Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Good info Gil ... thanks for posting that. I wonder if my old stale Coleman fuel also has a bit less punch?

I will add the caveat that you need to be careful not to overstretch your springs like I did. I stretched a little and didn't see any change, so stretched a little more and still didn't see any change, then stretched a little more and all of a sudden my throwout weights would no longer pull in against the hub, so the engine would barely run if at all. You can't really re-compress this type of coil spring effectively, so I made arches of them which were held in place with the clamping action of their mounting screws, thus making them somewhat adjustable by varying the amount of arch present. I'll try to post a photo to show what I'm talking about this pm.

I know exactly what you mean by arching the springs. I have done it on other engines and my older blue engine from Jin.
If your springs are now too long to hang straight, You can cut them shorter and re-bend the ends where the screw goes. This way you can possibly unarch them. You can practice by trimming just one coil off. Might need 2 small needle-nose pliers for this. Oh yes, please trim off one end only.