1942 Craftsman Mower with Briggs IR-6 Engine
This mower should be interesting to restore. It's pretty much complete.
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The engine has a crank that fits into the reduction unit to start it. It's all seized up, but I'm sure it will be restorable.
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A flood victim. The mud inside the cylinder and exhaust valve chamber tell that this engine was under water at some time. Maybe why it's seized up!!!
The muffler was also full of mud, and rusted tight to the 45 deg. street elbow. I was able to save it by carefully grinding the street L away until it was thin enough to peel the remainder away from the pipe thread.
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The IR-6 is an industrial version based on the WM, and has an oil pump in it.
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All the stuck parts are out. This is the cleaned block, and a pic of the cylinder after honing. The cylinder isn't as rough as it looks in the picture. It was badly corroded and it shows. It does however mic straight and round after honing. I just need to reseat the valves and the block will be finished.
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This is the gear reduction unit after disassembly and cleaning. No problems here.
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Mag Plate all cleaned up and back together. It has good spark. You can see a line at about the centerline of the crankshaft. That is how full the mud was under the ignition cover, but the points filed to clean up and the condenser tested good. I did have to replace the high tension wire. Not water related, just old.
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The carburetor assembly was the first thing finished. The carb was also rusted tight from the water. It took a lot of time and patience to work it loose. My biggest fear was the main jet. It protrudes at an angle through the float bowl and into the top half of the carb. It has to be removed before the halves can be disassembled. I have stripped them out before in two piece flojets. As bad as this one was, that jet screwed out without incident. Another minor glitch was the gasket on the screen of the glass fuel filter. It was deteriorated and would not seal up. I replaced it with a 1-1/2 O.D. O-ring.
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The Finished Engine
I've done several step by step pictorials on other engines, so to save some web space I left them out on this one. Here are the pics of the finished IR-6 and the original Sears ID tag that is in the side of the blower housing.
The decals on the sides of the tank are homemade water slide off decals. The oil filter decals I had left over from a package I had purchased on eBay. I've decided to restore the whole mower. The below will carry out the rest of the restoration.
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As the original pictures show there was little left of the handle. I did get the top plates and one side that was almost all there. Using that side I bent 3/4"EMT conduit to match it's shape. Then I flattened the bottom ends and welded 1/2" clevis pins in. The wooden handle is part of an old ice spade handle that will need to be replaced with something a little thicker.
It fit right in to the holes in the mower frame and feels strong enough. I'll need to drill the holes in the tubes for the control wires to run through later. At this point I don't know where they go. After assembly I'll have a better idea.