Starting a Petter PH1 single cylinder Diesel engine

[agg221]

I think you have a fuelling problem. Mine has very little compression (can keep swinging it with the decompression lever down) but it still starts. It could be that the journey home shook something up a bit from the bottom of the bowl and you now have a slightly restricted fuel line with some bits of rust or dirt in it. I would be inclined to pull the fuel line and flush it through well - not too big a job and at least if you know it is fuelling properly right through to the injector then that's one area you can rule out. Don't forget to clean out the tank in the process!

 

Alec

[Deafhead]

46 minutes ago, agg221 said:

I think you have a fuelling problem. Mine has very little compression (can keep swinging it with the decompression lever down) but it still starts. It could be that the journey home shook something up a bit from the bottom of the bowl and you now have a slightly restricted fuel line with some bits of rust or dirt in it. I would be inclined to pull the fuel line and flush it through well - not too big a job and at least if you know it is fuelling properly right through to the injector then that's one area you can rule out. Don't forget to clean out the tank in the process!

 

Alec

I think there might be a fine filter on the outlet from the pump, but cant be sure.

[agg221]

59 minutes ago, Deafhead said:

I think there might be a fine filter on the outlet from the pump, but cant be sure.

It would be handy if there is - a look at that would soon see if it is severely restricted by clogging. I don't have a PH1 manual, only an AVA1 manual which is similar but sufficiently different not to be relied on. That had the bowl filter and then a button filter right before the injector, accessed by unscrewing the fuel pipe to the injector. Both need washing out in diesel apparently. According to the manual, you should replace the filter element in the bowl filter every 500hrs. It hasn't been 500hrs since 1956 has it....?

 

Alec

[Deafhead]

Just to add to the fun, some of these engines had an extension to the camshaft for the starting handle, which meant you could at least get a bit of speed up before dropping the decompressor, it also meant you had either a clockwise or anticlockwise starting handle. The other trick was for the handle to slip off the shaft and fetch you one up side the ear or knee depending how you stand. Openspaceman could probably add something about the starting of the twin cylinder variety. The fact we are all on this discussion means we all believe that Friday is definitely poets day. 

[Craig Johnson]

dads got one similar, haven't read all the posts, to cold start, the bottom of the stop rod, its connected to a leaver on the side of the block, pull it out and it clicks anti clock wise to overfuel, knocks off when started 

[Baldbloke]

Messaged the guy who I bought it from, as he’d originally offered to stop by on Saturday to give me some pointers on starting her. However, there’s been a deathly silence since then......
I had hoped on the machine being cold started on my collection, but of course it was happily chugging away on arrival, so I now suspect he too was in the habit of tow starting her too🤣

[Khriss]

 Ahh yes, Buyer Beware,   Bald statement that is, but they are simple motors so it wont be massive money to sort out. If you take the injector out then reconnect it to spray in a jam jar, that will rule out several things - I put an R14 filter on mine just to be on safe side. K

[topchippyles]

At least you can start it which is not the end of the world 

[agg221]

It's annoying, but as Khriss says it will be fairly simple to sort out. I would take the fuel line off at the two anticipated filter points, clean those out. I would then try turning it over with the end of the pipe to the injector in a jam jar and check fuel is pushing through. I would then follow Khriss' suggestion, take the injector out, screw it to the pipe and check that fuel is squirting through well into a jam jar. After that I would put it back together and try again - that may be enough to get it running. If the fuel is getting to the injector but not spraying out nicely in a fine mist then it's injector cleaning time, but I don't think that's the problem as it wouldn't run properly then and this is a starting issue rather than a running issue. My guess is that it will be a partial blockage, probably in a filter.

 

One other thing, when you run the pipe to the injector into the jam jar, once you have ascertained that fuel is coming through, add some to the bottom of the jar and immerse the pipe end. Then turn it over again and see whether air bubbles are coming through into the jar. If so, it suggests you have an air leak somewhere in the fuel system so you aren't pumping as much fuel through as you should be. It will still run like that but be much harder to overfuel for starting.

 

Alec

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Deafhead said:

Openspaceman could probably add something about the starting of the twin cylinder variety.

The bright orange one? 

 

I  could never start it by myself, I needed someone to drop the valve lifter decompresser thingy.  I still cannot remember what happened to it.