A Ruston & Hornsby Teaches The Three Rs by Ken Evans

If you think this is a story about Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic, you better stop right here. But if you are interested in a very detailed accounting of the Research, parts Removal and the Restoration of a Ruston and Hornsby 3hp engine made in 1941 in Australia by Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers Ltd., then read on.

Bill Young, a good friend and fellow member of the Western Antique Power Associates, has lived for many years in Japan with his Japanese wife. He finally decided to make Japan his permanent home and decided to sell his property near me here in Southern California. I volunteered to help him with a massive yard sale in August of 1994 that was needed to clear the property of the items he did not want to ship to Japan. Among the hundreds of items to be sold were several old gas engines. By the end of the sale there was only one remaining engine and nobody seemed to be interested in. It was a horizontal single cylinder, hopper cooled, throttle governed, side shaft driven rotary magneto with spark plug ignition, fully enclosed crankcase, self oiling, spoked flywheels, heavy, stuck, 3 HP engine. I took pity on Bill since he urgently needed to sell everything and made an offer on it that he accepted. If you want to know more about Bill and his experiences in Japan, read his article on page 20 of the August, 1994 issue of GEM.

The engine appeared to be complete as it sat there on a wooden platform. The magneto mounts on a bracket near the front of the engine and is driven by a rotary side shaft from the crankshaft. Prior to the sale days, Bill had me help in arranging the engines and I had found the magneto near the engine and bolted it on the bracket so it would stay with the engine and not become a neat single piece treasure. The magneto drive side shaft was slightly bent and would not mate with the magneto so I turned the magneto backwards when I bolted it to the bracket. The engine was also very much stuck. Nothing would turn except the magneto.

My brother, Larry, lives near Bill’s old place and we moved the engine to his house using my low bed trailer and a portable “cherry picker” hoist to load it. I began to question my sanity in buying the engine because when we picked it up, it sloshed from inside, which meant that the enclosed crankcase was full of rain water. You see, Bill had it stored in a make shift cover and I believe it was more shift than make. Any way, the engine was mine and it had to be moved. Off we went to Larry’s house. We off loaded it onto a small platform with casters so we could move it around until a proper cart could be built.

The first order of business was to remove the rear crankcase cover and see what I had really bought. There are four bolts that hold the cover on. My American wrenches fit one bolt head, but not the other three. Neither did the Metric wrenches. So off came the bolts with an adjustable wrench. Sure enough, the crankcase was full of water and mucky oil. I drained the fluids out and left the cover off to start the drying process. I also took the head off to see what problems lay ahead there. The head gasket is copper clad and was in good shape. Since everything was stuck and wet, now was the time to start the Research into what I had purchased in order to determine whether I should restore this engine or just try to re-sell it at a later date. So here we are at the first R, of The Three R’s.

CHAPTER 1- RESEARCH

The rectangular name plate on the front of the engine hopper had the following engraved on it:

In the meantime, Bill Young in Japan sent me some information from the March 1995 Stationary Engine Magazine. On page 8 is their Helpline and for Ruston & Hornsby, contact Ray Hooley. Bill also knows Chris Madeley, an English chap living in Tokyo, Japan. Chris said to contact Ray Hooley. See the back cover of the January 1995 GEM for an article and photos by Chris. By now I was convinced that Ray Hooley was the one to talk to. Before I had a chance to write him, I got a letter from him in response to the referral from Stationary Engine Magazine. From Ray I was able to purchase an instruction manual reprint, copies of construction prints, advertising and R & H transfers (decals to us US folks). Ray even sent a color sample. He also gave some information on the Australian built engine.

Bill Young had also sent me information from Stationary Engine Magazine on Clubs in Australia. I wrote to four of them and got a reply from Tony Marvin of the Sydney Antique Machinery Club in Blacktown, NSW. Tony in turn asked Pat O’Brien of Aitkenvale, QLD, Australia to lend a hand. From these three I was able to piece together information on the engine.

The engine is a Ruston & Hornsby, Type P.B. designed in England but built in Australia by Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers Ltd. Thus the Type P.B. becomes S.P.B., the “S” indicating Scarfe manufacture. There are no exact records on the date of manufacture, however it is most likely in the 1941-1942 era. Prior to World War II, the English built R & H engines were sold in Australia by Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers Ltd., as sole agents in Western Australia. For ease of writing I will refer to them as H.S.S. They were a large outfit in their day and were able to organize and manufacture the entire SPB engine during the WWII years of 1941 thru 1945. After the war, Ruston & Hornsby, Lincoln, could then again supply Australia from England.

All H.S.S. engines were eventually sold either by Scarfes or the R & H offices in Australia. H.S.S. was the only R & H agent in Western Australia. All other Australian states had R & H offices in the capital cities that were owned by the parent company in England.

Tony came to Australia in 1946 from R & H, Lincoln, to the Sydney office and was service manager in the 1950’s. In the late 1950’s and early 60’s, the “Company take over period” commenced and disaster reigned and Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers eventually went out of business due probably to loss of agencies, the G.E.C. Group having opened a branch in West Australia.

Some other information has recently surfaced according to Tony. A company by the name of Ledger Engineering in Perth, West Australia, had something to do with making the S.P.B.’s. Maybe they were connected with Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers in some way?

There is a small mystery about my engine. On the side of the block just above the exhaust port is neatly stamped: J & E L. None of my contacts know what this is for or what it means. I am wondering if the “L” is in some way connected with Ledger Engineering?

Tony Marvin has a list of approximately 25 SPB’s on record as existing in Australia today. The serial numbers range from S537 to S1722. To the best of his knowledge, all were made between 1940 and 1945. The only positive fix he has on a particular engine is that No. S1443 was delivered in 1942 by the Australian Army to a farmer to drive a milking machine. Therefore, my Serial No. S1033 could have been made in 1941. He does find it hard to believe that so many engines were made if numbering was in sequence. It is quite possible that the numbering was mixed up with other products.

The big mystery about my engine is how did it get to California? I don’t know! All Bill Young remembers is that he got it 10-15 years ago, maybe in Tracy, California. He was purchasing parts for Stearman airplanes and saw several antique engines at this location and purchased them also. If any one of you readers have any information on the traveling history of this particular engine, I would like to correspond with you.

Even though this is an old engine, I was able to use some modern technology in the research phase of the restoration. Larry has access to the internet on his computer. While looking at some old engine related information on the World Wide Web (WWW), he saw reference to a mailing list that is specific to the subject of old stationary engines. The way this works is that you electronically mail (e-mail) a message to a certain computer address and that message is then automatically re-sent to all the subscribers on the list. A response can then be sent back to the original sender or the entire group. If you are interested in this service take a look at Craig Prucha’s “Antique Gas Engine Home Page at http://www.antique-engine.com/. This is a great service that is being provided. Larry sent in a message for information on this particular engine and unfortunately it did us no good as there were no responses.

CHAPTER 2- REMOVAL

It is a horizontal single cylinder hopper cooled cast iron engine with two five spoked flywheels and enclosed crankcase. The bore is 3.75 inches and it has a stroke of 5.5 inches. The fuel flows by gravity from a tank mounted above and behind the water hopper between the flywheels into a float type carburetor. The intake and exhaust valves operate off a cam shaft with adjustable pushers and are located underneath the cylinder inside the crankcase. All references I make to the right and left side of the engine will be as viewed from the rear (flywheel) end. The intake valve is on the left and the exhaust is on the right. The cam is not directly driven off of the crank shaft, but has an idler gear the same diameter as the cam gear and mounts between the crankshaft and the cam. This arrangement gets the cam down low in the engine, but it also means that the cam turns the same direction as the crankshaft. There is a fly weight governor mounted on the cam gear. The weights actuate a pin which in turn operates the throttle plate in the intake passage through a lever arm. This lever is spring loaded and externally adjustable to provide variable speed control.

Lubrication of the engine is accomplished by using the cam gear to pickup the oil from the sump and splash it around inside the crankcase. There are special channels and holes to guide the oil around to all the important places. Since it is an enclosed crankcase, I wondered about the vent system. It turns out that it vents into the intake passage in the carburetor. If you thought positive crank case ventilation was new, sorry.

During the course of this story I will name products that I used. This does not mean that they are the best or the only ones that will work. Plain and simple, it is what I had available, or had used before with good success. We all have our favorite products and procedures and maybe even a magic potion or two.

I am also going to relate some of the errors I made. In this way you can learn from my mistakes. Also I have learned to laugh about some of the dumb things that happen.

I also highly recommend that you take photographs from all sides before taking it apart so that you can remember where pieces go. Keep in mind that the way you got it may not be the correct way. But at least you have a record of how it was before restoration. Video tape is another possibility for documentation. However, it is difficult to really study a video and the image quality is not as good as a photograph.

During the research phase, I had positioned the engine so that the cylinder was vertical and I could soak the piston with just enough Kroil penetrating fluid to just cover the piston face. During the soaking phase, Larry used a five pound hammer to tap on the top of the piston with a piece of wood that just fit the bore. This way there was no danger of breaking the top of the piston since the force of the hammer blows was directed around the circumference of the piston. The idea was not to try to break the piston loose with the hammer blows but kind of jostle things around a little so the penetrating oil could work in as far as possible. You do not want to apply much force to the center of a piston. It could break.

Since the engine was stuck, I had to find out just what was stuck. Trying to turn the fly-wheels just didn’t work. It was very stuck. The first thing to do is disconnect the connecting rod. Keep track of how it was assembled and where the shims go. The end cap was already marked with punch marks. Look before you put your own marks because you could be adding to marks already there and then not know which are for correct alignment. With the connecting rod loose, the flywheels still would not budge. Removing the cam idler gear did not improve the situation. The crankshaft was stuck in its bearings. By the way, the piston was also stuck. It was now time to try and remove the crankshaft.

Because of the enclosed crankcase, the crankshaft is assembled to the block through an elongated hole in the right side of the engine. The bearings are in assemblies that bolt to each side of the block. The left hand assembly also contains the drive gear for the magneto drive side shaft. But before anything could be done, the flywheels had to be removed.

FLYWHEEL REMOVAL

The flywheels have five spokes and a split hub. There is a 1/2 inch bolt through the hub for tightening. There is also a cast iron v-belt pulley bolted to each flywheel. The left pulley is between the flywheel and the engine block. The right hand pulley is on the outside of the flywheel. The left hand flywheel has to come off because the crankshaft is removed out the right hand side of the engine. Before trying to remove a flywheel, clean off the exposed drive shaft with emery paper and wire brushes. Remove the hub tightening bolt and soak the area with penetrant. The v-belt pulley has three spokes that are threaded to line up with holes in the flywheel hub. I removed the bolts for the pulley and let it hang loose. Since it was between the flywheel and the block, it could not be removed until the flywheel was off. However, the mounting holes in the flywheel could now be used to help in removing the flywheel. A word of caution is in order here when removing flywheels. Always pull on the hub and not on the spokes or the rim. I used a heavy duty wheel puller that looks like a crows foot with a threaded hole in the center. Because of the five spokes, the pulley holes are not in line with the center of the crankshaft. Using high strength bolts through the pulley holes in the flywheel and a side slot in the puller, I could get the center puller bolt to line up with the center of the crankshaft. However, it was a little off center and the puller tended to cock to the side when the center bolt was tightened. By adding another bolt to the puller with a large washer behind the flywheel hub and some heavy wire to keep it on the puller, the geometry for pulling was all right. Because of the split hub, I was able to lightly tap a small cold chisel in the slot to expand the hub. Be very careful and don’t force it hard into the slot and crack the hub. Apply pressure on the center bolt, lubricate the crankshaft with silicon spray with Teflon and lightly rap on the center bolt. The flywheel did come off with a little force. The flywheel weighs in at 55 pounds. The right flywheel came off using the same technique. However, the v-belt pulley is on the outside of the flywheel and is nut and bolted to the flywheel.

CRANKSHAFT REMOVAL

The left crankshaft bearing is in a housing that is attached to the block with 3 bolts. The bearing is babbitt and is pressed into the cover plate. Fortunately, the left bearing was loose and came off with the housing. This left the right bearing assembly stuck to the crankshaft. Removing its 3 attachment bolts allowed the crankshaft and bearing to be removed as one stuck assembly. The crankshaft and bearing assembly weigh about 20 pounds.

The next challenge was to get the crankshaft out of the bearing. I supported the bearing assembly and crankshaft in my hydraulic arbor press so I could apply pressure to the end of the crankshaft. As I applied force with the hand pump lever there was a loud pop and the crank shaft was loose. I thought I was home free, but I discovered that the babbitt had popped loose from the housing and was still stuck to the crankshaft. The babbitt is circular and has a flange on one end with flats that key into the housing. I clamped the crankshaft in a bench vise and used a large adjustable open end wrench across the flats and tried to twist the bearing. All I did was distort the bearing flats. Because the bearing flange is against the crank throw, I could not use the arbor press to get the bearing off. With the crankshaft and bearing still in the vise, I squirted it with Kroil and heated the babbitt with a hot air gun. This is the type used in the electronics industry to shrink heat shrink insulation. Do not use an open flame. Applying the heat evenly around the bearing, I was able to twist the bearing a little. More Kroil, careful heating and twisting and pushing got the bearing off of the crank shaft. The reason it had stuck to the crank is because the bearing has spiral grooves cut in it for oil distribution and water had gotten into the grooves and rusted the crankshaft.

It is interesting to note here that there is a right hand and left hand bearing. The bearings are marked gear side and exhaust side. It turns out that the oil grooves are spiral cut in opposite directions so the oil is distributed over the crankshaft, but the rotation direction of the shaft forces the excess oil back into the crankcase and not out the oil seal. Very clever design on the part of the manufacturer.

The right hand bearing housing also contains an oil seal. I could read that the seal was a FLASEAL # 212116. Because the engine was built in Australia, I thought it would be impossible to get a replacement. A long time friend of mine, Bob DeVoe has a well equipped home machine shop and support literature. I talked with him and we were able to look up the 800 phone number for CR Systems (formerly Chicago Rawhide) now CR for short. I called the number (800-882-4445) and the nice service person was able to give me a current replacement part number. It is a Type CRW1 single lip, Nitrile, spring insert seal. I went to my local independent auto parts supplier to get new oil seals. They do not stock CR seals but had a cross reference to National Seals. They were not in stock there, but the shop ordered them and I picked them up the next day. I had to destroy the old seals to get them out of the housings. The seal had rusted to the housing.

PISTON REMOVAL

CAM AND VALVE REMOVAL

The cam shaft end and collar are protected with a cast brass cover with gasket. The cam slid right out. The exhaust valve worked and a little tapping with a wood stick loosened the intake valve. Under the front of the engine is a cover plate to gain access to the valve springs and push rods. This too was easily removed. A large valve spring compressor was used to squeeze the springs to remove the spring retaining pins. As parts were removed, they were put in plastic bags and marked.

FINAL DISASSEMBLY

All the pieces were now removed from the block and after seeing how well built the engine was and the possible rarity of it in the United States, I decided to finish the job and keep the engine.

Now it was time to start the last phase, and that is Restoration. We are now at our last R of our Three R’s.

CHAPTER 3- RESTORATION

And furthermore, I live on a hillside and there are stairs and ramps to the back yard area. I do have a small concrete area in the rear where I took the block. I had also brought over the “cherry picker” because the bare block weighs 155 pounds. To get the block up to a good working height, I used a portable table known as a Work mate made by Black and Decker. This is a very handy piece of equipment around a restoration project because not only is it a work surface, it is also

a vise and clamp.

Before really getting serious about the restoration, I washed all the parts with solvent, dried them and stored them in boxes. I will now describe the restoration by major units.

BLOCK RESTORATION

The really big area of concern was the cylinder. The water and rust had really done a number on the cylinder wall and left large pits too deep to hone out. I had two choices. One was to bore and sleeve it and the other was to try and fill the pits. I chose the latter. I own a Fairbanks-Morse 3 horse power engine that prior to my owning it, the piston wrist pin had come loose and scored the cylinder walls. I successfully repaired that with J-B Weld slow set epoxy. So I decided to try epoxy to fill the pits. The secret for using epoxies is to have very clean surfaces down to base material. In this case, cast iron. I used a flexible rotary shaft grinding tool with carbide burrs of various sizes and shapes. Be sure to use full eye protection. I was using safety glasses but a particle came in from the side and lodged on the eyeball. A trip to the eye doctor was necessary to have the particle removed. I now use safety glasses with side shields and full goggles. Every rust pit was enlarged and ground down to base metal. The inside of the cylinder looked like Swiss cheese. But this is what I wanted to do to provide lots of surface area for the epoxy.

To minimize the waste of the epoxy and force it into the pits I made a wooden plug. On my lathe I turned a piece of wood just a little under the diameter of the cylinder and longer than the length of the cylinder. It was then cut in half the long way and cut to length. The cut ends were saved. The surface of the cylinder was cleaned with various solvents and wire brushes. The final solvent is a spray can of brake cleaner. It removes oil and leaves no residue. If you use this solvent, follow directions on the can and use it outside with plenty of ventilation so as not to breath the fumes and also wear protective gloves as it will dry your skin instantly. The J-B Weld epoxy was mixed according to the package instructions and liberally applied to the clean pits in the cylinder. A layer of kitchen wax paper was pressed against the fresh epoxy. The wooden plug was inserted into the cylinder and wedged tight against the walls. The epoxy takes 24 hours to set-up properly. Remove the wedges and wood plug and peel away the wax paper and let it stand for at least another 24 hours.

Even with the wax paper and form, the surface of the cylinder was lumpy with epoxy. To get the surface to a point where a hone could be used, I took the semi-circular scrap ends from the wooden plug and stapled coarse emery paper strips to the outside surface. By hand, I was able to sand away the high spots and quit when I began to see the outline of the pits. Actually, I started with coarse paper and worked my way down to finer grit. You must use a form of some sort because if you just hold the emery paper in your hand, you will just follow the lumps and pits and not get a flat surface. I have used this semicircular form idea on several cylinder walls. I have also used the J-B Weld on the bore of a Western air compressor.

The initial epoxy treatment on this engine was not enough to fill all the pits. It was necessary to spot fill a few holes and re-sand. After the hand sanding was complete, I honed the cylinder with a hone that works on a rack and pinion. The hone has two stones and two felt wipers and is used dry. Because the epoxy tends to clog the stone face, I start with an old coarse stone and clean the stone surface with a wire brush frequently. As with the emery paper, I finish up with a finer stone. I honed it just enough to make the surface look like a leopard skin. That is, spots of epoxy surrounded by clean cast iron. After the honing, be sure and coat the inside surface with oil. Clean cast iron turns to rust quickly.

Author’s Note-- After running the engine for at least 160 hours, the head was removed for inspection. I found that the J-B Weld epoxy in the cylinder did not survive the high temperature just at the head end near the exhaust valve. The major portion of the cylinder walls are in good condition and the engine runs with the missing epoxy.

As far as the outside of the block was concerned, the goal was not to make a super smooth surface but to make it look as if it just came from the factory. However, I did remove a few high spots and fill in a few large pits. Just as in the cylinder, J-B Weld was used on the outside. At the rear next to the bolt hole for the oil fill fitting was a small pit in the casting. I ground away at it with a burr and it opened up into a cavern about the size of an almond meat. It also intersected the bolt hole for the oil fill fitting. By packing the bolt hole with wax paper I was able to fill the void with J-B Weld and not fill the bolt hole. After it set-up, I removed the wax paper and ran a tap into the hole to make sure the threads were good.

The final major problem with the block was with one of the studs for holding the head on. There are four long studs and two short ones. I was able to remove all the studs, except for one short one. After some penetrant and local heating and a pair of Vise-Grips, it came out. What I discovered is that the bolt is supposed to be in a blind hole and not exposed to water in the water jacket. The back end of the casting was rusted away and the stud had become rusted in place. Well here was another place to use J-B Weld. As before, the area was cleaned up with rotary burrs and what ever else I could reach in there with to get a good clean surface. Since I needed to build up quite a bit of material, I built a dam out of modeling clay. I also put wax paper in the part of the hole that had good threads. After the epoxy hardened, I dug out the modeling clay to restore the water passage and removed the wax paper from the hole, Now this left the hole not deep enough for the stud. The epoxy drilled and tapped nicely.

This might be a good place to discuss the nut and bolts used on this engine. You might remember that I mentioned earlier that the wrenches did not fit. After some measurements and head scratching, I discovered that the threads were British Whitworth. In most cases they are the same diameter and pitch as American threads, but the thread angle is 55°, not the 60° of American threads. For all of the threads, except 1/2 inch, I converted over to American. All of these were cover plates and brackets for non heavy loads. I was not afraid of any problems by switching over. However, the head, belt pulleys and flywheel bolts were 1/2 inch. In the Whitworth series, the 1/2 inch has 12 threads per inch and the American standard is 13 threads per inch. Trying to convert to American would really mess up the threads. My only choice was to stick with the Whitworth. I asked around and none of my friends had any Whitworth taps and dies. By looking through several machine tool catalogs, I was able to find a supplier and purchased a Whitworth tap and die in the 1/2 inch size.

I wanted to make three new studs for the head. By using my lathe, I tried to make a thread on a 1/2 inch steel rod by using the die directly. This was quite difficult and I decided to turn a thread on the lathe by first using a 60° bit and finishing it with the British die. Everything went well until I ran the die on it. The thread looked awful. Well I tried again and still bad. It took four tries before I realized that I had set-up the lathe to make a 13 pitch thread instead of a 12 pitch. After correcting this error, the studs turned out real good. What really disturbed me was that I even made a trial cut and checked with a pitch gauge, but it too was set at 13 instead of 12. As usual, I was in a hurry and did not double check myself.

The inside of the block was cleaned using paint thinner and brushes and drying with an air gun. All threaded holes were cleaned with wire brushes and then an appropriate tap run into the hole. In this case it was converting to American standard, except the 1/2” holes. All other holes, such as the valve guides and cam gear bearings were cleaned with wire brushes. The inside of the water hopper was cleaned by using some special tools made by Larry.

He took 1/4” all-thread rod and made a handle for one end by drilling a hole through a length of broom stick and fastening it on with nuts and washers. On the other end he fashioned various shapes. Such as a flat blade like a screw driver. Another was grinding off the end at an angle to make a sharp edge. The tool can now be pushed and pulled through the narrow passages of the hopper. One rod can also be bent in a semi-circle to fit in the narrow space between the bottom of the cylinder and the water jacket. The sharp edges of the thread provide cutting edges as you poke it around in the hopper.

And finally, the outside of the block is cleaned and prepared by using a small hand held high speed electric 90° grinder with a knotted wire cup brush. The surface is then sanded by hand using emery paper. The purpose was to get the surface clean and free from loose material, but not glass smooth.

Since the block was ready for painting, I went ahead with it so that it would have a long time to dry before final assembly. For a base coat, I used Benjamin Moore & Co. IronClad Retardo rust inhibitive paint, Bronzetone color. For the two color coats, I used Ameritone Industrial Finishes High Gloss Universal Alkyd Enamel, custom mixed starting with yellow oxide base. The engine was built during the early years of World War II and was painted an olive drab color. There was not enough color on any of the pieces to get a good match, so I chose the inside of the lid of a surplus ammunition can. Both paints were applied with a simple foam brush. The finish is very smooth and there are no brush marks. I have painted several engines using the foam brushes and it has been very successful.

PIECE PART PREPARATION

PISTON & CONNECTING ROD

Some times I have been able to get a small screwdriver into the ring gap and gently pry it loose. Be VERY patient. Rings are brittle and break easily. Once the rings are loose, they can be removed by using a ring expander, narrow strips of thin metal (drink cans) or I use old plastic pocket calendars slid under the rings. With the ring expanded all around the piston, slide the rings off. As you remove the rings, mark them or put them in bags for identification. For marking, I scratch a number on the edge with a sharp carbide scribe. Remove the wrist pin and mark it. All piston assembly pieces were glass bead blasted. After cleaning, I reassembled the piston and connecting rod and liberally applied oil and set it aside.

CARBURETOR

FLYWHEELS

MAGNETO REBUILDING

The spark plug wire is held into the cap with a pointed screw from inside. This screw had not survived the weathering and needed replacing. I checked the diameter and pitch and it turned out to be a metric thread. A replacement screw was not difficult to make. So now the engine is truly international. American, British and Metric threads. Because the magneto turned and produced a good spark, I originally planned to just do a simple clean up and use it. But careful inspection showed that the leather dust seal around the drive shaft needed to be replaced. A complete disassembly would be required. It is a good thing that I did because the ball bearings inside were very dirty. With the magneto apart, I bead blasted the aluminum case and the breaker points mounting plate. All other pieces were washed in solvent.

For assembly, I had to manufacture some bearing retaining rings. The bearings are held in place with a heavy paper ring. My friend Bob DeVoe happened to have some raw stock of similar material and I cut out replacements. He also had some industrial felt that I used as a new shaft dust seal. The magneto went back together without any problems and it still worked! It was put aside until needed for final assembly. The bent magneto drive shaft was straightened and bead blasted. Everything for the engine was now ready for final assembly. However, I did need a wheeled cart.

CART FABRICATION

CHAPTER 4- FINAL ASSEMBLY

The governor weights were put back on the cam gear and secured. The cam was installed and held in place with its collar and cotter key on the right side of the block. The governor operating pin was installed so it wouldn’t get forgotten. The throttle plate and shaft were installed using new screws. Next came the governor lever held in place on the pivot with a new cotter key. The pivot is mounted on the crankcase oil guard that is bolted just in front of the cam gear. All of the above is done through the large opening on the left side of the engine block. The speed adjust assembly was installed using a new gasket at the block and a roll pin replaced the small cotter pin that was used as an anti-rotation pin. The speed adjust is a threaded shaft and a knurled nut. As the nut is turned, the shaft is moved in or out against a spring. The spring works against the motion provided by the governor weights on the cam gear.

The side play of the crankshaft is adjusted to 0.004 to 0.006” by the thickness of the gasket material between the bearing assembly and the block. It took making several gaskets before I was satisfied with it. For thin gasket material, I used “parchment” paper from a copy service. After the final gaskets were fitted, the right hand bearing assembly was removed and the new oil seal was pressed into place. The left hand seal was also installed into its cover plate. Next came the installation of the magneto drive gear and key onto the drive shaft. A gasket was made for the oil seal plate, but it wasn’t thick enough. The seal was not a total direct replacement. A thicker gasket solved the problem.

It was now time to install the piston. It was put in the cylinder from the front of the engine making sure the oil holes were in the right position. The connecting rod was bolted to the crankshaft and tightened. It was too tight and a few new brass shims had to be fabricated.

The cam idler gear was put in place making sure all the timing marks lined up properly. When I took the engine apart, I thought timing the gears would be a real problem. Because the engine was stuck, I could not rotate the crankshaft to check for timing marks. It turned out that the factory had done a good job of plainly marking the three gears. There was only one way for them to be put together.

It was really beginning to look like an engine.

A new gasket was made for the left side cover plate and was installed under the plate. A gasket was cut for the oil filling fitting and that was installed. A new gasket was made for the carburetor and installed under it. The magneto mounting bracket was installed. The cam shaft cover on the right side of the engine needed a gasket and that was easily done and installed. The cover plates for the valve adjustment access and water hopper clean out required thicker gasket material than the standard soft fiber used elsewhere. I obtained some rubber material with a woven reinforcement laminated inside. The material was cut to fit and the plates installed. The plates are held in place with a bolt assembly that is a piece of metal strap with a threaded rod welded to the center. This assembly is inserted into the block and bridges the opening. The cover has a hole in the center to fit over the threaded rod and is held in place with a washer and nut. The bolt assembly for the valve access cover was in good condition. However, the water passage cover bolt was rusted beyond use. I made a new assembly out of brass and I hope that this will help in the future by not rusting and making it difficult to do water hopper maintenance.

ENGINE MOUNTING

Similar tapered washers were used at the steering pivot and shouldered eye bolt at the rear.

It was now time to mount the flywheels onto the crankshaft. Remember that there are v-belt pulleys on each flywheel. The left pulley has threaded holes and fastens to the inside of the wheel. I assembled the pulley to the flywheel, but left it loose. The flywheel was slid on the shaft lining up the key and the long 1/2” bolt was tightened through the hub. Then the pulley bolts were tightened. The right hand flywheel was installed similarly except that the pulley is on the outside and is fastened on with bolts and nuts.

It was now easy to rotate the crankshaft to check for proper operation of all the gears and valves. I also hand operated the governor. The valve operation matched with the marks on the right hand flywheel. All systems were operating properly. At this time I also checked the clearance between the valve end and pusher adjusting screw. I made sure it was adjusted to 0.031” for intake and exhaust.

I was able to use the old head gasket since it was copper clad and came off in one piece. I did clean up the surfaces with a mild household powdered cleanser and thorough cleaning. The gasket was coated on both sides with grease and the slid over the head studs. Then the head was put in place and the nuts tightened evenly. Again I turned the flywheels and there was some compression. There were no major hissing sounds indicating compression leaks.

It was now time to mount the magneto and time it. I had really agonized over the timing because there were no marks that I could find to indicate the proper gear mesh. I had mentally devised a method of rotating the magneto with an electric drill and using a timing light to indicate when it produced a spark. Then it hit me! The spark is produced when the points open. All I had to do was remove the cover on the back of the magneto, rotate the engine to the “S” mark on the flywheel and install the gear so the points were just opening. It worked perfectly. Some final hand turning to double check the system operation was performed and the engine was almost ready for the moment of truth. Would it run? It only took 1 1/2 quarts of oil to fill the crankcase. A new gasket was made for the rear cover plate and it was fastened into place.

For a muffler I borrowed one off of one of my other engines and eventually replaced it with one purchased from an advertiser in GEM.

I had not done anything about the fuel tank because the carburetor is a gravity fed float type with a swing away lid. So on Halloween night 1995, I filled the carburetor with gasoline (pardon me, petrol, it is English design) and pulled on the flywheels. Not a sound! After several attempts and even resorting to starting fluid. I quit for the time being.

I had recently finished a 3/8 scale model of an 8-cycle Aermotor and it too initially would not run. A friend, Merle Morse scratch builds models and he suggested that I turn the model crankshaft at slow speed with my lathe for several hours without compression. I did this using lots of oil and much to my surprise, the model ran on the first spin of the flywheel. This trick seats the piston rings, mates the bearing surfaces and wears in the gears.

I decided to try something similar with the Ruston & Hornsby. Because the engine has v-belt pulleys, I fabricated a hinged wooden platform with an electric motor mounted on it.

I mounted it across the back of the engine with c-clamps. The weight of the motor was to keep the belt tight. In Photo 4 you can see the electric motor mounted on a hinged wooden platform and belted to the right hand flywheel pulley. After removing the spark plug, I turned on power. It worked except the electric motor bounced a little so I strapped the motor down with a cargo strap. I let the engine run like this for at least 6 hours. I did attach the spark plug to the magneto and grounded it to provide a known path to ground for the spark,

Now my mental wheels were really turning because the final goal is to produce an engine that that runs on gasoline and not electricity. Why not use the electric motor as a starting device. So with the help of my neighbor, as a safety back up, I reinstalled the spark plug and poured some gasoline in the carburetor bowl. On went the electric motor and a little manual help turning the flywheels and within a few seconds, the engine was off and running by itself. I popped the v-belt off the pulley and the engine continued running. I did not run it very long because I did not have any water in the hopper. After a cool down period, the hopper was filled with water and the engine restarted with the electric motor. I let it run until the carburetor ran dry. This was repeated once more.

There was a water drip out of the hopper access plate. This was not corrected by tightening the cover bolt. After letting the area dry, I applied clear RTV rubber on both surfaces of the gasket and around the mounting bolt and tightened the nut. After letting it cure properly, I refilled the hopper and the leak was gone.

It was now time to try and start the engine without electric assist. I was really apprehensive about this step. The magneto,which has no spark retard feature or impulse mechanism, is a rotary type and needs to turn fast for proper operation. Everything looked like it was going against easy hand starting. The instruction manual indicates a starting crank is available. I do not use starting cranks, unless they are attached to the flywheel and fold out of the way. So what did I have to lose. Try it any way. With full choke and gasoline in the carburetor, I pulled on the flywheels and much to my amazement and satisfaction, the engine started and stayed running!! The speed control also worked. All systems were operational, except there was no fuel tank.

At the beginning of this project I had removed the fuel tank and put it aside without really looking at it. Big mistake. The bottom was totally rusted out with large holes. I put the word out that I was looking for a round tank of certain dimensions that I could adapt. Well, my good friend Bob Swan had one that would work. It was a little dented, but so what. That is the good news. The bad news was that the original tank had a nice shut-off valve and wire mesh filter but had British straight male pipe threads. I was able to make a brass adapter, but I had to purchase a British tap. I made some simple mounting brackets and mounted the tank and did a test run. There was a slight fuel leak at the carburetor, but that was solved. I painted the tank with the same paint as the engine, but I did spray it using an air brush. You may think that this tale is over, but not quite yet. This restoration project was so complete that I had to restore even the name plate.

The name plate was attached to the front of the water hopper with four drive in rivets. You know the kind that don’t come out. I had ground off the heads with a rotary burr but it slipped and gouged the brass surface and even messed up some of the lettering. The fix was to soft solder over the problem areas and smooth the surface. The letters were reformed using a sharp craft knife. The name plate was spray painted the engine color and the letters filled in with black paint. The hopper mounting surface was drilled and tapped and the name plate fastened on with brass screws. Take a look at Photo 5 for a view of the right side of the engine and Photo 6 for a rear view showing the fuel tank and valve.

Well, that completes the story of how this Ruston & Hornsby engine helped teach me The Three R’s of Research, parts Removal and Restoration.

The engine is very smooth running from the lowest speed to the maximum. I am pleased with this restoration and the next project is to restore a Hardie water pump so that the Ruston & Hornsby has something to do.

Please note that this restoration was very straightforward and was not complicated by missing parts and major problems such as cracks in the hopper. The only bothersome problem was the rust pits in the cylinder walls. All the bearings had very little wear and the whole project was really just a thorough cleaning and painting plus the fabrication of a cart.

I would like to acknowledge all the help that I received in this project. You are all mentioned in the text and without your help this project would have been much more difficult. A final thank you to my brother, Larry, for his help in the project and his inputs and review of this story.

A special thank you goes out to Michael Peterson of the Glendora Preservation Foundation for providing the back drop for the finished engine and for taking and processing the photographs.

To you readers, thank you for your attention and I hope I have helped you in some small way in your restoration projects. It can be discouraging at times, but be patient and do careful work. The thrill of completing a major restoration is hard to describe. You must experience it to know what we are really talking about. Happy rust hunting and restoration success.

UPDATE

One final update note. I am a member of the Western Antique Power Associates engine club and the club has just finished a sixteen day show at a local tourist attraction called Knott’s Berry Farm. At the exhibit I showed the Ruston & Hornsby and it ran about 10 hours daily for the entire event. Just like the pink bunny on television, it just kept going and going and....