3012 S. Catherine St. Lansing, Michigan 48911
I bought a Gardener air compressor at the Trading Post,
Portland, Indiana 1990 show. It had an open crank and a 2′
bore, 2?’ stroke.
I started on it the last week in October. I made the cart first.
Then I put on the 13′ flywheel that came off an old post drill
that I bought at the Caro, Michigan Show. The connecting rod that
came with it had been broken and welded and looked bad. I had two
brass rods that I had saved from a junked out surge milking pump. I
got lucky. The bottom end was a perfect fit. The rod was ?’
shorter but that was okay because I wanted to lower the compression
anyway. The new rod had a ?’ wrist pin and the old one had a
?’. I made new brass bushings for the piston and cut the pin
the right length and that took care of that problem. Then I made
the muffler and the gas tank, and stopped working on the engine
until spring 1991.
About the end of March, I put valves in the head and made my
carburetor out of an old brass valve. I then milled a flat spot on
one engine side cover for my bottom side shaft bearing. Next, I put
a piece of ?’ steel plate under the head and made my top side
shaft bearing. Both are brass sleeves. My gears came next. The
bottoms are 14 teeth angle gears and the top ones 14 and 28. I
bought them at a flea market and don’t know what they were used
for. I made the camshaft and bearing next. Then the rocker arm with
a small ball bearing on the end. Next came the rocker locking arm
and a battery saver switch, brass pulley and brass dress up ball on
the side shaft.
The hard part I saved for last. I sat at my kitchen table with
ruler, paper and pencil and drew four governors before I had one
that I thought would be okay I had to put some oil on top of the
piston to build up the compression so it would fire. It took a long
time to fine tune it. I didn’t know where to set the carb. When
I did get it running it was too fast. I had to change the governor
springs twice.
The engine now starts and runs real nice. Now I can settle down
and start rounding up parts for my next one and enjoy the 1991
shows.
