RR 4, Box 354A Williamsport, Pennsylvania 17701-9579
This is a story of a John Deere ‘E’ engine, serial
number 290364, a 1928, and how it was found and restored.
One Saturday, my stepdad, my boys, and I went to a show in my
hometown to show off my stepdad’s John Deere Model E hit and
miss engine. When we arrived, there was a guy who had a couple of
engines for sale. Naturally, I fell in love with my stepdad’s
John Deere sitting there purring away, so I bounced over and talked
to the guy. He said he lived down the road and his name was Dave.
(We later gave him the name of Flywheel because it suited him
better!) He said he had a couple of engines for sale and I could
come and look, if I was interested. I obviously ‘sucked up’
his offer and went to take a look. I ended up bringing home a 2 HP
Witte for my son Tyler. (My wife and I had a big fight over
it.)
I fixed it up with help from Flywheel Dave, and had it running
within one year. Then one night I called and asked if he was going
to be home tomorrow so I could bring my boys down to look at all of
his ‘junk’ (engines) and he said yes! So the next day ,
early in the morning, we hopped in the Mazda pickup and we were
off. When we arrived, he had one of his homemade tractors sitting
in the driveway; next to that he had one of his scrap metal
Toyotas. He said they will do a hundred miles an hour in second
gear. (If you don’t believe it’s true, you’d better
believe it, because one time he showed me how he did it.) We got
out of our vehicle and we saw him sitting in his garage. He fired
up a Stover. Then we turned our attention to a beaten John Deere
model ‘E’ engine. It did run, but one of its previous
owners abused it. My son Troy really liked it. I asked the price
and he fooled around for a while, as usual. First he told us five
dollars, and I told him I would take it for two dollars. (One of
our other buddies likes to buy things for a couple of dollars, or
he won’t buy them.) We dickered for a while with the dollar
thing, and then he finally told us, ‘Yes.’ I said,
‘Bring it up to my house and I’ll take it,’ and he
said, ‘Okay.’
After I bought it, my boys tore it apart and we found everything
to be in bad shape (rings, valves, bushings, mag., etc.) After it
was torn apart we sandblasted it. Flywheel and I covered it with
body filler, sanded it smooth, and finally the paint was sprayed
on. We used auto -motive type paint because we found out it lasts a
lot longer than spray bombs. We installed the new rings, re-ground
the valves, and rebuilt the mag. The biggest secret of a John
Deere, so that it doesn’t leak oil, is to install oil seals on
the outside of the mag and on the push rod for the ignitor trip.
Finally last, but not least, was to install new gaskets. We put it
all back together and got it running. To the moment, we have it
apart to fix the one leaky gasket with that gasket silicone.
I would like to thank Flywheel Dave for helping us (this job
would never have been accomplished without his help), and for
giving us all those free engines! I would also like to thank
Marshall Updegraff for all of his helpful welding skills. I think
he may be one of the best welders in the country, so thanks,
Marshall, for all the little things you have given us!