Fairmont Speeder Engine

[Andrew Mackey]

NAPA auto supply usually has it, they have the SAE 50 ND we need for our oil field engine too! A good auto supply should be able to get it for you, if they do not have it in stock. Our NAPA has their own brand, a local Auto Zone has Valvolene. There are probably other brands as well. The NAPA store has straight weight ND oils from 0-W up to SAE 90!
Andrew

[turnwaldw]

A guy I worked with had a couple of these speeders neat little butt movers and my uncle worked for the railroad here in central Michigan and started out on the repair gang the biggest thing I remember is they were loud little engine.

[midpw]

Loud is somehow not a complete description.........

A friend owns on and after enough frogging around we got it running pretty well. It's fun to sit and watch it reverse itself (from a distance) when you have it set up properly.

Bruce

[Dirk Jr]

Originally Posted by Brad Kelley

If I recall, the factory manual for the OD says specifically not to shut down the engine by shutting off the fuel. The fuel provides the lubrication to the bearings and as was noted above, the engines can coast for a good while after shutdown. Shutting off the fuel can cause damage to the bearings.

Shutting off the fuel is like running to lean. It will do some ugly stuff to the rod bearing.

[John Hilton]

Thanks for the post...enjoyed the response as I have a QB 203-1 which I am preparing to crank up.

[Emil K]

They made a "farm" style of engine also. I have a 3 hp on a factory cart. It has a copper gas tank on top and had what I think was the original spark plug in it, it was a glass plug and it ran just fine off of it......a cool running engine......I like the Maytag comparison, that's basicly what they are......

[Marc P]

Emil,
Do you have any pictures of your engine? My brother and I had a model A and a model B Woolery engines with copper fuel tanks (Horace Woolery was an engineer and used to work for Fairmont, left the company to produce his own engines). I've not seen Fairmonts with the copper tanks. Must be an early engine? Sounds neat!

P.S. Brian, I have heard many swear words from people trying to start Fairmonts. You don't have to pull them through compression. When you mention this to them they ignore you. You don't have to, if you do you may lose skin and arms. Set your timer arm so you can bounce the flywheels up to compression and contact the timer points, it will start. The original cranks I have seen for these engines were round discs (aluminum) on a steel tube with the notches in the end that fit in the end of the engine crank. If (and surely WHEN they did) kick back, the disc slipped through your hands without pulling your arms off or skinning your hands.

[Emil K]

Marc, I'll get pictures this week end, it is a neat little engine.......

[Dirk Jr]

Originally Posted by Marc P

Emil,
Do you have any pictures of your engine? My brother and I had a model A and a model B Woolery engines with copper fuel tanks (Horace Woolery was an engineer and used to work for Fairmont, left the company to produce his own engines). I've not seen Fairmonts with the copper tanks. Must be an early engine? Sounds neat!

P.S. Brian, I have heard many swear words from people trying to start Fairmonts. You don't have to pull them through compression. When you mention this to them they ignore you. You don't have to, if you do you may lose skin and arms. Set your timer arm so you can bounce the flywheels up to compression and contact the timer points, it will start. The original cranks I have seen for these engines were round discs (aluminum) on a steel tube with the notches in the end that fit in the end of the engine crank. If (and surely WHEN they did) kick back, the disc slipped through your hands without pulling your arms off or skinning your hands.

The aluminum disk were optional from Fairmont. Fairmont Safety Wheel.

After a few kicks, bites, and cuss words from not using the starting crank correctly. Fairmont came up with this option. It cut back the kicks and bites. But not the cuss words.

[Marc P]

Dirk Jr, I'd say you are right. I'm out of thanks.

Thanks!

[Emil K]

Here are pictures of my Fairmont farm engine.

[Marc P]

Emil,

Thank you. That is a neat engine.

[CODY K]

I think I have a fairmont farm engine also, its wayy bigger then the usual speeder engine. Thiers no tags on it so I dont know what hp it is, it also has the round copper gas tank. The tank I have needs some tlc and definatley needs the filler cap and neck. Im not even sure what may be missing off my engine also. It also has solid flywheels. I did a post on it a while back with just one reply. It wont let me download the pics of it for some reason. But the pics are in the thread, ull have to click on my name go to statistics, then click on find all threads started be me, and its the 3 thread down. Cody

[CODY K]

Emil, mine has that glass sparkplug also. Its a dark brown colored glass with the name kingston on it. Would that happen to be the same sparkplug that you have in yours?

[Emil K]

Mine had clear glass........

[Andrew Mackey]

Emil K, was the glass a slightly blue color? If it is, it is a Beaconlite plug. They were used so you could see the color of the cimbustion in the cylinder. Really cool to see one in operation! If just the top was clear, it might be a Rentz Intensefier. The upper electrode could be adjusted so a gap would have to be jumped to make the plug fire. this increased the voltage needed, thus made the plug less prone to fouling.
Andrew

[Emil K]

Andrew; I will have to look, I don't think this one was adjustable. It was just clear glass for the top. I have two of them, found another at an auction. How far from Ewing, NJ are you, I'll be there this week for work.....

[Andrew Mackey]

Not sure where Ewing is, I am in Rockaway, off I-80.
Andrew

[Len Spoelman]

[QUOTE=Andrew Mackey;746214]Your QHB uses 12:1 fuel to oil ratio. SAE 40 NON Detergent oil. Use High test gas for best running. DO NOT use the modern 2 cycle oils in it, they will not supply suffecient lube to the plain bronze con rod bearing. Use oil based cup grease in the mains, if they have grease fittings or cups. DO NOT use soap complex base greases (modern disc brake wheel bearing)- the fuel/oil mix will turn soap base grease into a caustic mess in the bearings.

Andrew,
Would the same recomendations apply to Maytags and other 2 cycle engines?

[Harvey Teal]

Gentlemen;
"Pop car" engines often get a bad rap because they run so erratically with no load. They were made to run under load. I remember the sound of the railroad pop cars when they were running at full speed, maybe 200 RPM. They would fire on every stroke, never miss a beat, and the only time they would get a little wild was when running down grade. I used one of these engines to power a boat, in reversing service, and it performed perfectly for over 15 years. Belt it up to a water pump, generator, butt buggy or some other load and I don't think you'll be disappointed....Harvey