4680 Thoroughbred Drive, N. Charleston, South Carolina 29420
Dad s motor is finally running. It’s taken about five years
of sporadic working on it to get it going. The sad part is that he
never got to see or hear it run-Dad passed away last February.
We bought the motor about September of 1989. We had to buy two,
the 1 Associated and the one that I really wanted 3 HP Fuller and
Johnson. I was the one looking for a little motor. Daddy really
didn’t want the little Associated, but the owner wouldn’t
sell just one without the other, so Dad went ahead and bought the
Associated so that I could have the F & J.
Well, Dad took it apart and started on it that year. He got just
about everything cleaned up and painted, that he could. He ended up
soaking a lot of the parts in some solvent. The motor had been
sitting beside a salt box in an old barn for God knows how long
before we got it. Naturally, a lot of it was stuck. The rings were
stuck to the piston, so they had to be removed and replaced with
new ones. The intake valve’s stem was almost rusted through, so
I replaced it and had a valve job done on the head at Simmons
Machine Shop in Charleston, South Carolina.
I finally got the ignitor freed up, but it just wouldn’t
work right, so I ordered one. When I got it I found that it
wasn’t quite right, so I swapped around the guts and got it
working. Next was the magneto. Daddy had taken the magnets off and
I had taken the rest of it apart and everything just seemed
hopeless, so I sent it off to a guy in Florida and he put it
together the right way for me. I played with it for about three
years, but never could get it running. I would get tired and
disgusted with it and just leave it alone for months at a time.
I went to the show at Eagleville, Tennessee, on September 10,
1994, and found one about like it, so I took measurements of the
ignitor trip and how the cam gear was lined up. When I got back
home I changed those things I had found, and low and behold it
started!!! It still wasn’t running very good, but at least it
was doing something! I decided that what I needed was new springs,
so I ordered new governor springs, detente lever springs, and made
one for the ignitor. I also replaced that little bushing for the
detente lever that rides in that little pulley on the crankshaft
that operates the governor. I put it all in and cranked it around a
few times and the thing actually started. I just wish that Dad was
here to see his little Associated running.
I’m starting to get a pretty decent collection started. I
have 1923 5 HP Hercules, 1928 3 HP Fuller and Johnson, 2 HP 192?
Stover, 192? 3 to 4 HP Nelson Brothers and last the 192? 1
Associated Chore Boy.