Starting

[PeteWilts]

Well I tried priming the pump, but it made no difference. I gave it 4 or 5 pumps, should that be enough?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

You need to pump it until you feel no resistance in the lever, only then will the float bowl be full and ready to go.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Priming can take quite a few pumps, or may not work if the internal lever is on  top of it's cam.

Turn over on starting handle for 10 compressions and see what that does.

Also check choke flap closes fully, the last little bit of movement seems to make a big difference.

[Roger Goldthorpe]

Check the choke. Full story below.

I had a problem starting my RP when I first acquired it. On delivery I was given a demonstration of how to start the engine. The vendor, a tall man, suggested that as I was also tall I could follow his starting procedure. The main point here is that he reached under the bonnet and with his right hand lifted the choke and with the left hand swung the starting handle and off she went first swing. Being new to 7’s I didn’t fancy this approach and so operated the choke in the conventional way. Over the next couple of days I lost about half a stone swinging and swinging the handle. When it did start the engine ran fine, the problem was getting it to start the first time. Determined to find the cause of the reluctant starting I cleaned out the carb and the engine started ok. Problem solved. Next day engine refused to start so off with the carb another clean out and again the engine started ok. On the third day the engine refused to start. I concluded that if by cleaning and in the process flooding the carb then the problem was somehow related to fuel/fuel air being sucked into the engine. Examination of the choke cable revealed that the cable had pulled through the nipple resulting in only partial choke being applied. Nipple adjusted problem solved. The previous owner had never used the ‘choke’ as he had always operated this by reaching under the bonnet so would never know the nipple had shifted. 

For choke read air strangler or air shutter if you prefer!

Roger