If you have any News, good idea's/short cuts or information let me know.

paul.stokes2@tesco.net

On upgrading my Formichino to a Tipo I had the following problem.

I purchased a gasket set from the Rumi club to use as a gasket replacement for the upgrade.

I put the new cylinders in place using the new base gasket and then

the cylinder heads again using new gaskets.

When the job was complete I turned the engine only to find the pistons fouling the cylinder heads.

I scratched my head wondering what was the cause of this,  had I put the cylinder heads upside down,  I checked,  no they were correct.

As I was using new French club pistons I thought they must be a little proud at the crown.  So I removed 0.25 mm,  they were still hitting the head.  I removed another 0.25 mm,.  this did the job.

I then wondered what the piston to head clearance should be,  no one seems to know so I worked out what it was with the formichino heads.

The clearance for a formi should be about 2 mm.

If you consider the lower depth well in the Tipo head you should be left with approx 0.5 mm ( not a lot).

I then decided to check the thickness of the original gaskets.

The base gasket was approx 1mm thick,  thicker than the new one and the head gasket was again thicker than the new one I'd fitted.

With these two added together it gave enough thickness shortage to allow the cylinder to go on too far and the head to be too close to the cylinder.

This was enough to cause the piston to foul the cylinder head.

The moral of this story is to be very careful when upgrading your

Rumi to a Tipo Sport,  be wary of the gaskets used,

I do not know where you would get suitable gaskets but ask some questions first.

A little tip for 2 ringed pistons.

When fitting new two ringed pistons with very springy rings try this.

Before fitting the pistons to the conrod insert the piston complete with

the left hand gudgeon pin retainer clip and new rings into the cylinder, being careful with pushing the rings into their ring grooves.

With the pistons now situated in the cylinder push the piston as low down the cylinder as possible without allowing the rings to pop out.

You should have complete gudgeon pin clearance at the bottom.

Push the cylinder with piston onto the studs and lower to a point where you can lift the small end to align with the gudgeon pin.

All you have to do now is carefully insert the gudgeon pin into the small end and push into place.

Now insert the right hand gudgeon pin retainer and thats that.

Do the same with the right hand piston. (looking from the front).

This would also work with Three ringed pistons but the bottom ring

would  pop out of the groove.  It does however just leave you one ring to get into place.

After up grading my Formichino to a Tipo Sport I found starting from

cold a problem so I decided to instal an electronic ignition system.

I first looked at the Boyer Bransden system,  telephoning them with

all sorts of questions.

The Boyer Bransden system as good as is is did not give me confidence to proceed with a full no points system.

I decided to contact David Tompkins who as you probably know has

designed a system especially for the Rumi.

David came to my home with all the bits and fitted it,  it did take a few

hours but that was with a few cups of tea in between work.

I was very impressed with the way the bits fitted in the nooks and cranny's

behind the Rumi headlight unit and the very inventive ignition switching

method on the flywheel..

On completion David asked me to rotate the flywheel by hand,  as slow as you like,  he said.

I rotated it and "bang" I got a spark at the plugs as big as I've seen on the Rumi.

I then proceeded to tickle the carb and depress the choke as I would normally do.

At first it didn't fire up but I soon realized the problem,  too much fuel.

Now after some experimenting I have found it only needs a little fuel

and a little choke to start her.

Now she starts after the first kick or two.

It didn't finish there,  I took her out for a run and soon felt that extra

kick of power which delighted me as you can imagine.

She ticks over like a clock with no odd beats and purrs like a kitten.

As you can see I am very happy with the modification and would

recommend it to anyone with a Rumi.

Well done David.

                                                                               Paul Stokes

For further information contact David Tompkins  on Email:

davidtompkins@iib.ws   

We are lucky to have an Engineer in the club with equipment to produce spare parts for our RUMIS.

That person is Dave Elgar who has a wealth of experience in engineering practices.

Dave has a pretty well equipped workshop which by all accounts is small but has all the essential

equipment to make up bits for our Rumis. ( turning, milling,  thread cutting etc.

Dave has just included  an arbor press which with other equipment can do precision crankshaft rebuilds.

So before you go buying that new spare part, if you can get it,  Email Dave in the first instance.

Dave says charges will be held to minimum,  all he wants to do is cover his costs.

  dnelgar@tesco.net