R.R. 2, Haubstadt, Indiana, 47639
In April of 1985 I visited Delbert Rhoades near North
Manchester, Indiana. We visited a while like gas engine folks do
and looked at several engines he had. He mentioned that he was
going to take some things to the spring swap meet at Portland,
Indiana. I asked what he was going to sell, and among those things
was a 2? HP Ingeco engine. It was mostly apart (that’s how he
acquired it), and most of the parts were quite rusted. They had
been in a bucket that must have sat under a hole in the roof. Most
of it was there, but the gas tank, timing gear and cam and the
truck wheels were obviously missing. Not considering those and
other missing parts a major problem, I bought the engine to be
delivered at the Portland show in August. The Ingeco offered the
kind of challenge that I enjoy, and the five spoke flywheels also
were interesting. Delbert met me at Portland and made delivery.
During the show I sorted through the pieces to get some idea of how
it would all go back together. I had assumed it was a hit and miss
engine since I had had the remains of one several years ago. At
some point I found a part that had a throttle butterfly in it –
surprise – it turned out to be a throttle governor type.
When we got it all home, it was further disassembled. The iron
parts were all sent to Redi-Strip for cleanup and derusting.
Finally, the restoration phase began. New skids were made,
suitable axles acquired and a set of 12 inch wheels were ordered
from Madison Cast Wheel Company. A new gas tank, a Wizard magneto
band and a few other odds and ends were ordered from Starbolt. M.
E. Brison provided the decals.
As it turned out, a lot of parts had to be made or rebuilt.
These included fuel lines, the side rod, all springs, the inner and
outer governor shafts, the spring and trip mechanism for the
magneto, valve stems, throttle shaft and butterfly, crank guard,
muffler, the spark advance and retard mechanism and numerous other
odds and ends.
I advertised for the cam gear and cam with no response. Finally,
I located Harold Rigsby at Walnut Grove, Indiana. There I copied
the cam shape and the crank guard shape. No stock or used gear
could be located so I finally had a local machine shop make the
gear and cam for $180.00.
The Wizard magneto turned out to be a challenge too. Not only
were the bushings and shaft worn, something must have swelled up
because the armature wouldn’t clear the inside of the case
without dragging. I also had to learn the hard way that the magneto
should be charged when fully assembled rather than charging the
magnets and then putting the thing together. I’ll bet the
magneto was disassembled and assembled 50 times before it and the
ignitor all worked well together.
We painted it a dark metallic green and then put the gold
striping back on following pictures in a catalog reprint.
Finally, we got the whole thing back together, adjusted and
functioning. It starts and runs nice but it wheezes as it runs
unless the cylinder is kept well oiled. The back half of the
cylinder is pitted. In the summer of 1986 we had it at four shows.
I was especially proud to take it back to Portland a year later to
show Delbert the finished product.
