Regulator direction?

Evening,

At last I am making progress on my build but have reached an interesting conundrum?

Early in the instructions whilst assembling the main cylinder, it is advised to file a groove in the front port face of the chest, there is a footnote that Burrell practice is to pull on the regulator to apply the steam and push off which is counter intuitive? However much later on, I think kit 20 the instructions say to set up the regulator puck to cover the middle hole when the lever is fully back and push forward to open the centre hole by say 6mm would be ample.

But this then makes the notch superfluous as when pushing the lever forward would not uncover the notch as the steam would come from the rear of the puck?

Am I missing something with the explanation as all the videos show drivers pushing the handle forward to drive off and pull back to slow or stop?

What is the correct way to set this up please?

Thanks.

Richard.

The "official" or "true to life" way I think is to pull back the reg to open it, however most people (myself included) have it the other way so you push forward to open it, thus you need the notch on the correct edge/side.
The issue with it being pull back to open is it can result in a rather rapid take off, especially for beginners because the inertia of it moving off naturally makes you move back slightly which in turn can mean you open the reg further which makes things even worse, where as if you have to push it forward if it jerks you back a bit then you actually end up closing the reg rather than opening it further so you stop.
Certainly I prefer push forward for opening as it tends to make for a smoother and easier take off.

Hopefully that makes sense.

I've set mine up exactly the same.

Thanks for the replies, makes sense. I will file another notch but this time on the rear port.

Best wishes.

Richard

Hi

On the showman the regulator is double ended. But I always use the push to close pull to open side. I rest a couple fingers over the edge of the backhead and use thumb and forefinger to operate the lever.

Its odd because dont see a problem with the showmans or road loco's regulator, I think its because its on the horizontal plane compared to the vertical of the Agri and you have the back head to give support.

After reading this I think I’m going to change my 2” so it’s push forward to open. I do have problems wit it flying away on starting and hadn’t realised what was happening. Your description makes perfect sense though. I’ll need to file another notch on the other side of the port so it’ll have to wait for winter maintenance.

I have set my agri up pull back to open, i dont really have any problems with this, but if i wanted to change it and i filed a notch on opposite side would the original notch i filed cause any problems?