British Anzani Minor help needed

[RickUK]

Forgot to say - I believe the Minor power heads were made by JA Prestwich, (JAP) which got absorbed into Villiers in the 50's - I have at least one crankcase with 'JAP' cast into it. The cranks are quite a cute arrangement - they run in roller bearings, which are backed up by brass bushes to give a gas seal.
If you get the engine running, always run in in a test tank, as the cylinders are so small and heat up in seconds.

[Charles uk]

The British Anzani Minor MK1 1/2 hp was introduced during 1949, it carried a cast banana shaped fuel tank in front of the crankcase & no cowling over the cylinder just a small carry handle above the head/cylinder.
Somewhere mid 1950 it was superseded by the MK2 3/4 hp, still with the same bore & stroke but carrying the much loved duck shaped cowling & fuel tank & an updraft Amal carb, production ended at around the end of 1955.

If you & Bruce post your engine numbers & we post ours we should be able to tell if the red or black tank labels came first.

Does your black tank label have MK1 printed on it?
As the reds have MK2.

Sorry this is all the hard info we can give, as almost no paperwork seems to have survived.

[Nudge]

Im going to have to have a better look, I'm missing the coil and the leaver.
The black tank label has no numbers on it or anything about being MK1 or 2. The only number I could find is on the crank case




This was the carb that was bodged to the engine (I'm sure it would't have a home made looking bit of copper pipe between the carb and the intake)








It could be that the owner before me wanted to be able to control the speed of the engine better so changed to the newer carb?

I have all the gear to make any of the parts needed to fix this little engine up, it is just a matter of time and getting enough pics and sizes to make the job easier!

[Collector Inspector]

Obviously test run in factory.

Minor #M202 Black

Minor MKII #M1405 Red

Minor MKII #M3640 Red

Minor MKII #M3942 Red

B[/color]

[Nudge]

Looks like your black mk1 is a touch older than mine, it would be interesting to know how many mk1's where made!
Is one of the mk11's showing the carb jet set to 1one turn and the other at 3/4 of a turn? if that is the case it could take a bit of mucking around to get them going if the name plate was swapped!

Have you got any more pics of the carb for the Mk1 (black) with some form of measure that I could use as a guide. I would like to have a go at making a carb and if by some slim chance that another one shows up at some point then I will swap it out.
If I need to cast anything I will show the forum how I go about that as well!

[Collector Inspector]

I am sorry but neither of them had a "Carb"

The "Black" one is an air valve.

The MKII red is a "Mixer"

The Air valve can NOT be duplicated and the mixer...............................you have to find one.

Cheer up however.......................just get yours to run with the carb you have and a fixed static base plate advance.

It will still look the goods with Hat on aye.

The tanks and cowls are completly different fitment between the two. You can not mix and match if lucky enough to have ones in hand to actually try.

Then there is this one......................

Do not stress OK?

Cheers

B[/color]

PS: I have only seen Anzani SS with JAP crankshafts and a big end needle setup.

[Charles uk]

Bruce your probably right about the MK 2 being a mixer & not technically a carb as it has no cable operated throttle slide but it does have a cable operated disc choke & a float chamber, does this make a Tillotson or Walborogh pumper without a float chamber, a mixer or a carb?

I'm waiting for the man with the pictures of the cowl less MK 1 to forward me the details so I can illustrate what I understand the MK 1 to be, perhaps I'm completely wrong, it's happened before.

What's your definition of an air valve?

[Charles uk]

This is the only picture I can get my hands on of an early Anzani Minor from 1950.
Thanks Chris.

[Nudge]

Im not stressing! after all it is a hobby thing not life or death!! All is good!!

Ok, so the black model (the one I have) is meant to have an air valve, Im cool with that. Why can it not be duplicated?
Are you able to take any pic's of the air valve or does mean you would have to pull it to bits?

I will get this little engine running one way or another, I just like the challenge of trying to get things as close to how they should be as possible.

[Nudge]

Would I be correct in saying the fuel line sits down inside the fuel tank under the air adjuster cap?
working a bit like this.

[Collector Inspector]

Would I be correct in saying the fuel line sits down inside the fuel tank under the air adjuster cap?
working a bit like this.

I do not think so in this case as the fuel level drops with time................

Good thort though in that maybe somewhat similar.

I am not going to pull mine out of the tank because there are others obviously with these in hand at the moment.

Mine works as it stands..................a disruption may have dire consequences.

Interesting so far aye.

B

[Charles uk]

If you saying that the Anzani black labels that you two have, are fitted with air valves not mixers like all the red labels, a picture of a mixer from a later motor, is not going to help this chap much, your going to have to take the cover off yours.

The mixer valve on the red labels looks just like a carb with all the throttle slide bits removed.

[Charles uk]

Nudge if your not too busy on Easter Friday, take a drive down highway 1 at lunch time, to Karapiro, around the rowing lake you will find one of NZ's largest meeting of Seagull nutters.

I'd be very surprised if one of them doesn't have a Minor at home or knows of one, that you could look at, as well as a whole bunch of Seagulls of almost every flavour.

[Nudge]

Nudge if your not too busy on Easter Friday, take a drive down highway 1 at lunch time, to Karapiro, around the rowing lake you will find one of NZ's largest meeting of Seagull nutters.

I'd be very surprised if one of them doesn't have a Minor at home or knows of one, that you could look at, as well as a whole bunch of Seagulls of almost every flavour.

I will look into that, Thanks for the heads up!

I am not going to pull mine out of the tank because there are others obviously with these in hand at the moment.

I don't blame you for that. I wouldn't want anyone to pull something apart if it could / would stop it from working.

Looks like I will have to keep looking at ideas too I think!!

[Nudge]

Hay Collector inspector (or others) , Would you be so kind to be able to tell me the depth of the recess in the back of the engine head. Any Idea what the compression ratio should be for this little engine?