RH Billy chassis...

[JMORG]

Hi all,
My father and I have been trying to work out a way of settiing the timing on these chassis easilly. By the looks of things it's almost by "trial and error".
Is there any special technique that anybody can recommend so we can set up multiple chassis easilly?
Many thanks,

[Mattyrallye]

Seeing as noone has replied.

It's not a trial and error thing. get yourself on the roundhouse website and download the instructions and read them a couple of times. Learn the terms dead centre, top dead centre and bottom dead centre. Then follow the instructions from roundhouse. If the loco is brand new its easy, if the loco is old and has slop it can be much harder to do it (as I found out). To find out how much play you have hold the rear axle still and then grab the link that goes directly into the valve chest if you can move this a couple if mm either way you have a lot of play in the valve gear and it will be a pain to time up. You may need to replace parts.

Put the loco in natural and set the valves so they cover both holes.

Now put the loco in forward gear.

Essentially you want the following to happen.

Wheel in dead centre with the coupling rod at full rear extension the back hole in the chest should be ready to appear, as you push past point in forward motion it will start to open.

At TDC the back hole should be fully visible.

Between TDC and front dead centre it should start to close off.

At front extension of the rod travel the back hole should be totally covered and the front hole should just be ready to come into view.

Just past front dead centre the front hole should begin to be visible.

At BDC the front hole will be fully visible.

Past BDC it should start to close off.

At rear dead centre you will start over.

Repeat for each side.

To get the adjustment you screw the rod that goes into the valve chest. To check you have to link it back into the valve gear.

Once you are happy check both sides work correctly and then put the cylinder tops back on.

Steam up and see how it sounds when it chuffs. You will soon know if it is out or not!!!

If you want a hand you can always pm me and I can try and explain better.

Cheers

Matt

[LnBmad]

That's a good explanation Matt. I suggest to set it in forward gear first, then check in reverse. I know I had one of the excentrics slip out of sync and I could set forward fine but reverse was miles out. Also test it on air before a steam test, it's just quicker for adjustment.

[Mattyrallye]

also agree with above.If you can test on an old car tyre or bike tyre as a source of air that also works.

[JMORG]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!
We'll get to work on it straight away!