1927 Ingersoll-Rand Portable Compressor
(Page 3 of 4)
August/September 2002
Brian C. Ferrence
The cores went to the local radiator shop for evaluation, and
the shop foreman called a few days later to tell me that two of the
five cores leaked. That didn't seem too bad, but then he told
me that the other three were so clogged nothing could pass through
them. I bit the bullet and gave the go-ahead to replace the cores.
Fortunately, the brass tanks at top and bottom of each core were
serviceable, and a few weeks later I picked them up and put my
wallet on life support.
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Next, I pulled the head and water intake from the side of the
block. I removed about 40 hickory nuts and a few cups full of rust
from the system. Then I cleaned the rust from the water jacket of
the compressor and checked the water pump at the back of the unit.
I'm sure some rust remains in side channels in the block, but
my efforts really improved the water circulation. After having the
mounting faces on the cast iron radiator tanks milled smooth at a
local machine shop, I was ready to reassemble the cooling
system.
With that done, I turned my attention to the fuel tank, and
after removing about 20 pounds of crud from the tank it was ready
for sand blasting. The stream of sand reduced the tank to beautiful
lace work, so off I went to the sheet metal shop to have a new tank
and canopy fabricated. It was not quite as expensive as the
radiator repair, but it certainly added to the mounting expense
list.
The engine ran, although poorly, so I checked the timing on the
old four-cylinder Waukesha and found it was off by a few degrees
when the magneto impulse cutout. Getting the timing set properly
allowed the engine to run with the choke wide open, and it also
solved a plug-fouling problem. The governor's problem was that
the bearing, which rides on the throttle lever, was gone. I
didn't even know what it looked like, but replaced it with a
slide-thrust bearing race. It seems to work, and - so far - has not
self-destructed. I would really like a replacement governor as a
backup, and if anyone out there happens to have an extra one for an
old Waukesha engine of late 1920s vintage, I'd love to hear
from you.
The pressure-regulated speed controller looked pretty rough, but
fortunately it cleaned up nicely. Pulling it apart I discovered the
piston and cylinder sleeve were brass and in great condition. I got
a leather cup of the correct size at a swap meet from a guy with
NOS (new old stock) water pump parts. After soaking the cup in
Neat's-foot oil and reassembling the controller, it worked
perfectly.
The cutout valves on the compressor's intake valves also
needed replacing, but the leather cups required were only an inch
in diameter and I couldn't find any that small. After
contemplating the problem for a while I called a local auto parts
store and found they had neoprene cups for brake cylinders one-inch
in size. I picked up a few and drilled them to bolt on to the small
pistons. So far they have worked fine, and I occasionally add a few
drops of brake fluid to the cutout cylinders to lubricate them.