New Way Goes and Goes Right Again

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Peter Bellinger, 26 Adelaide Street, Westbury, Tasmania, Australia 7303 is pleased to report that this 'New Way Goes and Goes Right, Again.' See his story inside this issue.

26 Adelaide Street, Westbury, Tasmania, Australia 7303

This story really started back in 1987 when a bloke told me he had some engines he wanted to sell. A time was arranged for me to have a look at them. I was expecting to see the usual M Type International, and sure enough there were a couple of them, and a 4 HP Cooper Type W which is actually your Stover, but the one that interested me the most was a New Way (photo 1).

So I purchased the Cooper and the New Way. The Cooper was in good order, although I had to disassemble the crank and flywheel to get it out the shed door. The chap had started to restore the engine and found he had this problem.

The New Way was not so good. It had a lot of parts missing, and once I got it home I looked it up in the Gasoline Engines Since 1887, but this model was not there. So it was back to issues of GEM. But my issues only go back as far as 1988 and I came up with no further information.

As I was not in a hurry to restore the engine I thought I would just wait and see what popped up in the magazines I receive. I didn't have to wait long because on the October 1988 issue of The Stationary Engine Magazine appeared a New Way model CH 5 HP.

I noticed a couple of things that were a little different, but it was basically the same as mine. I noticed my part number started with 'CH' so I assumed this was the model and not a part number code. Unfortunately the photo was from the wrong side and didn't show the carburetor etc., which is what I was missing, along with the magneto. To make matters worse, there was no address of the owner to get another photo. Again I came to a dead end.

In the meantime, I had been gathering up carbs that I thought I could use, as I didn't think I would ever find an original. One day I was looking at the magneto mounting bracket and thought it looked the same size as a Bosch used on some of the International M Types. So I tried it, and sure enough, the bolt holes matched perfectly, along with the shaft height and rotation. The only thing I needed now was a second one. Luck was on my side. While at an auction one day I noticed a magneto in a box of rabbit tray and it was just the one I wanted. There was also a four gallon drum of old paint and I got the lot for $2.00! The magneto was in very bad condition as a bit of aluminum had corroded away and I had to weld it back on. The bearings were rusted, the condenser needed replacing, and the coil had to be rewound. I was able to rewind the coil myself, and in all it still made a good buy.