New addition, Petter AA1 little diesel.

Just picked myself up a nice little Petter AA1 air cooled diesel. Seems pretty small for a diesel, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.
The engine came from a large collection all restored by a man who has sadly passed away recently. Usually I don't buy restored engines but it seems this bloke probably knew his stuff. There's a ticket on it that says, Petter AA1, 122831 (serial number) 2.6hp@2650rpm, last run 21-11-06, 8+3/4hrs.

After a little tinkering and taking apart to understand the engine we managed to get her started pretty easily and she runs pretty sweet. It was a bit late so we could only run her for a few seconds, the throttle needs a bit of adjustment but apart from that it all looks good.

I'm hoping to get a 240V generator running from her at some point, will make a nice back-up for the house to keep the freezer and lights going. No idea of the dates of these machines, I'm guessing 60s but if anyone knows anything about them I'd be only too pleased to hear it.

Photos to follow on in the next few days

sounds a nice little one for your collection
nice find and enjoy
kev

Nice engine you've got there Ian not many bother with diesels but I do like the sound and smell of a diesel. As far as dating the AA1 range were built from 1964-1992 sorry I can't be of more help.

Stu.

Thanks for that Stu, I think this may well be an early one by the number but I can't be sure. Not very old then Oh well, never mind. Maybe this one should be the first Hello Kitty diesel engine in existence?


I've done just enough decorating to keep the wife happy so I'm off to tinker with her now, see if she'll run for a while longer, screw her to a few lumps of wood and have a mess around with the throttle. I'm talking about the engine there, not the wife

I'll try to get some pics and maybe even some video (again, talking about the engine )

Pictures. We had to empty the fuel tank of it's 6 year old diesel that contained a lot of water! After that came the task of bleeding through, TWICE! What a bitch of a job that is, if anybody has any tips I'd sure like to hear them?

Anyway, we got her running in the end and she ticks over beautifully. Lets just hope I never run her out of diesel

We also bolted her down to some wood, shame we didn't get any pics of that.

Also I had a go at starting, it's surprisingly easy to start, but quite difficult to bleed the fuel system in (I told them it would take a long time). Trouble is it's such a tiny amount of diesel that gets pumped through on every other stroke/revolution of the engine & it's quite a long run from pump to injector. Still, it might have helped if we'd remembered to bleed from tank to pump first! But we got there in the end.

Hope the kids like it Now I want a diesel as well!

I'd have thought it would have a small bleed screw on the pump to bleed the fuel through, long time since I work on small diesels so can't remember now.

Stu.

Couldn't find one Stu. They don't mention one in the workshop manual either.
I found the manual online, decided to read through it but it gets a bit technical even for me when it talks about taking the pump apart and testing it. Think I might have to research this a bit more as I'd like to get into the technical side of diesels.

This one they call air cell injection which as far as I can tell means indirect injection. All the larger models were direct. Possibly why this one seems to run so much smoother than the bigger ones, a bit less of a bang to it

Finally managed to upload my first ever video to youtube. Nobody around at work today so I whipped the Petter out of the car for a quick run, got a few pics and this short video. The cowling looks more dented in the video, she looks pretty neat in the flesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZXMoojVF4

Better to post it like this....



Also, can anyone spot my signature carpentry skills there???
(you must all be so jealous! )

Sounds and looks good
Jonesey

engines sounds nice and constant running,
as for the carpentry, are you a distant relative of noar from bibble " builder of the ark"
then you must be a distant distant galaxy relative to his wifes side of the family

the wood work ,ive done and seen many worse mate,

if it does the job ,it will do , thats my method on the new projects ,until they earn a good trolley later
most of mine are on crap trolleys or bits of wood just to give them a barrier from rising damp out of the sheds concrete floors and stop the running away when running

kev

Think Kev's off his medication again

The engine needs a load to run.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:Think Kev's off his medication again

The engine needs a load to run.

Stu.

Looking for a decent genny or 3 phase motor to run off it, I know diesels can be very badly affected by no load running, a lot worse than petrols.
We've calculated she should do about 2kw or just under but I need to think about revs etc as she barks a bit when you rev her up

I finally took her out of my car today to put her in the garage and told the kids to come down and see her running. There was me expecting to have to pull her over at least 5 times like last time, I was just bouncing the flywheel on compression a few times with the rope to get some fuel in the chamber, then one pull and she was away

Does it have the de-compressor on the top and do you use it to start her?

Stu.

It does have the decompressor lever on top, but neither Ian nor me have bothered to use it much, it's such a small engine it's easier not to. There's a trick with the rope where you bounce it on compression a few times to activate the injector pump, then it goes over compression with a bit of a pull & (should) start.

defiantly different from the norm .... any plans to take it out onto the rally field ?

As Nutgone says Stu, it does have the decompressor but I don't really need it for starting, if anything it makes starting more difficult. These small ones were air cell, or indirect injection so they have slightly lower compression than the larger ones.


Matt, I am considering rallying it as I've seen a few similar (but larger) diesels on the fields this year. I'm just trying to date it at the moment. Obviously I will need to make a decent exhibit out of it as with all the cowling there isn't much to look at. I am also hoping she will come in handy as a back-up genny for the house. You never know what is around the corner (paranoid conspiracy theorist alert ) and having a diesel genny that will possibly run off loads of different fuels, from Kerosene to veg oil, could come in pretty handy. I call it my end of world engine

Right I thought I could see one, just they can make a big difference when bleeding the engine.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:Right I thought I could see one, just they can make a big difference when bleeding the engine.

Stu.

You're quite right there Stu, still a right pain though!

I'm thinking of rigging something up with the drill on the crankshaft next time it needs bleeding.


Out of interest, does anyone know what this engine might have been designed to run? It is rated at 2.6BHP@2600RPM, you can see the shaft coupling in some of the pictures (dangerous looking piece of metal, half of a flexible coupling by the looks of it) and we had to block up two of the four threaded holes around the drive shaft because they went straight through to the sump and leaked oil. A fact I found out when I tipped the engine up in my car to lift it out

Any suggestions or educated guesses welcome.............

Ian all your pics have disappeared all that's left is the video and you don't get a good view of the shaft.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:Ian all your pics have disappeared all that's left is the video and you don't get a good view of the shaft.

Stu.

Oh bugger, not again. That'll teach me to have a few ciders and start shifting stuff around in my photobucket account
I'll see if I can get them back again, sorry folks






OK, should be sorted now, you can see the coupling on the first and fourth pictures (I think) but on the fourth you will need to click on the pick and view it as the forum chops a bit off. Thanks for letting me know Stu

Odd looking connector Ian it must have come from something designed to use that type, unfortunately unless you can find someone that's worked or removed an engine with this coupling your going to have your work cut out to find out what, as these engines were used in so many different applications.
Good luck with the search.

Stu.