Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the helpful videos! This seems to be a fairly common problem, especially with the smaller, low pressure boilers.
In fact, I have a Jensen D35 that apparently took a hard hit to the flywheel, from the direction of the stack. This bent the crankshaft bracket severely in the opposite direction, and made a nasty crease in the boiler. Less noticeable was bending the shaft (wobbly flywheel) and crankpin. Someone "fixed" it by just bending the bracket back so that the damage is less visible. Something I'll have to reckon with when I get around to that engine. (It has other issues, as well.)
Watching your third video, with the engine running, I note that it seems to be running in the opposite direction that most engines run (connecting rod goes
under the crank when piston extends.) Most non-reversing engines seem to be valved to go the opposite direction. I don't know what the convention is, or even if there is one. Curiously, the engine in the video, as it's set up, runs the grinder and saw in the wrong direction, assuming the operator would be standing opposite the drive belts. As I say, curious.
Nice work!
Paula