Ian's Vincent 2 Stroke

OK, so the strip down has begun. I've been working on it this afternoon & evening & I have now managed to completely strip this engine down to the last nut & bolt. But, it's going to be a long post if I write it all here, so perhaps I'd better do it in bite size chunks. Also, it's getting late now, so I won't be able to type much as I will be keeping people awake & won't be popular.

I have taken loads of photos though, & (as usual) started a dedicated photobucket album for this restoration, which can be found here....

https://s682.photobucket.com/user/nutgone_matt/library/Stationary%20Engines/Ians%20Vincent%202%20stroke

OK, so here's where the story starts, with a complete, non-runner, of a rather nice looking little Vincent....



We started by having a look behind the cowling & also at the output end, looking at the mag. Firstly we had to remove the weird shaft coupling off the end of the shaft. This engine has come from a Vincent Amanda, which is (or rather was) a small fibreglass hulled scooter boat, basically a forerunner to the modern jet-ski. I've no idea how we'll couple anything to this shaft coupling though, but I'm sure we'll find a way (it screws onto the shaft with a normal, right hand, thread)....



The inside of the mag (this casting also forms the area for the re-coil starter) seems to have been stored somewhere a bit damp at some point....



& although the mag looks modern, it's just the same as any old fashioned flywheel type mag with a set of points (& for some reason 2 condensers)....


Right, I'm leaving it there for now. Got to get in the bath & off to bed. next instalment tomorrow (probably)

I see insulation tape.............
proceed with caution

Yeah, not sure I'll even bother testing those condensers, they both look like they've been submerged, & both have different colour wire at one end & the other. Still I think the coil's OK. It has a bad earth, but megger tested alright.

Anyway, more tomorrow. Off to bed for me.

looks like the upside down johnnson water pump 2 stroke from a distance and the electrics are in the same place, not good when on the waterpumps as its a pump stripe down to get to the coil and points ,i was trying to help a bloke at the 1000 rally wit the johnson ,but the pump wount come /move from the crank shaft ,all alloy so he left it for 3-4 mnthe to soak in diesel ect but bought another off ebay and ha the same all over again
so he sold the pair on ebay just before crimbo
so at least you wont be having that issue to be worrying about mate
waiting for the video
kev

Hmmm, yeah.... The video.

Will this do (it's not a video, but it's the best I have for now)....



:stick lol:

I think you could just about clean the points on this one without dismantling the whole back output end, but you'd need to know where they were & how to do it I suppose.

I suppose I should write a little more on this one, before I forget how I took it apart.

I wanted to get it completely stripped down, so carried on with the output end. I removed the mag innards (still no idea if it originally had 2 condensers, I suppose I'll find out when it's all cleaned up). Once that was out of the way I took the recoil starter off. I never did have much luck with these things, & sure enough the spring found it's way out. But I managed to control it.

So I was left with the shaft with the recoil ratchet attached. I needed to get this off in order to split the crank case open (or at least I thought I did), but how was it attached???...



I thought the ratchet plate was threaded on, & it may still be, but I couldn't get it off, so I removed the 4 nuts which appeared to be holding the crank case halves together, then concentrated on the other end of the crank shaft (or at least that's what I thought it was, I really should have looked at all the links Steve left further back in this thread).

Eventually I got the flywheel nut off (left hand thread) & managed to pop the flywheel off it's taper....



Then I could remove the other 4 nuts holding it all together & started tapping on the end of the shaft with a copper mallet. Things started to move, but the case was up against the ratchet plate on the output side. I wondered if the crank case cover on the flywheel side was part of the casting, but eventually managed to break the seal & get the flywheel side cover off to reveal it was an overhung crank!....



With a very simple plate to run the flywheel & cool the engine....



This half is very deeply spigoted into the crank case (apparently to keep the volume down & the bottom end pressure up)....



Anyway, I spun off the big end bearing plate (another left hander) to reveal the needle rollers....



I would need that picture later, when I popped out the crank from that side. I was still adamant I needed to remove this pesky ratchet plate to proceed, but Nick reminded me about the design of the big end/crank & I managed to tap out the shaft & crank case side, just leaving the con rod & piston in place. I then removed the piston, leaving me with these 2 pieces....





Then, eventually, I found out the ratchet plate comes off the shaft quite easily. It's mounted on an aluminium bore, which is keyed onto the shaft. The trouble is the last person had broken this long key in half & I couldn't see it down in there, so thought it was all part of the crank shaft. (that's right, another engine has been butchered by a previous owner, but not too badly, no broken pistons this time)

It slid off quite easily, showing a threaded bearing cap, which I removed, along with the spacer & seal, bearing & another spacer (still on the shaft in this pic)....



Right, that'll do for now. I'll try & finish the strip-down saga tomorrow. Hopefully at a more reasonable hour.

Coming along well with the overhaul Nuts, lets hope there's no big surprises once it's all stripped.

Stu.

Nuts,

You find the darnedest oddball engines!!!

Good show though I'm enjoying this one too, Odd looking cylinder/block though...very interesting to me.

Cheers, John.