Checking Timing on A4

[Railfan]

I have a Wuhu Bowande A4 with three cylinders and I would like to check the timing. Is this something that can be checked fairly easily without having to remove valve covers, etc.? I can remove the body housing for better access. And, I know that checking the inside cylinder will be a bit of a problem due to poor accessibility. More detail is better than less for obvious reasons.

 

[cocobear]

PM me off line with your email. I had to re-time mine and have literature. Keith Bucklitch has also been through this. Converted mine from a so-so frustration into an amazing running machine. Almost every WuHu A4 I have seen has needed the center cylinder adjusted. Well worth the effort as agai, a great runner ultimatley.

dave

 

[Railfan]

PMs were sent on Thursday, Dave. Did you receive?

 

[cocobear]

Check PM reply, appears I am being blocked.

 

[Railfan]

Very useful information was received. Thanks, Dave.

 

[lnerlover]

Hello I have just brought a Bowande A4 my first Live steam Engine, can I please get a copy of the timing guide as well please it would be nice to have the engine running great right from the start.

Kind regards

Graham

 

[Railfan]

Graham, contact cocobear for the timing guide if he doesn't reply to this thread in a few days. You may also want to take a look at a thread I posted about the US National Steamup at https://www.gscalecentral.net/index.php?topic=301703.0

The second page of the thread has a couple of pictures I took of my partially disassembled A-4 Mallard. WuHu's factory engineer did a complete disassembly of my valve linkages, put it back together after re-timing all three cylinders, and adjusted them until it ran well. Hopefully, you will only have to adjust the inside cylinder.

Which A-4 did you get? The Mallard requires a little extra work to remove the housing.

 

[lnerlover]

Hello George.
Thank you for the quick reply.
My A4 is a green Sir Nigel Gresley I desperately wanted a blue Mallard but they have sold out at lest down here in Melbourne Australia.
Only picked her up on the weekend and had her running for 10 Min before taking her home seemed to run nicely.
The bug has really bitten as i picked up a Accucraft A3 Flying Scotsman as well on the weekend double chimney and smoke deflectors in LNER green a wonderful looking engine.

Are there any videos showing the start up sequence for these engines ? I found a German only on YouTube but i need a translator.

Kind regards

Graham

 

[Chris Arundell]

PM me off line with your email. I had to re-time mine and have literature. Keith Bucklitch has also been through this. Converted mine from a so-so frustration into an amazing running machine. Almost every WuHu A4 I have seen has needed the center cylinder adjusted. Well worth the effort as agai, a great runner ultimatley.

dave

Hi Dave,

I have a Bowande A4 which I have radio controlled, regulator, reverser and whistle! Great fun. It make plenty of steam, but lacks any go. I suspect it is a timing issue. Can you tell me where I can find instructions for checking the timing please?

Many thanks,

Chris

 

[Railfan]

Chris, Dave (Cocobear) has not posted on GSC in about 9 months. I had corresponded with him privately last year and he was dealing with a lot of issues due to a house fire.. I tried contacting him a while ago, but didn't receive a response. I hope that he is allright.

On a brighter note, I have the timing document and can email it to you. Send me a PM (Conversation?) with your email and I'll send it to you.

The timing on my Mallard was corrected by a WuHu factory engineer last July at the National Summer Steamup here in California, USA. I started a thread on the steamup topic and gave more information. There were a couple of pictures of the disassembly which don't currently show. I'm trying to get that corrected with the Forum Admin.

My Mallard is not RC, but has had the water lines re-routed and re-hosed. I have replaced the fiber washers that came on the engine with Regner copper crush washers when the fibers have failed. How are yours? I had a good discussion with the WuHu management and engineer at the steamup about the fiber washers. I gave them a sample of the copper crush washers and I don't think that they will be using fiber washers in the future.

 

[Chris Arundell]

Hi George,

Thank you for your response. I have been away for a couple of days and not had chance to reply.

Yes I have had a couple of fiber washers go and have replaced them with the same. I must get hold of some copper ones.

I would appreciate the timing document but being new to this forum don't know what you mean by "Send me a PM (Conversation?) with your email". Can you tell me how to do this please?

Many thanks,

Chris

 

[Railfan]

The copper washers are Regner copper crush washers. I believe that you want both 5mm and 6mm (you should check your sizes as my memory has, on occasion, not remembered something correctly). In the USA they are carried by "The Train Department". You can probably find a similar Regner parts dealer in the UK. I'm slowly replacing all of mine. They are MUCH better than the fiber ones. They are very inexpensive.

To contact me you would need to start a 'conversation' with me In the old Forum, this was called a PM or Private Message where you could send information such as email addresses, home addresses, etc., that you didn't want everyone to see. Go to the beginning Forum page with the different major topic categories listed. Then select Forum Help, and the first topic should be "Private Messages - Now Conversations". You can follow the instructions (easy) and send me your email address that you want me to send the .pdf document to.

 

[Railfan]

Chris, I've sent the timing document. Check your email.

 

[Chris Arundell]

Chris, I've sent the timing document. Check your email.

Thank you George. I have it. Will let you know how I get on. Many thanks Chris

 

[CockyJoe]

Hi guys, I have just joined GSC.

I checked around the forums and found this thread re the Bowande A4 timing issue. I have just obtained one of these A4s and test ran it the other day, it runs ok but could be a lot better. I suspect it's the valve timing as well. Outside cylinders are accessible but that inside cylinder is a challenge .... How do you time that? .... no room to adjust. I take it from the previous posts that there is a way to do it ...... any thoughts?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Railfan]

Welcome to the forums, Joe. I still have the document that tells how to adjust the timing on the three cylinder A4s. I can send you a copy if you give me your email. Click on my Tardis photo, select start a conversation, and give me your email address. I'll send the document along to you.

BTW, setting the timing will take a while as it is somewhat involved in getting access to everything. I was going to try it on my Mallard while I was at the US National Summer Steamup in Sacramento, California since there were a lot of experienced RR folks there to help, but I got lucky. Wuhu was an exhibitor at the steamup and they had brought along their factor prototype engineer. He did all the work for me when he saw me running the Mallard and noticed the timing off. He did a big tear-down, set the timing, put it back together, and had me run it. He wasn't happy, so he did it all over again, and then was happy with the results as was I. It took him about 1 1/2 hours and he worked very fast.

I had posted a number of pictures with some of the disassembly in the thread mentioned in message 7 above, but it seems to no longer be available.

If you are getting water/steam leaks from fittings, you will need Regner copper crush washers (see message #10) above. The fiber ones originally used will fail and were a bad choice. I discussed this with the Wuhu factory engineer and the Wuhu General Manager at the steam up. I gave them some samples and they were going to make the change for future designs and builds. I don't know if this happened, but they were very interested and saw how they worked on my engine.

George

 

[CockyJoe]

Thanks heaps George,

I have started a conversation, email included.

Cheers,
Joe

 

[Railfan]

Email sent with the information, Joe. Let me know how it all works out.

BTW, I tried regular copper washers, but they don't work as well as the Regner copper crush washers. You should be able to get them from any dealer that stocks parts for Regner. I get them here in the US from The Train Shop. They're pretty cheap. I didn't use a silicone sealer with them and none have leaked yet! (Now that I have said that, they will probably all leak in two weeks at our National Summer Steamup in Sacramento, CA).

Good Luck! I do have some disassembly photos somewhere, if you need me to post a couple.

Cheers,

George

 

[CockyJoe]

Thanks George for the pdf, I can see what's going on even with the Chinese translation.

First thing will be to get those outside cylinder timings perfect in forward running, reverse can be more of a compromise as this is an express engine not a shunter. I can then adjust the conjugated gear centre valve. I will then test on rollers with air and finally steam, keeping the outer shell off in case I need to do some more adjusting ..... well that's the plan anyway!

Yes I'll do the Regner washer mods and all should be good.

Have fun at the Sacramento steam up, Gordon Watson tells me he may go there this year, if so he will help you if anything goes wrong, he's the best trouble shooter there is.

Cheers,
Joe

 

[smartocci]

Very useful information was received. Thanks, Dave.

George........can I also get a copy of the A4 timing instruction........attachment to an email would be great.
My A4 is running great but need to understand the valve action better.....TKS Sal smartocci@yahoo.com