43 AR governor priblem

working on a 43,AR all fuel and have a couple of problems. 1) i am getting no action whatsoever from the governor. engine races then slows but the governor is not reacting. Any suggestions? also, it is hand start and ii cant start it that way. cant even get it to pop. however, when i pull it, it starts after about five feet of pull. carb is rebuilt, new plugs, new points, condensor and rotor. perhaps i am still not getting enough spark? Any help is appreciated

I have a '43 hand start and it is in many ways one of my favorites! Have a couple questions/ suggestions.....

-Wears you out hand cranking with rarely even a weak pop?
-With a pull he fires right up in just a few feet?
-Outside of the terrible governor action it runs without serious miss fire once started?

Failure to start by hand but firing right up when pulled and maybe actually running half decent (but perhaps poorly under load) is often an indicator of a mag problem!

You mention new points, new condenser, etc but you don't say what mag it has on it. A series C should throw a solid blue spark eaily across a 3/16" gap. Some will suggest junking the series C mag for an X series and while I sure don't dispute the X being the more reliable of the two, a well behaving C should NOT give you these troubles!

First and foremost.... Does the mag impulse work well? If yes you hear a significan clunk every half turn of the flywheel. If you do NOT hear that every half turn clunk, it will start with a chain but NOT by hand which is EXACTLY what you describe. No clunk? Your impulse needs attention!

How carefully have you set the point gap? Point gap/timing is more critical in a mag than a distributor and it pays to set them carefully!

As to the governor action.... What you describe sounds like either binding linkage, binding throttle shaft or possibly governor parts. I've seen A's where after market carb kits were installed using a nice rubber lip seal on the throttle shaft. The seal however had enough "grip" on the shaft it would cause them to hunt terribly. Starts out fast & shut down then almost stall then back to high speed then shut down yet almost pull down to a stall just trying to move themselves & rev up to overspeed & shut down.... Nothing in between. Once moving with a decent steady load they might steady out but it's not right.

With the linkage to the carb disconnected, the throttle shaft should rotate almost effortlessly from dead closed to wide open.

When the governor to carb linkage not connected and the speed control forward about an inch from all the way back, there should not be any gap between the point on the right end of the governor lever arm and the governor spring. When you move the throttle lever forward and back from the full back dead slow position, the governor lever and linkage to the carb should move basically effortlessly following the speed control lever motion.

As a real rough inspection of linkage & operation (far from spec) with it NOT running if you pull the throttle lever all the way back does the linkage move the carb to dead slow idle position? Does it open the throttle to wide open throttle (WOT) as you advance the speed control lever? It should go to WOT very quickly with only a fairly small movement of the lever. Moving the speed control 1/4 of the way off dead slow should do it.

Suggest inspecting those items above because they may be the problem. IF not there are a whole lot of possible problems that may be inside the governor case but no need to start with the worst!

Hope this helps.

I had a problem with my 45 AR governor. I discovered that it wasn't oiling. The oil press gauge bolts to the back of the governor but behind the gauge to the left is the oil hole that oils the governor. I removed the governor and cleaned it out. It was all sluggy from not oiling. If I had known the problem I probably could have cleaned it out thru the pressure gauge hole with a piece of wire.

thanks i will check those things today.