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Well, perhaps just a subdued British 1920s refurb ! I'm hoping I'm not tempting fate here by starting this before I am confident it can be saved and bring back to working order, but I have reached a point where I am reasonably confident. The intention is not just to keep this a mystery 'til near the end, but to document the challenges of working on what can only be described as an old garden sculpture that used to be a machine. I reckon that this machine had a useful life of about 7- 10 years from early 1922. Thereafter, it was abandoned and left outside for at least 20 years with only the oil laden dirt to protect it. It had later (in the mid 50s) been moved to inside an old van and stored there until it saw the light of day back in Sept 18. Always been in the original purchaser's family possession until then. Being of the ilk that likes a challenge, this may be harder than I've been used to in the past. The engine is obsolete and I have no parts information for it, or the machine's frame. I have acquired some excellent info on the engine and carburettor and has allowed me to progress with checking wear tolerances and set up. I make no apologies for all the detail in the thread, as I hope it may be of use to anyone who also attempts to tackle an old Villiers engine etc. Work began on the engine to see if it was salvageable. This is the Villiers MkV 269cc 2 stroke of 1922. It is the engine version that was first to use the flywheel magneto patented around 1920 by Villiers. Very simple and effective at that time- Known as the large flywheel type Magneto (8 1/2" dia or 216mm), the engine had undergone several revisions since it's inception in 1913. Designed originally for motor bicycles, this one has a variable timing Armature back plate, but has no use for this machine's application, as the ignition timing is for TDC!. Flywheel is matched to this Armature Plate having identical numbers stamped on them. Condition of the engine externally was badly corroded Fins etc on most upper parts, as you will see in various pics. Internally was pretty dirty and no evidence of ever having been de-carbonised as it had a very thick layer inside the piston. Obviously the rings were seized after about 80 years- This engine, being very early 1922 was still fitted with 3 Rings. Later 1922 engines appear to have only 2 at the top?. Production of this engine ceased in September of '22' . I had suspected the wear in this engine to be quite bad, as it was designed to be upright and not horiziontally mounted, but was surprised that it was reasonably good as cleaning progressed. Years of oily dirt helped to keep the corrosion down in certain areas which can be seen in this pic- Note:- the chain was fitted to provide restraint while undoing the Crankshaft nut to remove the Fan. Once the engine was liberated from the frame, the internals were dismantled. Piston gudgeon (wrist pin) pin is the 'Drive In/Out' type and locked with Cotter/Spit pins. With this removed I found serious wear to the pin and con rod 'Small End' bushing. The cause being no oil hole visible to allow lubrication!. Having been blessed with access to a donor engine of the later type (2 piston rings), I obtained a good and little worn gudgeon pin, but had no option other than to make a new 'small end' bushing. I put that to one side while further evaluation was made. Cylinder and it's bore was cleaned and looked quite good considering and maybe just a hone required. Despite virtually no scoring in the bore or the ring faces, the wear limit of the ring gap is excessive and really needs new ones and a hone. Piston is good. Donor engine bore etc are poor condition. Valuable information came by the way of old editions of 2 different books by motor cycle enthusiasts of the 30s onwards, namely Cyril Grange & B.E Browning. Between the two books, I was able to extract all the max wear tolerances and most procedures. I did have a problem finding the best way to remove the large brass retaining disc/washer that retained the Armature Plate. It also appeared distorted or cup shaped - I was also concerned about the wear marks from the Flywheel on the armature plate's face, just visible top L/R of pic above. Disc/washer was a press fit onto the Crankshaft, so I went carefully and used 2 small levers to evenly prize it away with the expectation of finding an oil seal of some type behind it, only to find nothing!. Never had any oil seal fitted and no sign of leaks etc!!, all metal running fits. I reckon the cup shaped look of the washer was from strain of some kind and should be flat?. At the same time, I had fears of the Lock Screw at the back of the Plate being totally seized, as it only has a screwdriver slot, or what was left of it- I found the heftiest flat bladed lever I could use and to my surprise after a little of my releasing fluid, it unscrewed smoothly and the plate could be removed exposing the corrosion and rot- The list of jobs was gradually increasing the more I delved, and the damage from it's last runs was appearing. I tested the HT Coil using ohms resistance just to endorse it was dead, found there was still continuity in the 2nd winding, but only had half of the normal resistance. Going new anyway. modern version of this pre WW2 HT Coil is available, as well as the HT Lead, but not cheap. So by this point, I knew what was needed, what could be done and obtained to get this running again. ......soon to be cont'd.