26 Mott Place, Rockaway, New Jersey 07866-3022
Last spring, in between jobs, I decided to go to an auction sale
in Hainesville, New Jersey. I had heard of it through a friend in
the North Jersey Antique Engine and Machinery Club. My friend Dick
Haskins had told me that there was to be an estate auction with
some old tractors and old engines in it, near his home. I decided
to go and have a look, as you will never know what you will find at
an auction.
There were six or seven tractors, all of which ran. There were
also all kinds of household goods and antiques, which were good
crowd pleasers as well. What happened to catch my eye though, were
several rows of old iron and related items. It seemed that these
rows attracted just about everyone else, too!
There were ten or twelve engines, some in good condition, and
some not so good, as well as a couple that would not even make good
lawn ornaments!
Upon closer examination I found the following: The Arrow Motor
Model K-2 Pausin Engineering Company, Newark, New Jersey, 5 HP. The
engine block and the pump base were made of aluminum. The pump body
and the carburetor were made of bronze, and the engine cylinders
appeared to have water jackets made out of copper. As I was looking
this engine over, my friend Dick came over, and gave me some of its
history.
Dick told me that the pump had originally been sold to the local
fire department for use as a portable fire pump. The area of Sussex
County where we were was very rural, mostly vast farms and small
country roads. Since there were not many fire hydrants, the local
fire department had to draft (pump water) from a nearby pond or
lake in order to fight the fire. As this pump was set up, it could
either pump water through two hoses, directly to the fire, or it
could be used to refill a tank that would supply another piece of
fire apparatus at the scene. As the fire company and the town grew,
larger pumps and trucks were bought, and the old pump saw less and
less service, until one day it was finally declared surplus
equipment.
The pump laid around the fire house for several years, and was
then sold at auction to the public as surplus equipment in the
1930s. A local farmer in the town of Branchville bought it to use
as an irrigation pump, to water crops and fill feed stock troughs
on his farm. For this purpose the old pump served well until the
early 1950s when an untrained farm hand put straight gas into the
fuel tank without any oil. At this time the engine labored to a
stop the pistons seized from lack of lubrication. The pump was then
taken to a repair shop, but the engine would only run on one
cylinder and backfire when it was returned. The farmer used the
pump until one day it let off a really loud backfire and blew its
exhaust system off. At this point the farmer had had enough and the
old pump was relegated to the back of the barn.
In the early 1960s the farm was holding a sale when another
friend, Ed, noticed a pile of old engines in the barn. Ed asked if
they were for sale, and was told ‘no’ by the owners. Ed,
being very persistent, kept after the owner to sell the pile and
finally, a price was settled upon. In the pile was the old
pump.
In the early 1970s, Ed finally got around to looking at the old
fire pump. He tried to start it, but it was real stiff to turn and
it would only backfire. In 1978 Ed had asked me to take a look at
it, but I didn’t get a chance to. Ed had the pump sandblasted
and then set it on the floor of his shop, where it sat until 1994.
This is when it went up for sale at the auction I was
attending.
I noted that the pump was semi-seized, that is, the crankshaft
and flywheel were stiff and the pistons were almost locked in their
bores. It also seemed that the spark plugs had been removed some
time ago. Dick and several others had also looked at the pump and
just shook their heads and walked away.
The auctioneer finally started on the rows of old engines.
Wouldn’t you know that he would start at the other end of the
row! As the auctioneer sold piece after piece, a pattern soon
developed. Most of the engines were going at what I thought was a
good price. A few pieces went cheaply and one or two went quite
high. One man ended up buying about 60 percent of the entire
group.
As I had only a limited amount of money on me, and the auction
only accepted cash, there were two that I went after. But I dropped
out, because I wanted to go after the old fire pump. Finally, it
came up for bid.
The auctioneer started out with: ‘Here’s a fine example
of American manufacturing. Who will give me 300?’ His reply was
dead silence! ‘Who will give me 250 for this fine machine?’
After trying again and again with no bids, he said, ‘You’re
not looked at this right. Is anybody here at this auction today? We
have an item to sell. Who will make an offer?’ I said,
’25’ in a small voice. The auctioneer looked at me for a
couple of seconds with a look of utter disbelief, and looked up to
the sky and said, ‘Well I’ll be, somebody did come to the
sale after all!!! I’ve got 25, who’ll give me 30?’ and
away we went. We bid back and forth until we reached the $225 mark.
At this time the other man hesitated. Finally he raised his hand.
The auctioneer turned to me and asked, ‘$250?’ I replied
‘$230.’ He looked to the other man and said,
‘$235?’ A shake of the head and it was back to me,
‘$240?’ was asked. A nod given. ‘$245?’ to my
opponent, ‘Yup’ was the reply after another hesitation.
‘Two hundred fifty?’ to me, a nod of the head sent it back
‘$255 ?’, no answer. Again the question, ‘$255?’
another wait.
A third time the question was asked, and this time a negative
shake of the head. The auctioneer then said, ‘Going once at
$250. Going twice at 250, and finally, SOLD! at 250! Thanks for
coming!!!’
It was finally mine! The crowd gave us a round of applause and
then moved on. After I got the sales slip in my hand, I went to
take a closer look at my prize. Several people were now looking at
the pump. One asked me, ‘When is this going up?’ I told
him, ‘It already has.’ They then asked me who had bought it
and I told them I had. When they heard the price I paid, one man
said, ‘What a find!’ I also thought I had quite a
bargain.
A bit later a man came up to me and told me that the old pump
had belonged to his father’s fire department and it had been
originally purchased in 1917. The pump came with its starting crank
and a Zirc to Alemite adapter for the grease fittings on the pump
and engine.
The old pump then sat in the garage for a month before I got a
chance to give it a good looking over. The first thing I wanted to
do was to see if I could free up the engine so it would turn over
easily. I sprayed some WD-40 into the open spark plug holes and
soaked the tops of the pistons. I also sprayed it into the open
exhaust ports and outlets, after turning the pump on its side.
After setting the engine back on its base, I tried turning the
15′ flywheel by hand. To my surprise, after a few seconds of
effort, the engine started to turn much easier; however, it felt
and sounded like there was a lot of grit in the cylinders. Now I
knew for sure that the engine had to be taken apart in order to be
set straight. As I found out later, this was to be a blessing in
disguise.
I started my restoration by removing the intake manifold and the
bronze carb, as well as the brass cooling manifold and copper
tubing. I also had to remove the magneto and its bracket and the
magneto drive chain. As I was taking the magneto off the engine, I
noticed that when it was turned, it did not take much effort to cut
the magnetic lines of force at the firing points. This meant some
mag work was in order. I should also note here that I made sure I
found the timing marks on both the engine and the mag before the
mag was removed. I figured that at the least, I would have to
charge the magnets, as the spark was weak for the rear
cylinder.
Next came the removal of the cylinders themselves which, on this
particular engine, is not an easy task. The cylinders are made of
cast iron. The base is machined to fit into the block, and the
lower exterior is also turned to receive the copper water jacket.
The top is machined flat and is tapped with a 22 millimeter fine
thread, in which is screwed a brass insert that seals both the
water jacket and the combustion chamber. This plug also acts as the
mount for the spark plug. The copper water jacket base is a taper
press fit onto the machined base of the cylinder. Besides various
tapped holes for the cooling system and the exhaust, on the
‘rear’ of the cylinder is an approximately 1 by 2 inch
inspection port cast onto the base that is machined with 4 holes
tapped in the corners. Both cylinders appear to be identical,
except for the engine ID plate soldered to the ‘front’
cylinder water jacket. I forgot to mention that both cylinders also
have a brass right angle cock mounted on the sides, using a ‘
pipe thread and flange to seal the combustion chamber and water
jacket.
The cylinders, being mounted only ‘ apart, both have to be
removed at the same time because the inspection port cover between
the cylinders actually is nested within a recess in the rear
cylinder. There is not enough space either to remove the port
cover, or to separate the cylinders enough with enough distance to
remove them individually. The cylinders are mounted to the block
using four 5/16 bolts, three of which are fed
from the top and threaded into the block in the conventional
manner; and one of which feeds from the bottom of the block into
the cylinder base, because of the placement of the exhaust port and
discharge. On this last bolt, placement is critical because when
the discharge port was drilled and tapped, this bolt was in place.
The taper and the port threads are cut into the end of the bolt,
and if you happen to swap a different bolt into the hole, the
exhaust pipe won’t be able to seat in the port threads
properly. As a last note, these bolts (at least on this engine) are
not the conventional 5/16-18 thread common
bolts. As near as I could tell the thread count is closer to 20
threads per inch.
I unbolted the cylinders from the base and proceeded to lift
them off of the block as a set. They weigh about eight pounds a
piece, but are unwieldy because of their shape. When they were
finally clear of the pistons, I could see immediately why the
farmer was having so much trouble running the pump after it was
repaired.
This particular two cycle or two stroke engine is of the piston
port design. It is basically two 2 HP engines side by side, with a
common carburetor and a 180 degree crankshaft. The crank-case
sections are separated with a manual grease seal, which I will
cover later, and the crankcase itself splits horizontally along the
plane of the crankshaft itself.
For a piston port two cycle engine to operate properly it must
be assembled properly. Whoever rebuilt the engine had reversed the
rear cylinder piston, and more, as I later found out.
This engine uses a stepped piston in its design (see diagram 1).
As the piston recedes down the cylinder bore, the piston crown
uncovers first the exhaust and then the intake ports. Since the
piston was reversed, the intake port was uncovered first, the
exhaust flame was directed into the intake manifold thus leading to
misfires and loud backfires as a result. To get a complete idea how
a two cycle engine works, see my article ‘Smokers’ in the
April 1989, Volume 24, #4 issue, page 27 of GEM.
After the cylinders were removed I could see what had bound up
the engine. The person who had sandblasted the engine didn’t
cover any of the external openings on the engine and the cylinders
and crankcase were loaded with a lot of coarse, fine grains of
grit. This meant a complete teardown was necessary in order to
clean the engine up internally.
To remove the engine from the base, it had to be uncoupled from
the pump. This is accomplished by removing a cooling line coupling
and releasing three large wing nuts and their ‘T’ bolt
assemblies, separating the base into two halves. The pump is linked
to the engine through a pin spline which also separates when the
base is split. With this done, the engine can then be removed from
the base and disassembled.
When all of the grit was washed off, along with many years
accumulation of grime and grease, I found another mistake on the
other cylinder. The connecting rod and its cap were assembled
mismatched, with the big end bearing cap reversed. This meant that
particular bearing didn’t get the proper oiling necessary to
lubricate the crank when the engine was running. At this time, the
entire pump was treated to a high pressure washing and a good
blowing off with air to get all of the moisture off.
When all of the parts were relatively dry, I wiped the parts dry
with a clean rag, and all of the iron and steel parts were sprayed
with WD-40 in order to keep them from rusting.
The engine, with the exception of the former assembly errors,
was in good condition. There didn’t appear to be any damage
from the grit and dirt, but the intake and exhaust ports and
manifolds were loaded with a heavy carbon buildup due to the
incessant backfiring after the engine had been rebuilt. The carbon
was removed with a dentist’s pick, a screwdriver, and a lot of
elbow grease. The exhaust ports were a particular problem because
of their design, that is the casting did not leave much room to
work in at the rear of the port, to remove all of the carbon which
was a real pain in the fingers! I polished the copper water jackets
at that time, too.
Now that all of the cleanup was done, I could do a good close up
inspection and begin the reassembly process.
The crankshaft was in good condition, with only a little wear
noted on the con rod throws. The three mains fit snugly in the
block, but I thought that there was too much end play (about
40-thousandths). In order to take out the excess end play, the
flywheel and its key had to be removed. The flywheel is about
15′ in diameter, with a 2′ face. It weighs about 20 pounds
and is anchored in place with a 5/16 tapered
gib key to the crankshaft. A metal wedge and a small ball peen
hammer soon had the key out, and a 6′ long 1′
diameter by 6′ long brass piece of pipe soon had the play out.
The trick was to get the gib key back in tight, without loosing
critical clearances! I tried three times before I got the flywheel
to stop just where I wanted it to. When it was finished I ended up
with about 5-thousandths of end play. Any tighter and the crank
would bind up on the block journals.
Before I assembled the crankshaft and cylinder assembly, the
connecting rod assemblies had to be installed. I decided to check
the wrist pin fit as well as the big end bearing clearances now,
before I ran into problems. The wrist pins themselves were in good
condition, but the small rod end bearings had a lot of wear, and
had to be replaced. A machinist friend of mine, Doug Kimble, spent
about two hours drilling, miking, and polishing the two new
bearings. They had to be made individually because the wrist pins
were about 5-thousandths different in diameter. It would seem that
each piston was individually fitted at the factory, as the pins fit
perfectly in their own piston.
I should note that the wrist pins are free floating. They are
not anchored by either the piston or the connecting rod. Instead,
they are held in place with aluminum buttons, much like those being
used on today’s racing two-stroke engines (see diagram 2).
With the piston pins now fitted, I then installed the rods onto
the crank-shaft. I made sure that they were facing in the correct
direction for the oil pickup dippers to operate. (See diagram 3.)
Then I prepared the block to receive the crankshaft. The crankcase
houses the three main bearings, which are lubricated by Alemite
fittings. I pumped fresh grease through the fittings until it
appeared at the bearing, then spread it on the bearing surface. The
crankshaft was then put in its place in the bearings, and the two
halves were bolted together. The next step was to mount the pistons
to the respective connecting rods with the pin retainers taped in
place. The entire assembly was then set aside for painting and I
continued to work on the pump side of the unit.
The pump seemed to be in good shape, so I just flushed it out
with clean water and turned the impeller by hand in order to clear
any grit out of the housing. I felt no resistance in the pump as it
turned, so I began to ready the pump section for painting. I
removed the seven Alemite fittings and polished them, taping the
lower section of the pump to protect it from overspray, and I
removed all of the copper cooling lines and polished them.
When the pump was new, the upper pump housing, flywheel and fuel
tank were all painted red. The nearest match I found to the
original red was Krylon Cherry Red #2101.1 taped the set-aside
block assembly and then painted the pump and the flywheel with
three coats of paint, each being about 15 minutes apart. It’s a
good practice to use a mask when painting because of all the
chemicals they use in the paints. Breathing in all of these things
can do some serious damage over a period of time.
It is best not to try to do all of your painting in one coat. It
usually leads to sags or runs. On a warm day Krylon will usually
dry to the touch in about 10 minutes and can be held and handled,
usually, in an hour.
The two halves of the pump base and the engine block, as well as
the bases of the engine cylinders, were brush-painted with silver
acrylic enamel. When the paint was dry, the engine block was
mounted on the front pump base.
The engine is held in alignment with two tight fitting alignment
pins, so that the engine-to-base relation cannot be changed.
The pump and engine pin coupling was aligned, and after the base
aligning pins were mated up, the base halves were locked together
with the three ‘T’ bolts and their wing nuts. The
crankshaft was then rotated through several turns in order to
double-check the alignment and everything seemed to be in order. I
got ready to set the cylinders in place on the block.
As I had noted before, the cylinders and rings were in good
shape, and even the cylinder base gaskets were usable. I wiped out
the cylinder bores in order to make sure there was no grit
remaining, then sprayed some more WD-40 in the cylinder bores and
on the pistons. I made sure that the rings were aligned with their
locating pins and set the nestled cylinders onto the pistons. I
tried to set both sets of rings at the same time, but this proved
to be a costly error. The cylinder bottoms have a 45 degree taper
machined into their base that acts as a ring compressor for
installing the rings. As I was feeding the rings on both pistons
into the cylinders, the rear piston (the one toward the pump),
began to lag behind the front one. I thought that all three rings
on both pistons were fully into their respective bores and began
setting the pistons further into the cylinders, when I heard the
distinct sound of a ring breaking. I didn’t see that the third
ring on the rear piston wasn’t seated in the cylinder
completely and when I pushed the cylinder down, the ring broke. I
pulled the two cylinders off the pistons and turned them over to
see if the broken ring had done any damage to the cylinder luckily
it hadn’t.
Now, I figured that I had three options. First: Take one ring
off the front piston and assemble and run the engine on two rings
per piston. It would probably have worked for awhile, but would put
an increased load on the remaining rings, causing a power loss by
increased wear and compression loss. Option two was to replace just
the broken ring with a new one. This, though, would create another
set of problems, that is, a new ring weighs more than the used ones
causing a balance problem. More importantly, the new ring would
create a new wear pattern in the cylinder that the remaining two
rings would take a lot more time to adapt to, again causing a power
loss due to lost compression. To run an engine on this type, for
any length of time, with a severe loss of power in one cylinder
could result in a twisted crankshaft (out of 180 degree phase).
This could lead to a blown engine. The third option was to replace
all of the engine’s rings, hone the cylinders and break in the
engine like it was rebuilt. I chose the third option.
The cylinders were then honed with a fine stoned glaze breaker.
The bores cleaned up very quickly, and they were rinsed off with
kerosene to remove the leftover grit. The cylinders were dried off
with a clean rag and sprayed with WD-40 and set aside. Then I
removed the five remaining rings from the pistons, and in the act
of doing this, another ring broke.
The pistons on this engine are 2′ in diameter, and are about
four inches tall. The wrist pins were about ‘ in diameter, give
or take a few thousandths, set approximately one third of the way
from the top of the crown of the piston. The rings are 2’
diameter by 3/16‘ wide, and sit in a
groove that is about 5/32‘ deep. The
rings have a square stepped end mate, and also have a
1/16‘ locating pin notch cut about
5/8‘ from one end of the ring. This notch
and pin set up prevents the ring from spinning in its groove, thus
keeping the ring ends from getting caught in one of the cylinder
ports (see diagram 4 for the ring end detail.)
I read through several back issues of GEM and looked in the
for-sale-ads and the advertisements in order to buy another set of
rings for my engine. However, I didn’t see any rings advertised
that would fit. I made several calls and had no luck. Then I
remembered that quite a while ago I had had a custom set of rings
made by a gentleman by the name of Joe Sykes, many years ago, and 1
wondered if he was still in business. I kept looking in my old
issues of GEM (I have a complete set). I finally found what 1 was
looking for. Joe had relocated and incorporated his business! The
company name is Niagara Piston Ring Works, Inc., and the address is
49061.D.A. Park Drive, Lockport, New York 14094.
I phoned him and described the rings I needed. It was hard to
describe the way the ring ends and their relation to the locating
pin notch, so Joe asked me to send him a ring as a sample. While I
waited for the rings to be made, I did some research on my pump
outfit.
First, I looked into Mr. Wendel’s book American Gasoline
Engines Since 1872, where I found the following: Pausin Engineering
Company apparently took over the Arrow Motor and Machine Company of
New York at some time in 1917. Arrow itself had bought the right to
manufacture the ‘Waterman Engine’ of Detroit some time
before that. The engine on my pump appears to be a Waterman K-2,
originally rated at 4 HP. The original engine only weighed 60
pounds and the K-2 design dates to before 1912. Arrow purchased the
Waterman design in early 1917, and Pausin Engineering took over
soon after. The K-2 was originally designed as a marine engine and
used a battery and coil setup. The K-2 sold for $168.00 in a 1920
catalog.
On the fire pump the marine water pump had been removed from the
rear cylinder and the port had been blocked off with the gas tank
mounting bracket. The engine was cooled with water supplied with
the discharge side of the pump. The water was piped through a
coupling between the pump base halves and then into a manifold that
feeds both cylinders. After cooling the cylinders, the water
discharged into another manifold and, after going back through a
second coupling between the base halves, was then sent into the
inlet to the pump. There is a valve in this discharge line that
must be adjusted every time the pump is run.
When first starting the pump, the valve must be closed so the
pump can put out maximum vacuum to lift water from its source.
After the pump starts, it has to lift the water to the pump itself
and begin to deliver it to the supply hoses. Once this is done and
pressure is up, the valve can be opened wide open to supply water
to the cylinders. This can lead to a high heat buildup, especially
if the engine has to lift the water a long way. The pump I have
will put out about 25 pounds of vacuum for the suction side of the
pump, and at full throttle will put out over 250 pounds of
discharge pressure. Anyway, the pump will not complete the initial
lift until the valve to the cylinders is closed. Once the pump is
making water, as we call it in the fire department, the valve is
opened wide to the cylinders to blow all of the air out of the
copper water jackets. After about 30 seconds the valve is adjusted
to keep the cylinder jackets warm to the touch as the pump is
running. During the course of a fire this must have been a tedious
job, as with the changing fire scene demands, the load and flow
through the lines would change the amount of water flowing through
the pump, requiring constant adjustment of the cooling water in
order to maintain the proper cylinder temperature. If the demand
for water was over, the pump could be idled for several minutes
without flowing water through a hose, by circulating the cooling
water through the pump. This way, if there was a flare up of fire,
the water would be available right away to put it out, instead of
waiting for the pump to prime and lift the water through the hoses
again.
I figured that while I waited for the rings to arrive, I would
also work on the magneto, as it needed new hi-tension wires and
some other work. The magneto is an American Bosch, model FF 220,
patented 1915. It has a chain drive, utilizing the chain as shown
in diagram 4. I cleaned up the points and set them at .018, but the
spark was still weak. I decided to recharge the magnets. The magnet
is mounted to the magneto base with a wide nickel-plated brass band
and four nickel-headed brass screws. From previous experience I
knew that the brass band is quite brittle and I didn’t want to
disturb it. After looking at the difficulty I would have in
disassembling the entire mag, though, I decided to try and remove
the retainer band and the magnet. When the screws were removed, I
gently pried the brass band off the magnet. Luckily, the band did
not split. There were, in fact, two magnets under the band, a fact
I had not counted on. Both magnets were marked at the factory with
their north poles, and I used a black magic marker to mark which
magnet went to the points side, and which went to the gear side.
Then I removed the magnets from the magneto frame. I noted that
when a keeper was placed on the magnets, they appeared to be pretty
weak. I recharged the magnets in the following manner.
On this mag, the magnets must work side by side. Both magnets
are matched at the factory for magnetic strength. If the magnets
are mismatched, the weaker magnet will ‘steal’ magnetic
force from the stronger magnet, causing a weakness in the magnetic
field that the magneto depends on to operate properly. Where a set
of magnets is nested together, it is best to charge them all at the
same time so as to give them all an equal charge.
Both magnets were clamped together, side by side, just as if
they were installed on the magneto, with two stainless steel
radiator hose clamps. (See diagram 5).
The twinned magnet set was then placed on the magnet charger,
making sure that the entire magnet base was fully on the charger. I
put the current through the charger for about 30 seconds. As the
current was flowing, I hit the magnets with a brass drift pin an
equal number of times on each side, in order to help the magnets
set up the stronger magnetic field. This was repeated four times. A
keeper was set across both magnets, and they were removed from the
charger. The magnets were mounted back onto the magneto frame, and
the retaining band was reinstalled with its four screws.
Then I installed the two new hi-tension leads into their
respective sockets in the mag and then gave it a spin. The mag now
gives off a fair 3/8‘ spark, but the
rearward side take off definitely is weaker. I suspect that the
farmer just pulled the rear hi-tension lead off its respective
spark plug without grounding it. This would have led to a high
voltage buildup on one side of the armature, causing a breakdown of
the secondary coil insulation. This breakdown leads to leakage (a
short) in the output of the coil causing the engine to lose spark.
Thankfully, it isn’t very bad yet, but I am afraid that someday
I’ll have to replace the armature coil when it quits
altogether. I thank Lee Pedersen, who helped me out with the new
ignition wires and both the terminal end brass and the spark plug
end clips. Lee was right, the pump does look sharp with the red
hi-tension leads!
Just about the time I was finishing up the mag work, the rings
arrived, so I was getting nearer the end of my project. I opened
the box and found six new rings just as I ordered, and the ring
that I had enclosed as a sample. I installed all six rings into
their grooves, and they fit perfectly! The pistons were sprayed
with WD-40, and again I tried to install them into the nested
cylinders. I enlisted the help of my son Andrew to do the job
properly.
I had him hold the rear cylinder, while I worked on the front
one. I put the front piston at top center and jammed the flywheel
so the crankshaft couldn’t move. I held the cylinder and fed in
the top ring, making sure that the ring was both set in its groove
and that it was also set on the locating pin on the piston. The
next two rings were set into the cylinder in the same manner. Then
I set the piston about three-quarters of the way into the cylinder
bore and had my son now hold both cylinders in his hands.
1 released the flywheel, turned it 180 degrees, very slowly,
while guiding the free piston to keep it from flopping around. The
trick is to keep the nested cylinders together, keep the already
installed piston and rings still in its bore, start and install the
free piston and rings into the other cylinder. The flywheel was
again blocked tight, so I went to work trying to install the other
piston and ring set. Now I had Andrew hold the front cylinder while
I took control of the rear one. I had to raise the cylinder in
order to clear the crown of the piston into the bore. As I raised
it, the front cylinder also had to come up, and before I realized,
it the piston almost came out. We ended up freeing up the flywheel
in order to turn the crankshaft another 90 degrees. This final turn
allowed me to feed the piston and rings into the other cylinder
without loosing the first set up. After the piston rings were
started, Andrew and I then set the cylinders onto the gaskets and
the block and started the base bolts into the block and
cylinder.
At this time the intake manifold was installed and the cooling
manifold unions started. This was done to align the cylinders on
the block so that when the cylinders were bolted down tight, the
mounts would be in agreement and they wouldn’t be forced. When
all of the bolts and couplings were aligned, everything was
tightened up. Some oil and gas was poured into the open spark plug
holes and the engine was turned over. It turned easily and a loud
sound (Thung!) at each half turn of the crank, told me that the
crankcase was also sealed tight, as the air trapped inside was
forced out the transfer ports into the cylinders.
The time had come to remount the magneto onto the engine. I set
the engine to top dead center on the front cylinder. The flywheel
is marked with an index line that is in line with the number one
cylinder at this point. The chain itself is an oddball in that it
is made of steel and has no roller bearing (see diagram 6). It is
an endless chain also and has no master link. The magneto was also
set so number one would fire at TDC when the mag was in the
retarded position. The chain was set over the sprockets and the
mounting bolts were installed and tightened.
With most of the major work finished, I decided to try to start
the engine for a test run. I sprayed some more fuel and oil mix
into the cylinders and installed two Champion spark plugs onto the
heads. I installed the ignition wires and put on the hand
crank.
I found out very quickly why you are not supposed to go all of
the way around with your starter crank! I made a full revolution
and on the second, the engine kicked back, sending the hand crank
just a fraction of an inch from my face and ear! I tried a second
time, and got a set of rapped knuckles for my trouble. I
double-checked the magneto and found the thing set at full advance.
I retarded the mag and tried again, but the engine wouldn’t
fire. I thought that I had possibly fouled a plug, so I pulled them
both out. They were dry! I primed the engine again and pulled the
flywheel over by hand a couple of times. The crank was tried again
by just pulling up sharply on the handle and, on the third try it
started! Although it only ran a few seconds before it quit, between
the noise and the smoke, I had to leave the garage. Man is this
thing LOUD!
Now that I knew it would run, I hastened to complete the
restoration. I bought a fuel tank from Lee Pedersen (thanks again
Lee) and soldered the original mount, which was made of
1/8‘ thick copper, to it. The carb was
remounted onto the intake manifold, and I made up a new fuel supply
line from some ‘ copper tubing. The fuel tank was mounted on
the rear cylinder inspection port (where the marine water pump
would have gone), and the new fuel line was connected.
Before I put fuel in the tank, I decided to make sure the
carburetor didn’t have any dirt in it. It’s a good thing I
did! The carb is made by Schebler and is model 1 x 10. The body is
made of bronze and there are some brass parts on it. There
wasn’t much dirt in it, but there was one problem. The cork
float had de-laminated, it had come apart! I removed the float and
looked it over. At the time I decided to try to repair the float,
and a call to Hit & Miss Enterprises found that this particular
float was not immediately available. Ed suggested trying to repair
the float by gluing the de-laminated sections together with his gas
tank sealer. If it didn’t hold, or if it made the float too
heavy, then Ed said that he would try to have a float made up
special, but it would cost more. I got the sealer and it worked
fine.
First I made sure that all of the dust was blown off of the
cork. Then I used a small modelers paint brush to spread the tank
sealer in between all of the laminations. I let it all sit for a
few minutes, to get tacky, and then I clamped the laminations all
together in their proper place with three small ‘C’ clamps.
The entire float was left to dry overnight.
The next day I took off the ‘C’ clamps and painted the
entire top and sides of the float with the sealer, and again it was
set aside to dry overnight. On the third day, I painted the bottom
and repeated the sides. The float was then left alone for two days
in order to make sure it was all dry. The float was then
reinstalled in the carb and I turned on the fuel to see if the
float would, indeed, shut off the flow of fuel. I crossed my
fingers as the fuel level rose higher and higher, but it finally
stopped about ‘ from the overflow point. (See diagram 7
for details of the float.)
The next section of the restoration deals with the exhaust. I
made up an exhaust pipe from some 1′ copper pipe and a few
adapters, a 90 degree seat elbow and a sweat Tee fitting. The ‘
male by copper adapters were silver-soldered onto two 5′ long
pieces of pipe. The 90 degree elbow was in turn silver-soldered
onto a 3′ piece of pipe and the Tee was also silver-soldered
onto a 1 foot long piece. The adapters were screwed into the
exhaust ports, and the other assemblies were mounted as shown in
the picture. The 3’ piece was then silver-soldered into the
other end of the Tee, but the Tee and the elbow were not soldered
to the pipes leading from the exhaust. These, instead, were
anchored with two TEK self-tapping bolts, so if the engine should
have to be disassembled at some time in the future, the exhaust
manifold won’t have to be cut apart in order to remove the
cylinders. As you can see, the entire assembly was also bent into a
downward configuration in order to clear the pump gauge. I also had
fitted an adapter on the end of the pipe to fit a muffler, but it
was removed, as the muffler caused the engine to overheat severely
when one was installed. I tried several types but they all had the
same result.
The last thing to be made up was a cooling reservoir. I went to
the local Auto Star auto parts store in Rockaway, on New Jersey
Route 46, and asked the owner if he had a 35 gallon barrel I could
have, and I told him what it was for. He said sure, and got one
from the back of his shop. When I asked how much, he told me to
take it, it was just in his way and I would be doing him a favor by
taking it!
When I got it home I drilled two holes
13/8n in diameter through the side, and my
friends at the Rockaway Sentry Hardware came through again with a
couple of 1′ by 6′ nipples, and four locknuts and washers
to seal the pipes to the side of the barrel. With a couple of
3′ long 1′ hoses and the cooling system was all
set.
I made a set of carrying handles in the following manner: I
bought 4′ sweat copper by male adapters and soldered a ‘
sweat street 90 degree elbow in each adapter. These assemblies were
then screwed into the respective threaded holes at the corners of
the pump, with the open sockets of the 90 degree ells facing each
other on each side of the unit. I measured the distance to the
bottom of the socket, and cut a piece of ‘ hard type L
copper tubing to fit each side. It’s a good thing I measured
each side individually because there was a ‘ difference in the
length of the pieces. I then separated the split sections of the
pump, and inserted the copper pipe into the empty sockets of the 90
degree ells. They were carefully aligned and the pump base was
reassembled. With a few light taps of a small rubber mallet, the
copper slid home in the ells as the base ‘T’ bolts and
their wing nuts were made up. The copper pipes were purposely left
loose in the ells so that the pump base could be disassembled if
necessary at a future date, without having to cut the handles off.
If you use this method to make handles for a unit you have, make
sure to use at least a type L tubing (not M or Nit’s too thin)
and be sure that the tubing is NOT bending temper or soft copper
before you use it. Bending temper of soft copper may pull out of
the ells if there is too much weight or if they are not soldered in
place.
The engine was then covered with newspaper and tape, and the
exhaust pipe was painted with Krylon High Heat-Semi Flat Black
Spray Paint to give the pipe a uniform appearance. After the paint
was dry the paper and tape were removed, all of the copper and
bronze, as well as the brass, was polished and the old fire pump
was ready for the shows!
Here are some of the facts about this pump. The pump itself is a
positive displacement gear drive pump, driven directly off the end
of the engine crankshaftthrough a pin and socket spline. It will
pump between 80 to 100 gallons per minute at 70 psi gauge. It will
empty the 35 gallon cooling barrel in about 20 seconds at full
throttle! The old pump, according to the gauge, has an operating
range of 0 to 105 pounds, with a danger zone after 105 to 150.
There is a pin stop at #250, and one day by accident, as I was
running the engine at full throttle, I happened to close both
valves on the gated wye on the pump discharge. The engine labored
nearly to a stop as the pressure built up. When I saw the gauge, I
killed the engine by closing the throttle, and let the pressure
bleed off through the engine cooling system. I was lucky the pump
didn’t blow a gasket!
Fuel to oil ratio: I have been using a 12:1 ( pint of oil to a
gallon of gas) due to the engine’s age and its type of
construction, for now. I may try to go to a 16:1 ( pint oil to a
gallon of gas) later on, after the rings are broken in, but for now
I’ll keep to the 12 to 1 mix. Warm up: The engine cooling
jackets will get too hot to touch, with no water flow, in about 5
minutes running; however, I try not to let them get that hot.
I usually run the pump in the following manner at the shows:
First, the pump is placed where the water won’t bother other
show participants. The pump and its cooling system are assembled
and the barrel is filled with water. The pump is started and
allowed to warm up at idle until the cylinders are quite warm. The
engine then circulates the water between the barrel of water and
the pump only. After the engine cylinders get quite warm to the
touch, the engine cooling system is opened and the return valve is
throttled off until the pump is reading 70 to 80 psi at full
throttle. The engine cooling valve is throttled so as to keep the
cylinders warm to the touch. The pump will then run another five to
eight minutes when the barrel of water will get pretty warm. I then
open the gate to my fire hose and nozzle and close the cooling
barrel return. As the pressure rises, I open the nozzle on the fire
hose and let fly! In about 15 to 20 seconds the water level nears
the bottom of the barrel and the syphon created by the pump begins
to suck air into the pump and the engine begins to speed up. Then I
close the nozzle and idle down the pump for a few seconds, then
shut off the cooling system valve. The resulting pressure build up
will stall the engine (about 90 psi on the gauge), the barrel is
again refilled and the pump is ready to go again! The old fire pump
draws quite a crowd when it is under a full load!
Fuel consumption: The pump uses about a quart of fuel in an hour
of running time. Again I am using a 12 to 1 fuel to oil mix.
Lastly, the engine will idle roughly at between 700 to 900 rpm, and
has a top loaded speed of about 3,000 rpm.
I am in the process of looking for a 1′ by ‘ New York
thread smooth bore nozzle to use with my pump. I have a 1’ by
iron pipe thread type already, but it won’t fit on my
hose because of the thread difference. Right now, the adjustment
nozzle I am using takes too long to get into the straight steam
mode. By the time I get a straight stream out of the nozzle, the
water barrel is nearly empty!
If anyone needs help in restoring one of the Waterman or Arrow
engines, I can probably help with technical problems. I do have
four piston rings (used, though). I am currently looking for an
owners or operators manual for the Pausin Engineering engine, or
any related material on the company itself. I’d also like to
hear from anyone else who has an outfit like this one.
