127 N. Park Drive, Madern, California 93637
This is the story of a 15 horsepower Fairbanks-Morse engine that
sat and waited many years to be restored to its factory new
condition.
Life began for this engine at the Fairbanks-Morse & Company
plant in Beloit, Wisconsin. It was shipped to California in 1919,
as indicated by searching the company records. The engine was
bought and placed at the Luigi and Jennie Bandoni Vineyard in
Madera, California. Its purpose was to pump irrigation water from a
shallow well, by a large centrifugal pump (6’or 8′) that
was lowered into the well pit and connected by a long flat belt
that ran in a wooden belt trough. In the winter the pump and belt
would be removed because of rain, frost and the water table rising
up in the pit.
The engine was started on gasoline. When the engine warmed up,
it was switched to kerosene fuel. The mixer is a dual fuel system
with water injection to control pinging on kerosene while under
heavy loads. The cooling was accomplished by circulating, under
pressure, a small amount of water from the pump, through the water
jacket of the engine, then back to the discharge pipe. This was so
no water was wasted and the engine could be left unattended for
many hours of pumping.
The engine performed well for many years of service according to
Jennie, except for an occasional stoppage caused by a clogged fuel
line. After the line would be cleaned and the fuel pump
hand-primed, the engine would be started again.
The engine was taken out of service for good when the shallow
well went dry. A new deep well was dug and a new electric turbine
pump was purchased, to continue supplying irrigation water to the
vineyard.
For many years this engine that sang the same Boom-Boom-Boom
song, a song that could be heard all the way to the house, now sat
quietly in its shed just yards from its new replacement.
As the years passed by, the engine had become a new home for
spiders, a shelter for field mice, and a target for vandals. The
vandals had removed the drip oilers and the brass nameplate.
In the spring of 1994, my wife, who is Luigi and Jennie’s
granddaughter, told me about the old pump in the field. While we
were visiting Grandma Jennie, my wife and I walked in the field to
this little shed with almost no roof. I looked inside and I saw
this big, dirty, rust covered flywheel engine. I told my wife
immediately, I wanted to make this engine run again!!
In December of 1994, Jennie told my wife and I that we could
have the engine. We wanted to buy it, not receive it as a gift, so
a price was agreed upon and I would remove the engine the next
day.
With my dad’s help, we hauled the forklift to the Bandoni
Vineyard, sawed the end of the shed off, and were able to drag the
engine on its skids to the end of the vineyard and then load it on
the truck. All the while, my wife took pictures and Grandma Jennie
watched.
The next day I started cleaning fifty years of mice nests and
two five gallon buckets of grease and oily dirt out of the
crankcase area. Then I steam-cleaned most of the soft grease off
and filled the cylinder with diesel, because the piston and valves
were frozen tight. Over the next four months, endless attempts to
make the flywheels move had failed. I was getting discouraged and
started thinking of other methods to free the piston, or maybe it
needed just patience. I knew the piston didn’t get stuck
overnight. It had fifty years; it might just take awhile.
About two months had passed since my last attempt at making the
piston move. I walked by and noticed diesel had seeped around the
rings to the bottom of the piston. I thought good, maybe it was
time to give it a yank on the flywheels, and as I did, it moved! It
moved about ? inch the first time and ? inch the second time. Now,
with the adrenaline pumping, in ten minutes time by rocking the
flywheels back and forth, the piston was free and I was exhausted!
I knew the war was halfway over and I could relax, knowing the
flywheels turned again!
During the next 2? years, I devoted much of my spare time to
other easier engine restorations, all the time thinking about how I
was going to transport this BIG engine to engine shows. So I made a
heavy-duty tandem axle tractor trailer.
Well, it’s now November 1997 and I promised my wife that I
would have her grandparents’ engine at the 1998 National Engine
Show in Chowchilla, California, located only 20 miles from our
home. Now the pressure was on!
Next, the magneto was disassembled, cleaned, greased, the points
were adjusted and repaired, the mixer was cleaned, the adjusting
needles reground and the fuel pump internal spring was replaced.
The head was cleaned and the valves were hand-lapped, reassembled,
and ready to paint. The piston was sand blasted, rings cleaned, and
ring grooves scraped free of carbon. The governor was disassembled;
all shafts and pivot points were sanded smooth and the governor
housing was welded to repair a crack (which is very common on 15
horsepower engines). Also, a new lighter main spring was installed.
The rocker arm and pivot bolt were repaired and rebushinged by
machinist Ed Perry.
With the National Show just 2? months away, time was running
out. I decided to make the engine a factory portable unit. I had a
new screen cooler, four steel wheels of correct size, and a picture
from a sales catalog. I enlarged the photo and measured the cart to
scale. I then ordered the new steel and went to work.
Well, it’s June 1 and I’ve worked almost every night of
May. My wife asked, ‘Are you sure it will be finished for the
National Show?’ I said yes and I went back to work.
The engine and all parts were sand blasted, the castings sanded
smooth and the cylinder lightly honed. All parts were primered and
sandblasted to prevent rust, as was the cart.
I assembled the engine part by part on the cart. I made the
mounts for the screen cooler, circulation pump, fuel tank and
exhaust pipe bracket.
Seven days before the show, the engine was now ready to paint.
First, two coats of DuPont Vari-Prime were sprayed on. Then, one
coat of Lox-on Sealer was applied. Three coats of DuPont Centari
5000, with hardener, in Fairbanks-Morse Green, were applied by my
friend Brad Clark. Now the engine sat for three days to let the
paint cure.
Now, I only had three days to finish the engine for the show. No
problem! Well at least the paint looked good. The fuel tank was
mounted, brass piping cut and threaded, the cooling tank was
mounted, and water circulation pump installed. All brass water
pipes were cut, threaded, and installed, and then all cooling and
fuel systems piping and fittings were disassembled, sanded,
polished and reinstalled.
Well, it’s the evening before we leave for the show and
it’s time to try to start this engine for the first time. My
family and Jennie Bandoni (the only person there who heard the
engine run some 50-plus years ago) watched as I poured gasoline in
the tank and mixer, and a small amount in the primer cup. As I
turned the flywheels, nothing happened. Maybe not enough gas in the
primer. So I again reprimed with more gas, confident that it was
all it needed, and pulled the flywheels over. The mag fired and the
engine was popping and smoking until its rpm came up on the
governor setting and leveled out. After a 50-plus years nap, she
wasn’t running well, but she was running. I was very happy but
Grandma Jennie was far more pleased. With tears in her eyes, I am
sure it brought back many memories, including the same
Boom-Boom-Boom song the engine sang while working at the Bandoni
Vineyard.
The next day, I loaded the engine and off I went to the National
Show in Chowchilla, for set-up day. I placed it in the EDGE &
TA Branch 63 display, where I am a member.
Since I wasn’t happy with the way the engine ran before, on
Friday, the first day of the show, I decided to advance the mag one
tooth on the cam. I started it and it ran perfectly, the way it was
designed.
In closing, I would like to thank my wife and Jennie Bandoni for
the opportunity to restore this engine. A true piece of their
family history!!
