01-01-2018, 09:48 PM
As I turn the handle from 9 o'clock, slowly at first, it engages at 12 o'clock, then I feel a slight kick at 4 o'clock as the first cylinder sparks, but at the low compression from the slow rotation the engine does not start (and no backfire either!), then I carry on round quicker and flick the handle past 10 o'clock - where the engine fires. A local gentleman called Jim Topping, who has been working on A7 engines since 1949, suggested that the timing on my Ruby is just right when this slight kick is felt on the initial slow rotation - so this is how it is set. (Others, who have seen me starting the car this way over many years, still worry about the risk of a backfire, but then they drive other things, like Morgans.)
Colin
Colin