Having got the cooling system mostly stopped up I've been having a go at getting the engine in the Sizaire-Berwick 23/46 running. I had some success on Wednesday, enough to get it out of the workshop under its own steam and around the yard but it wouldn't pull. It did idle all the way to the top of the driveway so it's got plenty of torque but it wouldn't rev and it wouldn't run at all without the choke mostly closed. I found full advance was only 5º BTDC so I moved the vernier coupling a whole tooth on the magneto side, that gave me 27º but it still spat back. This morning I fitted new spark plugs and replaced the HT leads, it ran better but still not good. I pulled the carburetter (spelling from the period correct Zenith manual I fortunately had on the shelf), stripped and cleaned out the main and compensating jet and the slow running circuit and, hey presto, it now fires up first pull with the choke open, idles at 270rpm on full retard (340 full advance) and revs up without spitting at all. I'll have another go at the driveway next week, if it gets up there it's going to its owner in Paris on Thursday, he hasn't even seen it yet.
I mentioned in the last post that I'd summarise the work that's been done on the car so here goes: new tyres were needed, when the old ones were removed no two wheels were found to be the same (one was 21" and the rest were 20", spoke shapes different, one had been modified by having the smaller centre drilled out to fit the hub) - with the wheels made safe and the brakes checked the tyres could be fitted; the somewhat basic and mostly bare wire loom has been stripped out and a new one fabricated and fitted - there wasn't much to it - headlamps, tail & brake lamps, a brake switch, a dynamo, a regulator, an isolator and a starter motor (it also needed a battery and bulbs, of course, and some new tail/brake light assemblies); the magneto was sent away to Adrian Gorvin, he did a brilliant job of renovating the mag and ensuring a bright spark; the fuel tank was found to have an impregnable coating of resin and rust so a new one one has been made with the original filler and gauge assembly and pipe fittings transferred from the old tank; the sump was removed and cleaned out and the bottom end of the engine inspected, a couple of stuck valves had to be freed off but other than that the drivetrain has been left mostly alone.
Comments