A New Way's New Home

Group effort brings a beautiful engine back to life

August 2006
By Christopher Markley 
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Having bought several smaller engines, I decided I wanted something physically bigger to play with. I had seen several New Ways in magazines and on the Internet, but never in person. Liking the painted detail and the air-cooled design, I began looking on the Internet for a project.

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In Kansas, eBay presented a nice option: a Type C, 4-1/2 HP, double-flywheel with a stuck piston and several missing parts. After several e-mail conversations with the seller, Tim Christoff, I won the bid and picked up the engine in the fall of 2002. Tim helped my brother and I load it into the truck, then he showed us some of his projects, and gave us photos and drawings of parts I would need for this engine.

Tim had gotten the engine from Terry Ward of West Virginia. Terry said the engine had been hooked to a line shaft on a farm when he found it. The flywheel on the governor side was moved out 1/2-inch and a lead washer of that thickness was placed on the shaft to compensate for the move. Also, while the wheel was off, somebody cut a hole in the leather top of a boot and placed this on the main shaft. I am not sure of the reason for this addition. The engine is also missing the original tag, but Terry believes he has it and is looking for it.

We took the engine home, and the next morning I started looking it over better. I could see the piston was stuck about halfway, and it looked like there were leaves and other gunk in the cylinder. I got the Shop Vac out and blew air up in the cylinder. When I looked up again, I thought I saw light. I ran a string of Christmas lights through the spark plug hole and could see a wedge-shaped hole in the top of the piston. A few light taps of a wooden dowel rod brought down the rest of the piston top.

Hmm … a convertible piston. I figure at some point somebody had tried to use a rod and hammer to get the piston free, but it didn't go right. I contacted Tim about this and he started looking for a way to help me out.

The top of the piston was done for, but there was the possibility of welding a new top on, so I wanted the rest of the piston out in one piece. I tried several methods of freeing up the piston. Five months of electrolysis did nothing. I also used heat, dry ice and PB plaster. Nothing. After two years, I was ready for the mother of all pulleys.

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