As a member of The Waterwheel Trust Friday crew I get involved with
the repair/restoration of all sorts of old gear. This is the story of the
restoration of an International famous engine, it was donated to the waterwheel
several years ago, and had been in storage for some time, it got to the stage that
the workshop was getting low on items to repair so several of us went to see what
we would like to do next, at the back of a shed we saw the "Famous" so that was decided
on, so with a tractor with loader and trailer it was moved to the workshop.
Then the fun started, as a few years ago we had a fire in the stores and this engine got
burnt, so there was no electrics paint or anything loose. So a quick strip down to see
what needed doing, the first thing was the piston rings were seized, so Phil unseized
the rings and polished the bore, that part was reassembled after it had all been cleaned,
Mal made a new splasher to go on the bottom of the conrod to splash oil around the sump.
Stu our Carpenter made a wooden base to mount the engine on and a box to contain the
electrics, Bill made all the electrics to go in the box. The fuel pump that is cam
operated was past its prime so John machined a new piston and Mal overhauled the valves.
Now after assembling the complete engine it was now that we had to look at the finer parts
like sorting out the timing which took quite some time after we made a spring for the igniter pawl
New copper fuel pipes were made and the fuel system tested, after testing
and cleaning the carb it all seemed good. Now it was time for a coffee, followed by
finding the starting handle, yep that is it! now for a volunteer to wind it, after ½ an hour
or so all we had was a small amount of smoke from the exhaust, so look at the timing again,
some adjustments and wind the handle again still nothing, adjust the spring on the atmospheric
valve, check the igniter, found it was sticking under pressure, free off and wind again for an
hour or so, the odd fire but not actual run, another coffee! After a lot more fiddling a round
it actually went (yes you guessed it) another coffee so now Mal painted it and put on some transfers.
So after about 2 months of working on it and having the odd cuppa we have an engine that runs, and looks good Oh and one thing we found when it finally ran is that it has a bent crankshaft, which looks good when it runs with one of the flywheels gently wobbling!
THE ENGINE FINISHED! Let’s have a coffee.