9709 Ripple Run Ct. Fairfax Station, Virginia 22039
The quest for the perfect engine for the Wahl Family Gas Engine
Collection has finally ended. We always used to say, ‘A Mogul
sideshaft engine, now wouldn’t that be a nice engine to
have?’ The sound of a Mogul quietly purring away was always
music to our ears. Well, my dad and I finally decided to hunt down
a Mogul for our collection, and we purchased a 4 HP Mogul sideshaft
in November of 1995.
We bought the Mogul from a friend who shares in our engine
enthusiasm, but only likes to play with the bigger toys. We had
visited him many times, and the picture of a neglected 4 HP Mogul
sitting in his machine shed was one of the reasons we decided to
purchase the Mogul and one of the reasons why he was willing to
sell it. The engine was in original condition and on original
skids. It looked to be in good shape, but as with most unrestored
engines, it turned out to be a much bigger project than we had
expected.
Although my dad and I bought the engine, we left the restoration
up to my grandpa, Harvey Wahl, for many reasons. One, the engine
was located in Iowa and we live in Virginia, whereas my grandpa
lives in Minnesota, just one hour away from where the engine was
located. Two, the Wahl Family Gas Engine Collection is displayed,
as it has been for the past 31 years, in Minnesota at the
Butterfield Steam & Gas Engine Show. And three, my grandpa
always does an excellent job of restoring gas engines, if an engine
has all the pieces, my grandpa can make it run to perfection.
After the terms were agreed upon, Grandpa picked up the engine
on November 19, 1995. Because the frigid winter was just around the
corner in Minnesota and my grandpa wanted to be able to work on it,
the engine was stored in our friend Mylan Larson’s heated
garage. The first job was to disassemble it, check for wear, and
clean the engine. Every part on the Mogul was removed except for
the six bolts that connect the water hopper to the base. This was
done very carefully due to the complexity of the engine and its
parts. The sideshaft mechanism was carefully diagrammed and parts
were carefully marked so that they would be put back together
properly. Little did my Grandpa know that the sideshaft mechanism
would come back to haunt him.
Parts were then cleaned, some sandblasted, and some were
remanufactured because they were badly worn. New piston rings were
ordered from Starbolt, and the cylinder was honed in preparation
for reassembly. Harold Larson, an excellent machinist from nearly
Hadley, Minnesota, was given the challenge of machining a number of
much needed new parts. He machined a new wrist pin and brass
bushings for the piston since the originals were badly worn. Also,
he machined a new plunger assembly and other parts for the fuel
pump, as the originals were pitted and rusted. The valve guides
were worn, and both the exhaust and intake valve heads were
completely rusted off. My grandpa found new valves from a 1941
Model A John Deere tractor with a stem diameter of
1/2 inch. The original stems were
7/16 inch, so the valve guides had to be
bored to allow for the larger valve stem. The stems were then cut
to the proper length and threaded to match the original valves. The
exhaust valve seat was completely gone and it appeared to have been
repaired once before. Mylan was able to clean away the remains of
the old seat and weld in a new seat. The valve seats were then
resurfaced to ensure a proper fit with the new valves.
One of the rocker arms had been previously welded. During the
initial reassembly of the engine, Grandpa found it was impossible
to get the valves in time with the piston stroke. Finally, after
removing both rocker arms and comparing them, he determined that
the welded rocker arm had been welded approximately one inch off
from the correct position. The rocker arm was then cut at the weld
mark, ground smooth, placed in a jig which was made using the good
rocker arm, and re-welded. It was now possible to time the engine
properly.
The final step before reassembling was to build a cart. My
grandpa decided to build a cart because the Mogul engine is quite
tall and, without an original cart, most other carts would have
placed the engine too high off the ground. Used grain elevator
wheels were used for the cart wheels. My grandpa made an iron base
from 2′ x 5′ channel iron that was cut to the same length
as the original skids. After the base was made, only a tongue was
needed. Grandpa and Mylan made the tongue out of some pieces of
black walnut, which were routed on the edges and strengthened with
pieces of angle iron. Pieces of wood were then mounted crosswise on
the channel iron base for the engine to rest on.
In May of 1996, my grandpa and grandma made their annual flight
to Virginia to visit us. This time they had a special treat for me.
They had pictures of the Mogul completely assembled on the cart and
a video of it in its recent running condition. Although it
wasn’t painted, the sight and sound was more beautiful than I
can describe.
After the visit, my grandpa returned to Minnesota and spent most
of the time working the bugs out of the engine. He didn’t paint
the Mogul until a few weeks before my family and I showed up for
the annual show because he didn’t want to damage the paint job
while he was removing parts. When we finally arrived at the farm in
the summer of 1996, the first thing we did after we hugged was rush
over to see the engine. It was completely painted and extremely
beautiful. Then we decided to start it up for the first time since
it had been painted. I grabbed a flywheel and my dad took the other
one and it started up after just a few turns. Its constant puff. .
. puff . . . puff lit a smile on my face instantly and the engine
sounded much better than it did on the video.
But a ‘few problems also showed up for the first time.
Almost every gas line was leaking at the joints. After cutting
gaskets for each one and taping the threads, that problem was
solved. Then the brass gas line from the fuel pump to the
carburetor was leaking gas, and after disconnecting it we found
that it had a small pinhole. The hole was soldered and everything
was put back together and then the paint was touched up.
While we were running the engine we ran it off of a battery
instead of the magneto. My grandpa hadn’t been able to start
the engine with the magneto, but had just recently discovered that
many years ago one of the two magnets had been put on backwards.
Because he had carefully marked the way in which he found them, he
was trying to start it with one of the magnets backwards the whole
time. He had recharged the magnets and put them back on right, but
hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet. So while the engine was
running, he carefully switched from the battery to the magneto and
it ran perfectly. Then we decided to try to start the engine off
the magneto and it started instantly.
The Mogul was now ready to go to the show. We loaded her up
along with her 1 HP sister and left for Butterfield. When we got
there, I registered the Moguls under my name. My grandpa has been
exhibiting at the Butterfield Show for every one of its 30 show
years and it was the first time I was registered as an exhibitor. I
received my own button and my own plaque, which featured my
grandpa’s 10 HP Flour City gas engine. While at the show, I
enjoyed showing my Mogul to all of our friends and a fortunate
event happened.
The engine had always had a little clanking sound that my
grandpa just couldn’t seem to locate. Well, our friend whom we
bought the engine from also shows at Butterfield, and he came over
to look at the finished project. He heard the clanking noise and
pressed his hand against the eccentric at the end of the sideshaft
that operates the gas pump. The sound completely disappeared, and
it ran so quietly that I thought I had ear plugs in my ears. So my
grandpa is going to repair the eccentric so it will sound even
better in the future.
Now I would like to thank a few people who were involved in the
restoration of this engine. I would like to thank Harold Larson for
doing a perfect job in machining the parts that this engine needed.
He is greatly responsible for the way this engine runs so smoothly.
I want to thank Mylan Larson for all of the work he put into the
engine, and for allowing use of his heated garage. I also want to
thank his family for all of their help and putting up with the
engine. I want to thank my Uncle George who spent a lot of time
touching up the paint, and my Grandma who put up with Grandpa
restoring yet another gas engine. Finally and most of all, I would
like to give a big thank you to my grandpa for making this engine
look so beautiful and run so smoothly. Once again you outdid
your-self.
P.S. Currently my dad and I are restoring a 6 HP Mogul sideshaft
engine that we bought in Maine in the spring of 1997. The engine is
in mint condition and we are looking forward to cleaning it and
getting it painted. I guess you can say we are hooked on
Moguls.
