A Fairfield First

The manifold was made from angle iron and a one-inch street elbow. About a pound of welding rod was needed to seal it off with repeated grinding and welding. It was as close a match as I could achieve without casting one. The exhaust heats the intake elbow which in turn preheats the intake air and allows the Fairfield to burn kerosene. The carb flange was made from a flange used for mounting pipe legs to a table. The fuel tank was fabricated from welded ¹/₈' aluminum with brass caps. The Fairfield was an 'all-fuel' engine hence the two compartments for gas and kerosene. The carburetor is a Holley model K. The pictures show a Johnson carb I used to get the engine running (from an R.E.O. car/truck from what I'm told). The Holleys came later quite by surprise when I had pretty much given up on ever finding one (thanks, Dave). The Holley model K was also used on the two cylinder New Way engines and maybe some others. It's a lot of carb for a small, single cylinder engine. The' model K has a fixed idle jet which I converted to an adjustable one for fine tuning. I work with a woman who is related to the former VP of Holley Company during the '50s and '60s, and was able to get his name and phone number. Several calls later I was able to track down the head of Engineering R and D during the '50s. Holley is now part of Colt Industries. Suffice to say there is no historical info on Holley available from the company or some of its former management. Both gentlemen were, however, very pleasant and interesting to talk to. As so often happens, new management comes into an older company and feels that historical records just waste space. Perhaps some of you readers have some info on the Holley Company from the early years to share with us. Holley Company also built a car about 1905, but when faced with the competition of an up-and-coming Henry Ford, opted to just make the carburetors for Ford and others.

The Fairfield uses a cam-driven timer ignition with a battery and Model 'T' type coil. The timer is able to pivot about the camshaft to advance and retard the spark. I first used a weak Model 'T' coil left over from my Fordson restoration, but later bought one of those 6-volt coils from the back of GEM. What a difference! Definitely worth the money. The 'T' coil was designed for about 18 volts AC from the flywheel-mounted alternator of the T and Ford-son. You'll spend about the same dollars for a T coil when this other coil is the right part for the job of running this type of ignition. It also has the wire screws already on it. A Dixie magneto was also available for the Fairfield as shown in the brochure figures.