Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I have been cleaning , polishing, and adjusting the “ratty” JEMCO engine so as to get it to run. Both cylinder bores in the heat cap and the power cylinder needed a delicate 0000 steel wool polish. The heat cap had a sticky crust of burned oil inside the base of the tube, I scraped out with a dental pick; wire wheeled the outside of the cap to clean. Moderate work was needed to re-tap the screw holes and cut screws to mount the cooling fin/power piston cyl assembly as some previous owner really messed those holes up.  I re-installed the heat cap with a single wrap of teflon plumbers tape on the threads in hopes of giving it a better seal, and perhaps making it easier to remove the cap in the future (like new PMR models) . Finally I did a quicky touch-up on the screwdriver slot in the base that aids removal of the “fuel cell cap”. {trick to a get close color match was to squirt a few drops of 2 different green spray paints I had onto a piece of glass, then mix the greens with a toothpick and apply as tiny paint drops onto the damaged engine area with toothpick}.
Catman had ask a previous question about oiling the “bushing’” in the displacer shaft , it turns out that Solar used 2 kinds of bushings and the ‘Oilite’ one was not recommended to be lubed.
Oh, and as I was searching the internet for an original Owners Manual for these engines I came across another engine I reluctantly added to my collection. I will post about it latter and copies of 1977 owners manual.

Cleaned and run-able JEMCO engine:


Apx. Paint matching for touchup on pry hole (it’s still wet in pic)