HI Lyle, thanks. I partially stripped the motor, cleaned the carb side and barrel. There wasn't a lot wrong, a bit of sticky old oil and carbon but nothing nasty. The only thing was the alignment of the throttle air hole and the servo arm, what I assumed to be fully open was about half shut. Anyway I set it up on the bench again and after a bit of spinning she went fine- a bit too fine really as the engine mounts shook loose 😯 do before I could do any setting up but a good 30 seconds of strong running and throwing unburnt fuel out the exhausts before I stopped it! So now I have set up a water supply and need to sort some M3.5 nylocs (anybody know where to get those?) and I can get it set up a bit. Oh yeah, sorting a silencer for it as well, I guess it is a bit noisy as it stands! Still not sure of the model though, it is a 2.46 ED but the number is 66/5 so I can't work out what it is from the guides I found so far, if anyone has any info on that I would like to know.
Cheers again,
Glenn.

Mate , Peter Dimberline wrote to me to offer some help from a colonial in suggestions for you , has somebody taken the backplate off and re bolted it back without the crank pin engaging in the rotor hole in the fuel induction pin hole ? maybe the fuel needle has been replaced without a taper in the end of the needle and the pin being manufactured in the motor is a non genuine needle replacement ? is there any ether in the fuel mix as the ether may have been evaporated off in storage ? maybe the needle hole in the needle air carby throat valve outer tube is glugged up over storage time and the engine seems to run on the prime only , ( soak motor in ether or acetone or methylated spirits overnight to de glug old castor residue then drain shake dry remove partly the backplate just enough for solvent to dribble all out then retighten backplate screws , then put some light type oil sewing machine type light oil drops in holes of motor and finger turn over to get oil in the innards etc , the old racers tended to have the needle open from about 2 turns out to near 2 !/2 turns out to be at the sort of general running setting , maybe the needle was tooooooo far open ? maybe the induction hole in the carby is not in line to the throat into the rear crankcase induction so that fuel air is drawn horizontally into the chamber ( hard to describe but easy to mis assemble if someone previously has readjusted and misaligned the induction flow) ? sorry for so many ideas to you but as regards fuel level, I have had engines suck up fuel from the bottom pipe inlet easily an inch below the needle level , but even a half inch uphill suck up is ok even if the tank is say 2 inches thick as you get a sort of pressure head effect which is rich to lean in run . A better idea is to fit/build in a "chicken hopper effect" in the main tank to give an EVEN fuel flow rate of delivery to the carby. Old Team racers did this successfully and it is good for diesels. All the best Lyle.