[SEL] Starting Stover - Need Help

[R and E Freeman]

Sounds like the governor needs adjusting Paul.
Ray Freeman
Perth WA

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Paul Maples
Sent: Sunday, 29 April 2007 7:47 AM
To: The SEL email discussion list
Subject: [SEL] Starting Stover - Need Help

Ok Gang I need some advice. About three weeks ago after getting my 1905
Vertical 5 HP Stover all together I took it to my friends house about 60
miles from me and we attempted to start it. The engine had been rebuilt
inside and out. They got it started but it would not stay running and we
found that the engine was starving for gas and the fuel pump was the
problem. I had rebuilt the fuel pump which included having a new brass
plunger made, new plunger spring, and new check balls however I did not
rework the ball seats so gas was leaking around the check balls and not
keeping the carb full of gas.

I left the fuel pump with my friend as he is a machinist and he told me he
would rework the seats. He called me yesterday and told me the fuel pump was
ready and he had checked it out and it pumped good and the check balls were
sealing off. I went and picked up the fuel pump today.

I installed the fuel pump and wired up the engine. I manually pumped the
fuel pump until fuel ran out of the overflow hole on the carb. I then opened
the needle valve about 3/4 to 1 turn and started trying to turn the engine
over. The engine has so much compression that the only way I can turn it
over is by opening the compression release. After a few turns it started and
ran for about 10 seconds and then started to die, I quickly put my hand over
the choke and it came back to life which told me it was a gas problem. After
numerous exercises of pumping up the gas and then starting it and then it
dying I started it and when it died I immediately disconnected the brass
union on the fuel line between the fuel pump and the carb to see if gas was
standing in this tube as it should be and it was not.This told me that for
some reason the check balls were not seating in the fuel pump once again.

I have long suspected that the new plunger spring I installed could be the
problem. In order for the spring to work I had to widen the bottom three
coils to allow room for the check ball to go up inside of the spring when
the spring was compressed. When I opened (widened)  up the bottom three
coils of the spring to make room for the check ball to go up inside I got
the bottom coils off center from the rest of the spring. Also upon
inspecting the spring I noted that the very bottom coil was a little smaller
than the two coils above it. I surmised that the bottom coils being off
center to the rest of the spring was causing the coil to cock a little when
compressed and was interfering with the seating of the ball. In a static
test that my friend had conducted on the fuel pump this situation would not
have shown up as in a static test he did not compress and releasing the
spring, he just poured gas in the fuel pump and watched it to see if it
leaked down and it did not. I rework!
 ed the bottom three coils on the spring, centered these coils with the rest
of the spring and put it all back together. I put the pump back on and this
seemed to fix the problem. The fuel pump now keeps the fuel bowl on the carb
full all the time and you can even open the little petcock I put on the carb
in place of the 3/8" overflow plug and you will get gas running out of it
even though the engine is not running so now the bowl stays full and I have
taken care of the gas problem.

After several more attempts to try and start it, in which I now was flooding
the engine because it was getting plenty of gas and I was over choking it,
and also once I discovered that the ignitor linkage had locked up once due
to everything being too tight, I finally got all of these bugs worked out
and the engine started. It was blowing dark black smoke which told me it was
flooding so I slowly started screwing the needle valve in. The engine
stopped smoking and speeded up tremendously so much so that the whole engine
started jumping up and down. This scared me so I pulled the wire off of the
battery.

I started it again and again it would  blow black smoke and as I turned the
needle valve in the engine would really speed up hitting on every stroke and
getting faster and faster and jumping up and down. Also it was blowing fire
out the exhaust. It jumped so much that it bent the front axle on the cart.
Each time I did an emergency shutdown.

I have now got to decide what is wrong, is the speed control knurl nut on
the side of the block out of adjustment, is the governor not working
properly, is the spring on the flyweights too weak, etc.

If you have any ideas please let me know meanwhile I will start trying to
eliminate each possibility.

Thanks for all of the help.

Paul
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