My Two Cunninghams

By Staff
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514 Brown St., Jackson, Minnesota 56143

I am a long time subscriber and sometime contributor to GEM.
When the GEM arrives everything else is set aside. In the August
issue, 1990, there was an article and picture sent in by an Iowa
subscriber of his Cunningham air cooled engine. I too have two
Cunningham engines. When I operated a repair service in the late
1940s, a customer brought a Cunningham engine in for a valve job
and tuneup. It was a well made engine, had a Wico flywheel magneto,
brass fuel line and ran smooth.

About 20 years ago a friend of mine who bought old iron came in
with a Cunningham walk-behind sickle-mower with one of these
engines. I traded him some work for the engine and set it aside to
be restored ‘tomorrow.’ Three years ago the daughters of
one of my customers asked me to come to their farm and appraise
some old tractors left to them when he died. They also asked if I
would be interested in an old mower stored in a shed. (What a silly
question to ask an old iron nut.) Yes, here was another Cunningham!
I bought it and removed the engine and gave the mower to a young
fellow who wanted it. The engine was stored in the ‘tomorrow
department.’

One day this past summer my retired farmer brother was wandering
around twiddling his thumbs and trying to look busy. I know that he
is a good mechanic so I asked if he would disassemble and clean the
engines. He pitched right in, had them down and cleaned in short
order. Both engines were in real good shape and required only a
valve job, new gaskets, clean carburetor, and the magnetos checked
out the same as new. Everything had been sandblasted when apart so
a coat of primer and one of Rustoleum black had them looking like
new, except for the decals. There are no decals available and to
have some made would cost several hundred dollars and I would have
998 extra decals left. A friend (another Bob Johnson) who is an art
teacher and part time sign painter took over the job, and the
painted emblems look better than decals. The first engine to be
started caught on the second pull and the other on the third. They
run real smooth and look good!

My brother is not an old iron collector so I thought it was
about time for him to start. I gave him his choice of the engines
for helping me. I have a lead on another Cunningham. I wonder if he
will help restore it?

  • Published on Jun 1, 1992
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