The WMB Restoration
This engine has a lot of issues. To begin with, the carburetor is broken. I found a New Old Stock replacement for $60 Next on the list, the crankshaft has far too much play, enough that the flywheel will hit the coil when the magnets pass under it. We'll find out why when we tear it down.
Well this engine is 66 years old, and it shows! The crankshaft, connecting rod and piston are pretty much shot. I will be using the internal parts from the 1955 Model 5S as replacements.
With the block completely disassembled there's more bad news. The bearing in the magneto plate is worn too far out of specs. It will take some modification, but I will be using the magneto plate off the 5S as well. The bearing in that plate is in good condition.
Here is the magneto plate from the 5S with the coil, points and condenser from the WMB mounted on it. The WMB has a governor adjustment riveted to the back of the mag plate. I had to drill the rivets out and re-rivet it to the back of the 5S plate. For set-up the crankshaft from the 5S is in the block.
With a .015" gasket behind the mag plate the crankshaft end play is .006" That is within specs. I'm also using the flywheel off the 5S because the original flywheel had two broken fins. With the flywheel temporarily mounted it has spark!
All the parts that are to be painted are prepped. The fuel tank just arrived. Work on the block is all finished at this point. The valves have been lapped in. I did notice that the ends of the valve stems have been ground pretty roughly. I won't know if they were ground to the proper clearance until assembly time.
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The Assembly
Here are the pictures of the assembled block, and another one of my hand cut gaskets for the base gasket. Ten bolt holes. That was entertaining!
Just about done. All together, just needs the fuel tank outlet, fuel line and a decal for the blower housing. The choke rod was made from a piece of coat hanger wire. I turned a piece of oak on a small Dremmel lathe to make the knob. The brass ID plate really cleaned up nice! I have another tank on it's way with the brass outlet and fuel line attached, and will be shopping for the proper decal.
Decals are in. Another set purchased from the eBay store of bladesmithbendor. These decals are actually very thin vinyl stickers, but they look great!
I built this oak stand as the resting place for the WMB.
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THE FINISHED PHOTOS
Finished at at last! I have to say this has been my favorite restoration to date. It took the most work of any I've done so far. Most $$ too... But I'm happy with the end result. I doubt this one will be considered for trade or sale in the near future.