20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
It was a pleasant experience a while back to acquire a gas
engine of unknown brand through a good friend, but it came with
problems. The fuel mixer was missing, but it was located among
other things near the engine. It had no identification tag nor any
sign of a decal or other decoration even though the red color was
quite evident. On the third time through the American Gas Engines
book, a similar engine was finally spotted on the bottom of page
509. Another similar engine was found on page 56, volume 7 of Alan
King’s gas engine ads. It turned out to be a 2? HP Termatt and
Monahan engine made at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in about 1915.
Being satisfied with identity, the restoration process began.
Since no other information was found, the only references that I
had were the two Mentioned above. The engine was disassembled and
sent to the local metal laundry to remove paint, rust and grease.
The cylinder was rebored and sleeved since the piston pin had come
loose and had worn two grooves down the cylinder wall. The rod had
been broken behind the piston pin bushing and welded crooked. A new
bushing was made and bored to line up with the rod. A new piston
pin was made and refitted because the holes in the piston were worn
too. Rings l/64th inch wider were ordered and the piston was turned
to accept them.
The gas tank was missing, but with some adaptation, a tank of
unknown origin was made to fit.
The timing gear had a cam on each side. One operates the exhaust
valve mechanism and the other operates the magneto mechanism which
was missing. That had to be made. The magneto bracket had been
sawed off and bored for a spark plug. By sheer luck, a bracket was
found that fit, but it was for a smaller magneto so it had to be
modified to accept the right size.
Since the cast iron crank guard was missing, one was made out of
heavy sheet metal and a bead was rolled along each side for
decoration and stiffness. Decals with a likeness to those in the
pictures were made by using pressure sensitive paper, black ink,
transfer letters and book tape. Apparently there was no striping or
other decoration on the engine so after a coat or two of primer and
some body filler, two coats of bright red paint were applied. The
cart was made from oak and fitted with used wheels.
We finally got the whole thing together about mid-August 1987.
It’s first show was Pinckneyville, Illinois where it refused to
run. That’s when the bracket was modified and a larger magneto
installed. The change of magnetos cured the problem and it was then
shown at Portland and Boonville, Indiana. It runs nice and smooth
and starts easily, but it took $387 worth of parts, repairs and
services to get it going. That doesn’t count the effort, hours,
miles or the miscellaneous items used out of our inventory.
