Reviving an older Babe Bee field find.

I've decided the best place for this discussion is in a new thread.



This engine was a field find in the mid 1990's. My son Joseph, then a pre-teen was with his friend Brandon. We lived on a climbing ridge with a sloping open field in front of our house, and with smaller open land behind our house. Brandon was our next door neighbor and same age as Joseph.

After querrying on the Yahoo Groups 049 Collectors, I received a probable assessment that the engine could be anywhere from about 1958 to about 1967 or thereabouts, most likely the latter based on the earlier tapered shaft crankcase and stamped Thimble Drome lettering on the tank. My guess would be the mid 1960's.

Engine appeared to have some run time on it, more than a new hardly run engine. 100 year rain history, Gallup averages 9.5 inches (0.24 meters) precipitation annually. The drier weather helped to preserve it.

I cleaned it up by disassembling and soaking in solvent, scrubbing the cylinder which helped to remove the excess rust, reassembling with new gaskets. Rust is still present on cylinder and needle, needle spring, but a light coat of oil helps to hide it.

Engine immediately fired up after I opened needle to 4 turns, which is unusual. I'm used to anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 turns. Balogh brought up an interesting point of corrosion causing the needle to require greater opening.

Having received cathodic protection training as a part of my continuing education training during my former working life, not that I know everything, but the following might be plausible explanation.

The steel piston in the steel liner would have less galvanic corrosion action, as these are similar metals, slightly softer piston to liner. Castor oil varnish will also aid to preserve the piston to cylinder fit.

On the other hand, the steel needle set in brass insert force fit in the zinc back is a different story. There, no varnish action exists as there is no heat. Brass and steel are high on the galvanic series, so there wouldn't be as much interaction with them. There might be some sacrificing of the brass to protect the steel. However, the brass to zinc would have a more profound effect. My guess is that just as Balogh suspects, corrosion has occurred between the brass insert and the zinc back, zinc sacrificing itself to protect the brass liner and steel needle. There's corroded crud in the passageways, requiring greater needle opening.

Removing this corrosion may be harder, as the fuel metering passages are very small. To remedy most likely would require replacing the zinc backplate with another, say the currently available plastic one with new needle. However I was able to get it to run without fuss except for the greater turns required for needle opening.

Anyway, I was glad to be able to see a piece of history come alive again.