After restoring the Quality Brand (Empire) B30 horizontal engine, I began to fancy a B31 vertical engine. Though different in configuration, these two models share many of the same parts. About a year ago, a nice B31 came up on eBay, and it appeared to be pretty much intact, requiring very little effort to make it like new:
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All the parts seemed to be there, even the normally busted-off whistle topper. The stack had a hole drilled through it, no doubt to insert a pin or rod for added torque when the thread seized. No matter, I already had a nice original to replace it with.
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I should have paid closer attention to the following picture, as it gave a clue as to a problem I would only discover later:
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Notice the dark discoloration towards the rear of the base? This should have been my cue to ask the seller to post a picture of the bottom of the engine. Trusting soul that I am, this didn't even occur to me. I figured that an engine that nice, should probably still have a working heater. Even so, the seller's description included the words, "Untested, no clue if complete, selling as is, no refunds." That didn't faze me none, and I proceeded to turn in the high bid.
Imagine my disappointment when I received the engine only to discover that it was completely naked below the base: no bottom cover, no heater, no heater clamp, no nothin'! The terminal pins were still there, as could be seen from the top side, but everything past that point was AWOL. I felt like an idiot for not having been more diligent about evaluating the engine's condition before bidding. I could have contacted the seller, and probably should have, but he was very clear in stating his terms of the sale. I doubt he had any clue about it either way. I needed to own my negligence, suck it up, and move on. Besides, I had an idea of how to solve the problem, and it could even turn out to be a fun challenge.
I disassembled the engine to begin the restoration process. You can see from this bottom view of the base, that the heater must have died a violent death:
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...though not as obvious from the top side:
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Nevertheless, the base got a good blasting to remove all traces of the heater's spectacular demise. I also blasted the engine frame:
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I needed to replace the missing bottom cover, so I cut a piece of stainless sheet metal to size and spotted and drilled a couple of holes for the screws:
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So far, so good. Next: Paint for the base and engine frame. Stay tuned!
Paula