4a032 Governor help

[Speddmon]

Hey all,
First off, I did a search but couldn't turn up anything specific to my issue. As some of you may know, I recently acquired an ENG-3 Lubricating and Servicing Trailer. I've been playing with the 4a032 that runs the air compressor in the trailer. After cleaning the control linkage and unloader valve and the cylinder that idles the engine when unloaded I have it working better, but not the way I would like it to work. When the engine is running making air, it seems too slow, and when it idles back after the pressure is met it's not idling back far enough. I'm almost positive it's something in the adjustment of the control linkage and set-up of the governor. I was looking through the manuals for the engine and found the sections about the control rod, but I am confused...please help.

Under the "Control Rod Installation" section it says in step two, to push the throttle lever to idle.

Under the "Control Rod Adjustment" section in step three it says to hold the throttle lever against the stop. WHICH ONE? Am I supposed to hold it to the idle stop or the high speed stop??? I have to assume that it means the idle stop like in the installation instructions.

See the pictures provided.

The problem is, when it's installed and adjusted with the throttle lever to the idle stop, there seems to be no room left at all for the governor arm to move. I'm not familiar enough with the operation of these egines to know for sure...but I also don't want to just try it and then break something.

Also, under the instructions for adjusting the governor, in step 6 it tells you to turn the screw until the engine "surges" What exactly is that supposed to mean? Get a surge of speed? Start slowing down and the surging back up again??? It's kind of confusing to me. I'm not trying to make it run at 3600 RPM's just because that seems kind of fast, but I would like to see it running about 2000 to 2200 RPM's under load and idle down to around 1000 when resting. So far that's unattainable. The best I can get is about a 300 RPM difference in load and no load speed.

I thought I would let this one up to the experts. Thanks in advance.

 

[Speddmon]

Just a friendly bump on a Tuesday afternoon.

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

IIRC the engines are designed to run at 3600 rpm.... I'm still learning on the 1a08's that I have....

 

[Speddmon]

yes, they are designed to run at 3600, but with the pulley diameters on the motor and air compressor, I think 3600 would be turning the compressor too fast.

 

[Speddmon]

Bump.

Isn't there anybody out there who has worked on the governor on these engines before?

 

[phil2968]

How about some pics of the air cylinder and how it connects to the throttle linkage. I have the same engine out in the shop but don't know how that unloader cylinder would have controlled the throttle. To set the basic gov. to carb linkage, with the link disconnected at the carb, move the gov. arm in the direction that would open the throttle to wide open. Now open the throttle shaft wide open and adjust the length of the linkage so the ball joint lines up with the hole in the throttle shaft. This allows the gov. to open the carb wide open when the load demands it. Setting the gov. springs for full speed and balance is done by the screw #2 in pic 5. The other spring is to balance the gov. to prevent "hunting" or bouncing of the gov. I would assume that the unloader cylinder pushes the throttle linkage close aginst the force of the gov. spring? Pics of said cylinder would be helpful.

 

[Speddmon]

Thanks for the info, You are correct, that is what the cylinder does to control the speed, it basically pushes the governor arm to the idle position until the air pilot valve calls for more pressure. I know that there is some issues with the pressure exerted by the cylinder, as it does not have the necessary force to overcome the tension of the governor springs. I'm going to have to see if I can find a similar cylinder or rig up something to work a little better. When I adjusted the governor like you described, the best I could attain was about a 800 to 1000 RPM difference between full speed and slow speed (about 3400 running fast and about 2400 to 2600 after the cylinder activated), when the tank was at full pressure. What I would like to see is running at or near 3600 RPM under load when making air, and then throttle back to about 800 or 1000 RPM when at idle. I may have to get some other cylinder to do this. I'll take a picture of the cylinder hook-up tomorrow and post it.

Since I contacted Worthington Compressors and found some specs on the compressor head, I can now safely determine that I can run the motor faster because the compressor has such a huge operating range of RPM's ( 700 to 1750 RPM )

Thanks for the input.

 

[Speddmon]

Here are some pictures you requested phil2968, As you can see, the bracket for the air cylinder mounts under the screw that holds the fuel bowl in place. There is a piece of metal "wrapped" around the control rod, then connected to the cylinder via a cotter pin. When the air tank is at the proper pressure, the pilot valve shifts and allows air into the cylinder. It extends and is supposed to push against the governor arm and "force" the engine to idle down.

As I said, the cylinder doesn't have the force or the stroke it's supposed to have, IMHO. It just doesn't have the guts to push the governor arm all the way to a slow idle. I'm not going to replace it until I can get the governor adjusted the way it needs to be.

Back to the governor adjustment, you reaffirmed what I was thinking when you said how to adjust the control arm. It must be just a typo in the manual that it tells you on page 4-26 of TM9-2805-262-14, under the control arm installation step #2; to "Push throttle lever (4) to idle" and adjust it to that point.

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

Did you ever figure out the Gov modification?

 

[Speddmon]

I've got my hands on a few other air cylinders that will work for my purpose, but things got pretty busy around here in the later part of the summer, and I have not and the chance to get back to it.

Also, I just picked up a few extra 4a032 engines from GL, but I'm not advertising them for sale until I take possession of them, I was burned by GL in the past like that so this time I'm waiting.

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

Ahhh I hear ya there..... I'm off on Sunday to pick up my lot that ACMurno was kind enough to recover for me while he was a Mechanicsburg. 2 dolly mounted units 1 has an 2a016.... gonna mount that on Frankenkompressor........ I just need to figure out how to override the governor as well..... then I could use a remote cable to control it.