LET THERE BE LIGHT

By Staff
Published on April 1, 1986
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DIAGRAM 2 HEAD DETAILS
DIAGRAM 2 HEAD DETAILS
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DIAGRAM 1 LIFT PROCEDURE, Do not use steel or pipe between flywheels as it may slip. Use wood. Preferably 4x4 or larger.
DIAGRAM 1 LIFT PROCEDURE, Do not use steel or pipe between flywheels as it may slip. Use wood. Preferably 4x4 or larger.
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The 1925 FBM 3 Home Light Plant as acquired in October 1984, before restoration by Andrew Mackey.
The 1925 FBM 3 Home Light Plant as acquired in October 1984, before restoration by Andrew Mackey.
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The 1925 FBM 3 Home Light Plant as acquired in October 1984, before restoration by Andrew Mackey.
The 1925 FBM 3 Home Light Plant as acquired in October 1984, before restoration by Andrew Mackey.
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Evidence of extensive damage done to the Home Light Plant by mice and spiders.
Evidence of extensive damage done to the Home Light Plant by mice and spiders.
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Owner Andrew Mackey standing behind the unit on display at the fall show at Jacktown (photo courtesy of Walter Borkstrom).
Owner Andrew Mackey standing behind the unit on display at the fall show at Jacktown (photo courtesy of Walter Borkstrom).
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Restored Plant is ready to go.
Restored Plant is ready to go.
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26 Mott Place, Rockaway Borough, NJ 07866

This story started at the North Jersey Antique Engine and
Machinery Club’s 5th annual show held in July, 1984. Our show
has been held at the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show Grounds in
Frankford Township, New Jersey, on its own, and a second smaller
demonstration is given at the Farm Show itself usually held in
August.

I was talking to one of my fellow exhibitors, George Haun of
Hones-dale, Pennsylvania, about all the usual engine show stuff,
when he happened to mention that he knew where a Fairbanks Morse
Home Light Plant was located and for sale. I wasn’t really
interested as I already owned an old 25 volt generator belted up to
a 1920 IHC type M 1 HP kerosene burner, that was used in a service
station in New York. However, I told him that I would keep him in
mind in case anyone else in the club would be interested. He also
mentioned that he was looking for a small hit and miss engine in
good running condition. I didn’t have anything for sale at the
time, so I told him that I would keep my eyes open on both items
for him.

About 2 weeks after the show I was contacted by an elderly
gentleman who said he had a Stover CT-2 hit and miss engine for
sale. He had bought it in Texas used, in 1942, and had rebuilt it
for use on a well drilling rig. The Stover had been put in storage
in the late ’40s when the man moved to New Jersey, and had not
been used since. A new spark plug, Wico EK Hi-Tension leadout
tower, fresh fuel and a governor adjustment soon had it popping
along.

In early August George called to ask a couple of questions about
an engine he had bought. He also inquired about the FBM power
plant, was anybody interested? I told him that I didn’t know of
anyone at the time but that I had the CT-2 for sale. We talked for
a while and George suggested that maybe we could work out a trade.
The next local show in our area that we both would be attending was
the fall ‘Jacktown Show’ held at the Jacktown Community
Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania. This fine show has been held twice
a year, in July and October, for more than 13 years. It is put on
by The Blue Mountain Antique Gas and Steam Engine Association, a
fine group of old iron buffs.

I brought the Stover, George brought the Fairbanks-Morse, and I
think we both went home happy with our ‘new’
possessions!

The light plant was in fair shape, the visible damage being a
cracked head, a piston stuck halfway down the bore (about 45 years
by George’s guess), and the cooling condenser base as well as
the piston drip oiler were broken. Surprisingly the sheet-metal
shroud for the flywheel fan and condenser was relatively intact,
being only slightly rusted and bent up with a few loose joints for
good measure. It looked like the unit had been dropped but external
damage was light considering its weight.

The amazing thing to me was that there were relatively few
missing parts; these being the oiler body, generator pulley, the
ignition coil box base (although the coil and the retaining pins
were still in the tin box), and the air intake tube that goes in
between the carburetor and the base of the unit.

When I got it home I found the following information on it: The
Unit is a Fairbanks-Morse 3 Home Light Plant. It is equipped with a
F.M. 3 HP ‘Z’ type A open crank Special Electric Kerosene
Engine, Serial #638211, flat belted to a F.M. 3 Home Light Plant
Battery Charging Generator, 1.5 KW Serial #X42760. Both pieces are
mounted on a large cast iron base made by F.M., casting #FM-lZA-3,
which houses the fuel tank and the carb water injection
reservoir.

The first thing I did when I got home was to copy the serial
numbers down and take the unit off of my truck. I put a nylon strap
around the hopper and a 4×4 across the flywheel rims, in between
the spokes to lift it up and set it on a roll around cart. (A note
of caution here, DO NOT pick up your engines directly by the
flywheels. I saw a man break both his flywheels and bend the crank
on a 7 HP Hercules trying to pick it up this way. See diagram 1.) I
then put the unit in the garage and got ready to begin restoration.
Pictures 1 and 2 show what I started with. As you can see, the
spiders and mice had found a home. By the engine serial number I
have dated this unit to early to mid 1925.

The first order of business was to strip the unit in order to
see what parts were needed. I started with the engine first as it
seemed to need the most work. First off and most obviously needed
was the head. Split in 7 places, 2 pieces busted clean out and
gone, exhaust valve head rusted off the stem, both stems frozen
tight in the guides, seats pitted ‘ deep forget it! It was
definitely beyond salvage. Ed Deis of Orwell, Ohio, couldn’t
locate a head from a F-M Special Electric, so he sent me one from a
regular F-M ‘Z’ gas engine which fit, but lowered the
compression a little bit. The external dimensions are the same but
the Special Electric head extends into the cylinder approximately
‘ and has a raised exhaust valve seat. The ‘regular’
head is machined flat. (See diagram 2.) I do not think the
difference will hurt the engine’s performance any.

Next off was the hopper-reservoir top and condenser, along with
all the tin shrouding around the condenser, fan, and flywheel. I
straightened out all of the dents in the sheet metal and had to
braze a few loose tack welds, but basically the tinwork was in good
shape.

A light wire brushing and a coat of Krylon spray primer and it
was ready to paint. I also had to braze the base of the condenser
as an original replacement was not available. What a pain in the
neck it was trying to keep the soldered honeycomb cooling section
cool enough to stop the lead based solder from melting, and yet
heating the cast iron base orange hot to make the brazing rod flow
properly into the joints. (And watch out for crystallization too!)
I ended up putting the core into a large bucket of water and
heating a large area of the base to make my repair and letting the
iron cool slowly. This worked out well as the solder only melted
out in one place that was easily fixed during the cool-down. It
must have been some job just to have soldered the cooling core on
when this piece was made. After this was done, most of the small
parts nuts, bolts, linkages, the pushrod and rocker, etc. were
cleaned, primed and readied for painting too. I then went to work
on the block assembly.

Spiders and mice took their toll as well as the elements, but it
seems like everything liked the engine hopper. On the Special
Electric F-M the reservoir fill is in the center of the hopper
cover. It is about 1′ in diameter and extends approximately
4′ deep into the reservoir. If the water level is kept up as
the engine is running, the tube acts as a plug to the steam forcing
it to go up through the condenser. A
3/16‘ pin goes through the diameter of
the tube, about a third of the way down, to keep small objects from
getting into the reservoir. Did it stop the mice? No way! The
hopper and reservoir were filled to the brim with mouse junk: nuts,
seeds, hair, dirt, and something else. Besides all of that I even
found a 2 foot long snake skin in there! What a mess. It took about
2 hours with a coat hanger, a vacuum cleaner (an old one of
course), and high pressure air to remove all of the garbage. At
this time I gave the inside of the hopper and reservoir 2 coats of
Krylon Primer to prevent rust. I also replaced the 4 reservoir hold
down bolts as well as the piston oiler feed pipe as they were all
about rusted through. At this time I cut all of the needed engine
gaskets too.

The only ‘real’ problem I encountered in the engine
restoration was the removal of the stuck piston. I used the same
method as described in my article about the IHC ‘M’
restorations, described in the GEM Vol. 19, No. 5
(September/October 1984 issue) ‘A Tale of Two Engines’. I
will briefly describe the operation for those of you who missed
that issue.

I soaked the piston and cylinder for two days with my ‘bust
it loose a mixture of: 1 cup gasoline, 1 cup kerosene, 1 pint can
Liquid Wrench, and 1 cup type F automatic transmission fluid.
(CAUTION: use only in a well vented area, away from any open flame
or sparks.) I then cleaned out the cylinder and honed it out with a
medium stone. I noted a few deep pits in the bore, but they are
above the top of the ring travel and should pose no problem. The
connecting rod cap and the babbitted rod bearings were removed and
a 2′ diameter piece of type K copper tubing made a snug fit
over the rod journal on the crankshaft. I then used an 8’ piece
of ‘ copper tubing on the upper rod cap bolt to hold the
connecting rod in alignment with the crankpin. A 2 foot long 4×4
placed in the bore above the piston and given a few healthy whacks
with a sledge hammer soon had the piston moving a bit. I sprayed
some more ‘stuff’ on the head of the piston and gave the
crank a spin, which put the piston about 1′ further up the
bore. Back and forth this went for 2 or 3 hours until the piston
was finally out. The damage to the cylinder was not as bad as I had
expected, considering the water damage to the head. However the
piston rings, being badly rusted and broken, were beyond salvage
and a new set was needed.

I made many inquiries as to who had a ring set for this
particular engine and after one misadventure, which I will detail
later, I finally had to order a new set specially made by Joe Sykes
of North Tonawanda, New York, which worked out very well. The F-M
Special Electric’s ring specs are not the same as the
‘regular’ F-M ‘Z’ gas engine’s, therefore the
special order.

I have a special point to make at this time for my fellow
‘old iron friends’ please be extra sure of your parts wants
and needs before you place your order. Make sure of the make,
model, and size first. I made a mistake when I first ordered the
ring set from Forest Glidewell of Greenville, Ohio. When the set
arrived (and it was a beautiful NOS eccentric set at that), I tried
to put them on my piston only to find that I had goofed in reading
my micrometer and the rings I had ordered were too wide to fit in
the grooves in my piston. Mr. Glidewell was most gracious in taking
the set back, and again I thank him for his time and effort in
trying to locate a set for me. As it turned out, he did not have
the set I needed. On other occasions I have not been so lucky. Many
dealers ship only 1 way you wanted it, you got it no backsies! And
I can see their point, especially on special orders. After all it
wasn’t their mistake. I could have, and you can save a lot of
time and money if you get it right the first time around.

While I was waiting for the rings to arrive, I went to work on
the carburetor. It had been sitting for about 2 weeks in a can of
my ‘stuff’ to loosen all of the stuck parts. The carb body
is made of cast iron, and the choke and throttle shafts and plates
are made of brass. Although the brass was in good shape, the shafts
were stuck. It took a lot of time trying to free them up without
preening the shaft ends tight into the bores. About 6 hours of
patient tapping with a tiny plastic screwdriver handle and a small
ball-peen hammer had them loose. The 3 adjustment needles are made
of steel, set in brass pickup and jet assemblies. These too were
stuck tight, but with another thorough soaking and a lot of soft
taps with a light hammer soon had them free also. After all this
work the carb was cleaned with a degreaser and readied for
painting. A trip to Anchor Hardware in Denville, New Jersey,
supplied me with all the springs I needed, both for the carb and
the generator which I will discuss later.

At this time I should say that the die cast zinc cam mount and
governor were original and in excellent condition. The timer for
the Special Electric’s ignition still had its original red
paint on it! These I just removed, cleaned, and set aside, to be
remounted in their original condition.

In selecting the paint I looked at and talked to several people
who had restored F-M engines and machinery. The one I liked the
best was done by Jeff Holz, of May wood , New Jersey, a fellow
North Jersey club member. He uses a mixture of the following
paints: Dupont Dulux Green #92001 (3 qts.) and Dupont Dulux Crystal
Black #93-005 (1 qt.) All 4 quarts are mixed together and make a
deep gloss green color that nearly matched some of the grease
hidden paint on the unit. This paint seems to retain its color well
even with exhaust heat and appears to resist nicks and scratches
pretty well too. Your local auto parts store should be able to
locate these paints, if they don’t already have them in stock.
Everything was brush painted twice over and then the engine was
re-assembled. At this time I ordered the tin fuel and injection
water tanks as the originals were rusted to pieces. Charlie Homart
of Sparta, New Jersey, made up the tanks for me.

I made a new base for the ignition coil box from an old ADT fire
alarm circuit board. The tin box itself was in good shape with its
original copper knife switch still attached, but the coil itself
needed some work. Some cleaning and a new side panel made from a
cabbage crate soon had it in good order. The Special Electric uses
a coil like a Ford buzz coil for spark.

Re-assembling the engine wasn’t hard; I think that waiting
for the ordered parts to arrive was worse. Anyways, after the
engine was put back together, I remounted the engine on the base
and got ready to start it up. I made a few timing and mixture
adjustments, filled the starting reservoir on the carb, wired a
battery to the coil and gave it a try. After 3 or 4 turns it fired
sending a big blue smoke cloud to the roof of my garage. It ran
pretty well after readjusting the fuel mixture, but it had a nasty
wrist pin knock. I let it run until the fuel reservoir was empty,
(the main fuel tank had not arrived yet) and had to pull the rod
and piston out again to replace the wrist pin bushing. I should
have listened to Jeff, who has restored a few F-Ms himself, as he
told me that F-M engines were prone to wearing out the bushings and
I should replace it as a matter of course. I checked the bushing by
trying to feel the play in the rod while it was out of the engine
and feeling virtually none I used it. I still didn’t feel any
play after I had run the engine, but I sure could hear it! Anyway,
I called Eastern Bearing of Morris-town, New Jersey, and asked if
they had a bushing the size I needed. I was told that they had one
listed on their computer at their Elizabeth, New Jersey, store and
they would send it COD through UPS if I wanted it. I said OK and
figured there’s another week shot. Boy, was I surprised when I
found it waiting for me when I got home from work the next day!
These guys don’t mess around! The piston was reinstalled and a
few more adjustments had the engine finished on January 15th,
1985.

Now for the second part of my project, the generator. I worked
on the generator in between waiting time for parts to come in for
the engine. In an actual working time sense it took nearly as long
to fix up the generator as it took to rebuild the engine. The
generator was in fair shape and basically just needed a good
cleaning up, as it only took a few small but important parts to
have it operating again.

The brushes were in good condition, but 3 of the 4 springs were
missing and the 4th was rusted into 3 pieces. Using the 4th spring
as a model I made 4 new springs from material I purchased from
Anchor. In the past the armature shaft bearing mount plate screws
must have been lost and the ones put in as replacements were too
long. They nicked the armature just enough to make me have to
retake all of the exposed windings. Boy were my fingers sore after
that job. The commutator just needed a light sanding to be cleaned
up. DO NOT use emery paper to clean up the face of any commutator.
The emery grit badly scores the surface of the copper or brass, and
imbeds in the soft metal. This leads to premature brush wear and
excess carbon buildup, which in turn can cause arcing on the
commutator. I have been told to lift the brushes off the
commutator, and use a ladies’ nail sanding board or a fine
grade of sandpaper to clean an armature commutator, and then blow
off with air to make sure there is no grit left. The reason
sandpaper is used is that the abrasive material is not as hard or
as sharp as emery and it won’t imbed in the metal, unless you
use too much pressure on it.

As with the engine, the mice worked over the generator too. The
little buggers ate the insulation off most of the large wiring in
the power control box. They also liked the field selector circuit
board and its mounts, as they were chewed to pieces. They even ate
the paper shell off of the fuse cartridge! (See picture 3.)

The spiders were no better. They went where no hand has been
before or since! They got into the steel resistor windings on the
regulator (I didn’t find out until I first tried the generator
out. When the windings got hot, it lit ’em up.), into the
regulator points themselves (where I could only see them with a
dentist’s mirror), and more. The power selector switch was
loaded as well as were the field winding cores and the armature
windings. You name it, the spiders beat you to it. One even made a
mess inside the ammeter don’t ask me how it got there, as the
meter appeared to be a sealed instrument. What a bear of a job it
was getting that one out!

It took about 25 hours’ work just to repair the
‘critter’ damage. After a good cleaning up and a couple of
coats of the Dupont paint, it too was ready to mount on the main
base. Some help from the following people had me on my way to
getting the F-M show ready: Doug Kimble of Butler, New Jersey, made
a couple of different size pulleys for me to try on the generator;
the Roy Company of Branchville, New Jersey, made up the flat belt
(thanks, Dick). A special ‘thanks’ must go to Mathew
Lanterman for helping me with my generator woes, and especially Mr.
Carlton Perry who was kind enough to lend me a copy of his original
owner’s manual for the F-M Home Light Plants 1 and 3 HP. The
manual was a great help in getting the wiring sorted out.

I installed the new tanks after soldering on the original
fittings, and with some help from Lee Pedersen’s tank slush
there were no leaks. After which I mounted the unit on a frame with
wheels I built with salvaged parts, the F-M 3 Home Light Plant is
ready to go ‘on line’. (See picture 4).

I have a few questions for my fellow engine restorer friends to
help me complete my restoration. Does anybody know where we can get
32 volt DC blubs? Does anyone have a copy of the F-M owner’s
manual for the early Home Light Plantsthe F-M book # is 2575-E, as
I have not seen it advertised as a commercial reprint? Does anyone
have the outside dimension of the F-M 3 Home Light Plant Generator
Pulley, F-M part #2045, or do you have a spare I could obtain? Mr.
Perry’s manual doesn’t give the OD and I had to estimate
the pulley diameter. Does anyone else own a F-M Light Plant?
I’ve only seen 2 others besides my own, a 3 HP unit, 1924, not
running, and a 1 HP unit in original running condition, also 1924.
At this time I would also like to thank Mr. Charles Wendel who
helped me out in researching the history of the F-M Co. with his
fine/ books and a personal note. See my want ads also.

If anyone needs help or assistance in their restoration projects
please feel free to call or write and I’ll try to help you out.
If you call make it after 7 PM Eastern time. Thanks and good
luck.

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