Over a year without a post.....

I'm amazed it's been over a year since my last post but I guess life got in the way. I have been doing little bits and pieces on the bike and today I ticked a few more off so this post is meant as a catch up and progress report. I'll be totally honest and admit that I can't remember exactly when I did what so some of this will probably be out of sequence, you may be able to spot it in the photos

The last post had the bike back together on it's wheels again although the chain wasn't back on and it still wasn't running. The main issue with that has been the carburetor as I didn't know what it was so didn't know where to start with setting it up. I recently purchased a couple of books and some original sales info that have really helped, I'll do a post on all the literature I have to go with the bike at some point. One is a general Villiers engine manual, it covers several models of engine but explains full disassembly, reassembly and adjustment in much more detail than the user manual I already had. The other one is the original French manual for the bike which gives a full spec of the engine (since it's a Villiers made under license in France it has some subtle differences). This one has been the key to making some small steps towards getting it running as I now know the timing and points gaps are different for my engine than a British made 10D. These are now set correctly although I didn't take any pictures of the setup which involved a dial indicator to measure TDC and then position the piston 6mm before TDC then boting the flywheel on whilst aligning the timing marks. Finally everything was checked by sneaking up on 6mm BTDC and trying to squeeze a 2 thou feeler gauge into the points to check they were opening at the right point. In theory this is all correct now.

So that should be the spark covered, which leaves the other important part of combustion, the fuel. The carb that came with the bike (below) isn't what Villiers would have spec'd (their own 3/4 single lever) but it also isn't what Automoto would have spec'd (a Gurtner M20) and the only markings I can find (Aluvac?) haven't helped in identifying it.

 As luck would have it, this week a Villiers carb popped up on eBay which I won for 99p plus a fiver postage. I *think* it's the correct one and I was fairly sure there were some bits missing but it was worth a try. That arrived today and I was right, the main return spring is missing along with a couple of other bits but I still tried it on the bike after a quick strip and clean and, unsurprisingly, it didn't work. I'll keep hunting....