some rust and dirt.

I got the flywheel off and felt mildly perturbed at the lack of a woodruff key to aid timing... Quite glad anyway considering the cam was rusty and merrily eating it's way into the follower - gave me the chance to sort that before it ruined itself totally. Also cleaned the rust off the magnets and the coil posts and re-attached the wire to the coil from the points after cleaning up points and testing condensor.

Then set points gap by eye (yeah, that looks about .015") and, due to the lack of a 1" spark plug spanner found TDC by removing the bolt/plug in the side of the head and looking in with a torch while putting the timing marks in 'about' the right place. I double checked by watching the points to see when they started to open and then looked to see how far off TDC the piston was - nothing like a bit of accuracy to ensure a good spark!

Now I just need to find a carb that'll 'sort of' fit (either on the end of the inlet manifold or in place of it) so I can see how much more effort the engine needs (unless I can find a proper one I can afford) and then start the strip and clean for paint...

That's a little job for tomorrow unless I get sidetracked by the Bantam. Or something else.

I also know from past experience how picky oldish mag ignition 2 strokes can be on timing... I might even have a t-shirt about it somewhere 

Saying that (and sticking with the accuracy theme) I thought I'd try my hand at being a carburettor (again...) and squirted a bit of petroil down the inlet manifold and gave the rope a tug - it fired up for a few revs and died (as to be expected) so I spent a few more minutes doing it again. And again - good job the neighbours were out. I think this'll be shelved for a while now until I can find some more parts - it's clean at least.

Then I got distracted. Got the bantam out and turned over some soil with it - stealing an air filter and exhaust off one of the worse suffolks transformed the performance - whereas last time it was stalling out if the tines went deeper than about 1/4", not much stops it now.

If nothing else, telling people about what I'm intending to do makes me get on with it... I've been messing with the bantam this evening. Took some piccies too so I'll bung a few up so you can see what I'm starting with.

Took off the rotor box, wanted to free up the nuts & bolts in preparation for the real work ahead. At the moment it has to work so I'm not going too far with anything, just checking and a little fettling to keep it going well.

No clutch on this one, direct drive from the engine so to engage rotors or drive means just shoving the lever in - dogs are in pretty good nick considering it's been this way for at least the last 20 years and in regular use until about 4 years ago.





See the drive system here - also my fantastic in&out bits I robbed off a suffolk mower - yes, the air filter is held on with a bit of copper wire as the original retaining screw was sheared off in the carb before I got it. And the exhaust is mainly water pipe. It seems to work though.



Here's the tines - the ones that chopped a housebrick into three pieces while I was using it earlier... I'm going to make some new ones sometime as these are a bit worn.



Engine mounting - plan here is grind off the welds holding the angle iron in place and then make a bolt-on alternative. I think I'm going to mount the engine a little higher as well so I can put a longer belt on and incorporate a belt-tightening type clutch.





And for the finale, a few gratuitous shots of rust.









I was thinking about changing the engine to a villers unit (for originality's sake) but I've thought about it more and I'm leaving this one on it. If nothing else, any other engine I find is not going to be the original one and this briggs motor is a part of the history of this particular machine and it's been fitted since probably the early 80's. I feel there are more than enough bantams that it doesn't really matter - although I am sorting the engine mounts as I said so if I change my mind again I can chop and change at will.

So there it is for now. I'm a bit restricted really as I'm doing all the work in back of a SWB transit van at the moment but you have to work with what you've got I suppose.

Oh, and I said in the first post in this thread I'd forget some of the things I have to work on:

Mountfield 11 garden tractor - very easy thing to forget about!
Qualcast super panther -  it's in at least weekly use but it might see a coat of looking at soon.

I gave the drive wheels a good tugging at... A small amount of play there but not enough to concern me - it'd pass an MOT anyway

What's the problem with them usually then? I'll probably find out soon enough, but are they bushes or roller/ball bearings?

They are brass bushes that wear away, as theres so many bantams out there i dont normally bother with onethats gone, i just find another,when they wear oil escapes past them aswell.