Speedo drive cable?

[adi]

Mine looks like 418F 25137.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 With a code like 418F, it sounds to me like you've got a replacement Villiers Mk 11E engine in there in place of the original mk 9E liump. A Mk 11E with code 419F & belived to be from a conveyance went through eBay only last week & was nabbed by a cetain person who pops up here from time to time.....   

 Elsewhere, such codes as I've observed on invalid carriage engines are 310F being AC Acedes & 313F being Invacar Mk 12.

[adi]

Hmm...thats wierd, but predictable i guess.

Would a 11e be different from a 9e? It seems to be thesame single cylinder 2 stroke with reversing dynostarter and forced air cooling.

Would it have a hole for the speedo drive or not, being a 11e rather then a 9e?

Is it possible that it was a one-off factory mix-and-match job? After all, with low volume production stuff like bubble cars, i believe it was common for batches to be slightly different, different fittings, etc. So maybe on the particular day they made mine (schassis no 426) they were all out of 9e engines and stuck in a 11e? That happened with indicators, lights, door handles, and a multitude of other stuff, right?

The reason im asking, the car has only had one owner, a lady, officially it had 3, me and the junk yard too, but the only real owner was the lady.

And i think looking at the engine mounting bolts etc, they havnt moved for a looooong time. So either our good freind Mrs D. Miller from Sherbourne, Dorset blew the 9e and had it replaced with an 11e very early on in the cars life...or that engine has been in there since day 1.

But...also...someone must have stuck the wierd home made exhaust on there...somehow i dont think Mrs D. Miller would want a super loud exhaust...maybe she had a secret boy-racer streak in her and didnt tell anyone  Havnt found any NOS fittings yet...

The mystery thickens.

[blob]

Initially the 11E is an upgraded version of the 9E and can be employed to power a microcar, however there are major differences to the gearbox,  Bob P. can address this in detail, as he's been fiddling with them of late.

[Bob Purton]

If you post a photo of the engine we can tell you if its a 9e or 11e. If its an 11e from an invalid carrage it will have no speedo drive because on a carraige the speedo is driven from elswhere, not the engine gearbox unit. The other possibility is that the original engine blew up and Hunslets supplied an 11e replacement because thats what they were using to power mk2 scootercars.

[adi]

I called up the guy at Villiers Services, and he said it aint unfortunatly all that simple, that i could have the casting that has the engine number from a 11e, while having an engine thats actually mostly 9e parts, and basically having an engine number is about as useful as an engine number of a VW beetle. All it tells you is what vehicle the engine number plate/casting was originally bolted to!

Because parts are so interchangeble, i could have a real pick-n-mix of an engine...which of course im very much used to, having had mainley beetles.

Mine does not have a speedo drive it seems, just the un-machined casting blank where it should be.

But apparintly getting that casting but with a speedo cable is pretty easy, according to the villiers service guy, or if mine is mainley a 11e, he said i could think about swapping it for a 9e unit since the ratios would be wrong.

But, before making further plans, and many more questions um sure  , it what DO i have? A 9e with no speedo drive and the number of a 11e? A straight 11e? Or a mix-and-match concoction made from random parts of both?

Pictures:

[blob]

It's an 11E

[Bob Purton]

Yep! Thats an 11E alright. Wonder if it has a posative stop gear box? The gearboxes on the invalid carraiges were not. I wouldnt worry too much about it, they are mostly the same inside. A few casting differences and gear ratio's which can be altered by changing the final drive sprocket. I would press on with that engine and see how it drives.

[adi]

Hmm...so as long as i get a gearbox casing with a speedo drive, it would be alright.

So, whats this positive stop gearbox thing? Whats it do and how is it different to a normal box?

Are all the ratios in the 11e different, or ust the 1st? Someone said that the invalid carriage 11e has a higher 1st gear but thesame 3 other gears.
Or are they all different? Higher or lower? Higher wouldnt be so bad, would keep the revvs down in long fast cruising.

[Bob Purton]

This is what I have been told. 9e ratio's    1. 3.25   2. 1.96  3. 1.40  4. 1.00   
                                         11e ratios    1. 2.95   2. 1.80  3. 1.35  4. 1.00

It appears that fourth gear is the only one thats the same. 9e and 11e gearboxes are interchangable so you could have either.
Possative stop means that each time you change gear the lever selects the gear and then stops, the lever has to return to its resting place before you can select the next gear. Sequential non possative stop means that there is nothing stoping you sail through the whole gearbox, 1st to 4th in one swoop! As you move the lever forward and into gear the lever stays in that possition and its angle increases as you move through the gearbox. Invalid carrages have a set of gates that the side of the lever drop into so you know where you are.

[adi]

Mine appears to be the usual bike type set up.

From neutral you go forward for first gear. Then for 2nd, back through neutral to 2nd. For 3rd, you go forward to the 'neutral' (middle) position again, and click it back to 3rd. For 4th its thesame, let the lever return to the center and click it back again.

So like a bike, only a gear knob and not a pedal.

So thats like a normal positive stop scootacar rather then like an invalid car, right? But then why no speedo drive an a 11e engine? Big mash-up of parts?