Crossley 1030

Hi.
New boy to the forum here.
I have a Crossley 1030 which is partially striped as it had no compression when i bought it. Valves were mucky and the old head gasket has more holes than my socks. Everything cleaned up now and valves lapped in. I have a new head gasket to fit when i put it back together. Just noticed that the two valve springs are different and I’m not sure if this is how it should be or whether its just been botched in the past. I was careful to keep all the bits separate when i dismantled but then noticed the valves were different lengths so no fear of a mix up.
So, anyone able to tell if they should be the same, or if not, which valve should be fitted with the tougher spring ?
Temporarily I have fitted the tougher spring to the exhaust valve which looks like it may appreciate it more !

Thanks in advance
Terry.

PS. I will be looking for help/guidance on my recent haul of engines. Ruston PB, Amanco Hired Hand, Lister D plus the Crossley. New to the hobby so bear with any daft questions

Hi Terry,
Looks like you have a fine collection of old iron.
I look forward to seeing your first project. As I said before 'Don't worry about daft questions - daft answers are much worse' We were all newbies at one time - I still am.

I've not seen a good picture or diagram of this valve system; but I would expect the weaker spring to be on the valve that opens when the operating rod pulls.
I think the spring on the push/pull rod opens the valve so it's one spring compressing another. That must have an unusual cam profile.
on the other hand; I've probably got it completely wrong.

I saw one of those engines at a water mill on the Isle of Wight but could not see the cam and follower for muck and cobwebs.

HI. That seems logical and by luck that is the way i have it put together at the moment. Not 100% convinced they were originally different as the weaker spring is also a bigger diameter and the fit looks a bit awkward to me. Once i have the mag set up and back in situ i will try and fire it up and see what happens. I will put some pictures up over the next few days.
Thanks for your input

A picture maybe would help Terry.

A couple of pics and a leaflet that may be useful:

http://www.howardengineerium.co.uk/Images/Crossley-4.jpg

https://mathewsons.co.uk/images/directory/p5/f11547/IMG_9611.jpg


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/crossley-book-engine-crossley-stationary-engine-enclosed-ph-1030-1040-1050-phc/184673530987?hash=item2aff66746b

Hi.
Not sure if my reply was sent or not so another copy......
Thanks for the links.
I bought the Crossley book from ebay which contains several detailed cross sections of the engine. Springs look the same to me.
I have set the engine up as per ‘oldgit’s suggestion with the wider, weaker spring on the ‘pull’ stroke of the push rod.  Push rod spring is quite meaty by the way.
Some pics enclosed which show what i mean about the larger spring looking a bit awkward.
The engine was running some years ago with the springs fitted so guess it will run again !
Terry

It may well be that this is the correct spring.
Is the wire that the springs are made from the same diameter?
I'm thinking: maybe Crossley wound their own springs, but needed two springs to fit in a similar length. If they only had one wire size; to make one weaker than the other, they could wind it over a larger diameter former, they would then have a greater length of wire
in the spring which would give it a lower spring rate.
But I agree, that spring does look a bit distorted.

You might want to have a butchers here - you can buy a single spring!
Last time I tried them they couldn't supply a weird torsion spring (massive Victorian door lock) ex stock, no real surprise, but they tried very hard to come up with a solution.

https://www.ashfield-springs.com/shop/compression-springs-11-20mm

The inlet and exhaust springs have different part numbers, I have a 1030 stripped down awaiting parts (looking for the the Holy Grail methinks! ) so I will have a look at the springs this afternoon and see which one goes where!

Pete.

Thanks for the info.  Look forward to seeing what you find Pete.

Right: the inlet valve spring is very light (like an atmospheric valve spring) and can be fully compressed with my fingers. The coils are half the thickness of the exhaust valve spring.

Pete.

THANK YOU.  !  Mystery solved.
Cheers
Terry