Long Forgotten 1947 ONAN Gen Set Recovery

all right welcome back and thanks for tuning in again so it's been a while since my last video so i thought i'd make this little video just talking about what i've been up to uh we'll take a look at a couple different uh projects i've picked up recently and pretty much just what i've been doing uh why i haven't been making a lot of videos lately also we got to go run down the street and pick up an old odin generator that's been sitting on a farm for well 40 years now so let's start taking a walk around here so at the end of june it's uh we're in the middle of engine show season and it's it's hot as hell out down here in south jersey it's like 95 degrees and humid today so haven't been getting a whole lot of garage time but uh i did manage to get my trailer painted about a month ago this is a uh 2003 beck trailer 10 000 pound gross weight so i just kind of wire wheeled it gave it a coat of rust-oleum and same thing with the wheels put new wheel bearings in it uh readjusted the brakes the brake backing plates this is a surge brake trailer so we got hydraulic brakes on each wheel and there's a master cylinder up there in the tongue so i replaced those backing plates a number of years ago so the brake shoes themselves and the all the hardware is in good shape but i wanted to do the bearings because i they were probably original bearings so finally got that done it was kind of an ugly rusty yellow flaky paint so looks a bit better but i picked up this 471 detroit power unit last week it was on facebook marketplace for a pretty good deal so i couldn't pass it up it does turn and that's all about all i know about it i don't know the history on it let's take a look at the data plate here and the nameplate rather there's a serial number 4711753 i'm sure somebody'll be able to tell me what year this thing was built i'm not really a detroit guru i do like them you know they're they're a good engine so when i saw it i couldn't pass it up but i'm not you know super knowledgeable on uh years these things were built so you know it's got that gm tag but then it's got a more a newer logo here on the intake for the for the blower so that that might have been replaced i don't know it's just got a uh twin disc clutch on it see what the hour meter says 1470 but it looks like there's an old dymo label here 15 to something so this might have been replaced or who knows no idea how many hours it has on it but i said it does turn so that's plus we'll get to this at some point oh yeah i had to just put a starter in my truck yesterday too here's a starter motor out of it a tiny little thing i think this is a gear reduction type starter i just thought i'd give you a comparison i think this is a 50 mt delco right here this is a proper starter motor and it got this little tiny thing here this this thing here probably weighs about 45 pounds this weighs about 5 pounds modern technology all right so what else we've been working on we gotta get well we gotta get this off loaded uh before we go pick that onion up but let's uh look over here in the garage the uh the big royal line gen set has been kicked out of the garage i still have to haul that thing into the shop and get it load tested i've been working on the oil well supply engine quite a bit lately i remember i made a video of this last last fall i guess but i got it put on a cart nice little three wheel cart i'm pretty sure this was an old davilbus paint sprayer cart there was the remnants of a decal on one of the uh one of the frame rails but the oil well supply engine fits nicely on there got the fuel system hooked up the accumulator and everything and i also mounted this old myers uh piston pump on it little two inch bore piston pump the pump needs a lot of work it's actually in the middle of getting a full rebuild now so these uh these are the rods the connecting rods on it someone had braised them back in the past but they brazed the the end on crooked so when it was rotating it was binding so i had to melt that braise out and i got to make up a jig to hold the uh the bearings in the correct position so i can braise them on straight you know new packing new uh new push rod and all that stuff so new guide rods all in the process of getting done but i had this running at the cool spring engine show and i'll have it running at a couple more it's a good engine so i speaking of cool spring i picked up this small cat out there it was uh delivered to me from indiana by a good friend of mine it's a the engine's a d311 a four-cylinder engine with the twin cylinder pony engine on the back the generator ends a 30 kilowatt 120 240 volt three-phase unit so this one's actually complete does have the exciter on it and all the controls but the exciter looks like that was knocked off at some point and kind of welded back on kind of sketchy there so we'll have to clean that up and get that looking nice once we get the the engine running now i'm missing a couple small parts for this thing first off for these oil lines between the uh the engine and the oil cooler core and the radiator so we don't i don't know if that core that oil cooler is bad i've been told that this was a common thing to do removing these lines to uh allow the engine temp to actually come up with the engine actually come up to temp these were actually over cooled so guys would take the lines out and then loop them together with a piece of pipe just to get the uh let the engine build some heat but whether that's true or not i don't know take a look at the other side of it here it's it's pretty complete i have the the throttle control here what i'm missing is the intake pipe between the intake the diesel intake manifold and the air filter i have the big oil bath air filter assembly i'm just missing that pipe and you know what i'm also missing the float bowl to the pony carburetor so there's a the carburetor right here and you can see the little nozzle or the adjustment needle there but the float bowl is completely gone so got to track one of them down maybe maybe a whole junk carburetor that i can salvage the parts off of so this will be another thing to get running the d337f cat gen set is in here i'm still debating on what to do about the the voltage regulator on the back end here i think i'm going to go modern solid state regulator on this one just to to try out a more modern regulator on an old gen set and two it probably it's going to be a lot easier to track down those components than trying to track down an original exciter or kind of making something work so i think we're going to go solid state regulator on this the big cat the d-13000 which this has been a five-year project in the works at this point yeah i'm still kind of i'm still chipping away at it recently uh i've i've got all the pistons cleaned up here that's an original 1939 cat piston cleaned up pretty nice got a couple little scuffs around the crown here but really a couple on the skirt but that's that's nothing the wrist pins got to clean them up polish them this is the one of the bad pistons that had the the big corrosion pit in it from the water so i i had a friend of mine weld this up and i'm still not sure if i'm going to clean this and dress this up and use this piston or not there's a couple of the other ones and then over there that's the other not so great piston this one had water sitting on top of it as well you can see the pitting in that so but i got the bearings all out got to clean them up they're they're in pretty nice shape actually those are the rod bearings there's a stack of piston rings all the old rings end caps things like that so still kind of working on the big cat it's uh it's gonna get done gonna get done eventually and believe me there will be videos on it so that's about well i guess the only other thing is uh this little shaper over here we kind of walked right by that this is a vernon sheldon shaper i believe it's a 12 inch stroke not a whole lot of information that i've been able to find about these but i i want to clean this up and get it installed over in the machine shop area there i think it'll be a nice addition to the uh to the working shop so it's a pretty nice shape table's got some you know it's got surface rust but it everything moves it's not locked up or anything so all right well let's uh let's get the forklift out and get that detroit lifted off and we'll go ahead and pick up another old gen set all right well let's get on the road here pick up this old onan so i don't think i ever really mentioned why i haven't been making a lot of videos gave a lot of excuses but uh you know it takes a lot of effort to uh to to make a youtube video you know while i'm trying to work on a project a lot more effort than it would take if i was just working on it at my own pace got a lot of traffic here i always get a lot of traffic on this road on sunday wow one more car anyway it's not that i don't enjoy making the videos it's just that a lot of times i just want to enjoy doing the job rather than actually making the video not a complaint or anything [Music] but you know if i you know a job might take me one and a half to two times as long if i'm from making a video of it and then you know if i'm making a half an hour video it might take me two hours to edit it even before it's uploaded so in the wintertime it's not such a big deal you know it's all i can do is really you know work in the garage and make videos but in the summertime i work a lot in my normal job and you know get ready for engine shows and things like that you know i'm gone every other weekend that in the summer time to a show it seems like [Music] well we're here that didn't take very long did it the old farm my neighbor here he's the farmer slash utility power generation engineer he's got lots of stuff here lots of old trucks and tractors and he farms this field and a number of other fields in the area here's his old mac he restored that a few years ago i forget what year that is it's a nice truck there's another old mackie picked up here's an onion it's not the one we're here for today though looks like about a 30k kw there got the ford engine we're looking for an oldie an old owning grab the camera off the stand here we're looking for an old onan he's been clearing the property out pulling some trucks and cars out of the out of the weeds check out this old northwest crane that's got a murphy murphy diesel in it i'll have to get that running someday got some old john deere's in the weeds here here's his shop the old farmhouse is back here it's not uh not occupied he hasn't lived in here since he was a kid but that was built uh pre-revolution right there that's a pretty historical structure it's the original farmhouse pre-revolutionary war here's the old barn that collapsed years ago [Music] let's uh let's go find uh find them and take a look at this generator from the old house he said oh there it is all right let me slide the window open back here looks like you've been sitting there a while huh oh you know what let me take this all right look at this old thing that's a classic one right there look at that enclosure that looks like a streamlined railroad car own an electric plant so what engine is that that's got to be a continental with this distributor sticking up in the center huh got some bees all right let's let's pull it out how long how long do you think it's been in here you know as i said you know the enclosure looks like an old streamlined railroad car like an old pullman that's some styling i think somebody put in a packing house didn't have the power to run the packing house so they set that up until they could get the power to run the packing house oh okay so it was working for its living huh there were three years getting the power into the building right oh it's been sitting there where you see that to you bush it only grows a couple inches a year well let me move some stuff out of your way there and we'll see if we can get it out all right let me set you guys up here well here let me slide them in and then i'll move over there and i'll get the shrouds out of the way yeah steering not so much right now come on yeah i think so well if we got to move it again we'll we'll move them again i think i see him i think i see the other side panel sitting there i see it i see it back there i think you can what's that i think you can come in here [Music] so yeah you're gonna there's a there's a piece of seat channel for the frame you gotta lift up and tilt forward and dig in under it yeah i should get it yeah i think you're still hitting the frame on this side i'd say you're through it oh look at that yeah you're you're through about four inches got the other side panel a little rough but hey it's there hmm i'm gonna load this thing yeah even if you pull i'll back up and i'll pull up there and if you pull in the laneway i can back my trailer under it might be easier and then use the winch and just drag it right onto the trailer let me hop in the truck there was the whole door with the handles and everything yeah oh okay oh man this thing is pretty big all right let me move the truck let me throw these panels on so what i'm gonna do is pull the truck out he's gonna move the forklift into the clearing and i'm going to back the trailer up under the nose of the generator and plan is to use the winch and drag it right off his forks let me reposition all right try to give you guys a decent vantage point here all right let's see if we can put the tail of that trailer or the nose the generator right between the ramps i think we did it i think we did it oh waving me back a little bit that good oh side shift all right come down a little bit four a little bit yeah that should be fine all right i think we can put a strap what is this thing oh that's a good question let's see so i think it might be three phases oh it's an oldie oh it's older than i thought so it is a 25 kn built january 1947. that's just after the war yeah just after the war 115 230 volt yeah 25 000 watts pretty good but been sitting there quite a while yeah it is you know it's it looks pretty complete be honest with you fuel tanks there i'm curious what the control panel looks like looks like it's all got all its goodies in there still that might be a little project in itself getting that open oh there's the hour meter wow yeah it worked it worked in its life 5 635 hours she was a workhorse yeah she was a workhorse knock some of that dirt off of there yeah it looks like the floor is rotted out of it it's probably just a piece of plate yeah just a piece of plate right it's just running out of drainage oh yeah that's good or something i don't see any big cracks in the block or in the head metal huh i think it's continental if it's got a distributor up to the head like that it's probably continental they made them they put them engines in so many things i bet you can still get parts for it probably doesn't need a whole lot if it uh if it's not locked up tight it'll probably run without too much fuss well that you know that's a good question well that looks like good oil to me how about that yeah i don't know what what model that would be but yeah water drain it might be a dodge big chrysler six light alternator one generator yeah the back end the exciter looks fine like the commutator wow wow i i like the look man that that cowling looks like an old pullman passenger car from the new york central i wonder where the rest of the sheet metal is i'm pretty sure these the pictures i've seen that was uh expanded metal you know yeah so i bet you that that's that's rusted going to go on going back to the earth but yeah but the door i mean the doors are there that's the that's the hard thing with the with the badges on them the owning you see them you see the uh yeah onan electric plant i wanted you to know that was a little beat up yeah at least hey you can still read it aggressive pieces might be in there somewhere in the dirt yeah we'll have to do a little bit of digging that's pretty classy that's pretty quiet i think the batteries went up here if i remember yeah and there's the the exhaust comes out the bottom there that was one thing the onans did they always had the exhaust coming out the bottom they were kind of smart they didn't have it going straight up there's water dripping out of these you know i think that's the coolant because it's running it's it's not coming out of the exhaust it's coming from the radiator so hey i'd rather have it coming out the radiator than coming out the exhaust i think so that is a fact that is some real iron i think i should be able to wrap a strap right around here winch this puppy on let's see what we got what's that no i think the only sketchy bit is going to be once that tail end comes off of your fork because the the generator ends going to be heavy but by the time the tail end gets off of the that your far side fork the generator should be over this one so we might just have to yank it nice and quick and get it on the trailer so so i'm gonna take what's that yeah like he said it's simple pieces of sheet metal so i don't think it had louvers or anything i think the bottom was just expanded metal so louvers if that louvers that be pretty hard to make but it was meant to be the other one up there hoo hoo hoo hoo battery it's okay i don't know if it's hot but it should have enough juice in it to do the job yeah all right let's take some slack up here yeah that's a good plan we ain't got to strap it down to get home don't have far to go which is nice the ride here takes about a minute and you're almost all the way off the works now so i think we got it then all right let's pull a little bit more oh there's the weight well hell that's worth the purchase price right there spring loaded governor daley there yeah it's got the high engine temp shutdown switch here i bet you it's got a low oil pressure switch somewhere i don't know the governor's even hooked up on this thing it's got a governor on it but oh maybe they they needed more power so they just wired her open you know i didn't i'd never seen this heat shield though before that's interesting huh there's a gun yeah they put a load on it and got it where she needed to be yeah that's antifreeze it's got antifreeze in it so that's that's good news yeah that's green stuff that's good yeah put some fresh gas in it start it up i know it ah i wonder if it's 6 or 12 volt i think these are all 12 volt probably says so on the plate what it is yeah looks like the fan's hitting the shroud it might be tweaked a little bit dad wasn't gentle with stuff no got a big fuel tank on it oh no i was wrong the battery sits up here ah okay huh maybe there was a muffler down there at some point well that's a straight pipe coming out here now so i imagine i probably had something what have we got up here radiator cap yep that's cast aluminum up there oh sure oh i got a ford i can use that it's got any freeze looking out in the front somewhere probably a radiator yeah that's where it's coming from the bottom right here it didn't take too kindly to being tweaked lifted like that but hey yeah you're right that's got antifreeze in it it's got clean oil man oil filter air filters there got it set up so you can adjust the timing um put a little wingnut dealy thing on there let me get the camera down and we'll give them a close-up of this this thing so here it is fresh out of the bush 1947 25 what was it a k something i forget 5635 hours on it see if we can gently pry this open here all right we got it popped open wow look at that got 150 amp range on it interesting start stop buttons no that looks like somebody's aftermarket throttle there that's okay so you got there an output output breaker yeah you know it looks like it's single phase huh yeah let's see what the plate look at the plate here yeah you know what there's only two current transformers two current transformers 115 230 volt 25 kilowatt yeah phase one phase huh that's interesting oh there we go use 12 volt battery okay so it's 12 volt that big cast aluminum shroud all right well we got onan number one loaded up let's go around the barn here and take a look at that other one he had on the way in that looked like it got to be about a 30 30 kw unit so hey look at that mac right there that's a nice truck that's the one that came out from thomas river right yeah 244 in line six so yeah let's see what we got here's the data plate so this is uh it's an 82 45 em that's 45 kilowatt wow nice trailer it's on huh yeah a little rock but yeah yeah you know i didn't even look probably three-phase i'd imagine gasoline gasoline fuel yeah it would be on a portable unit got the side panels here is it really this is one one phase three that's three phases okay hello there's the cord it's got a four wire cord on it 37 hours standby service huh wow i believe it barnegat township barnegat township huh yeah got a high flow muffler there very cool you don't need those stinking mufflers now well we made it home safe and sound so i'd like to go ahead and just spray this thing down get some of the mud off of it and we'll get a better look at it with so so so so well i guess that's about it for this video we got her cleaned off some of the loose paint off and at least some of the mud off on an electric plant i think this might have been the original color here this green we're looking at seems a bit lighter than the later onan green top of the enclosure seems nice nice and straight and solid some serious rust going on down here i mean that's pretty thick uh for pretty thick steel to rust right through definitely a continental engine i don't know what model data plates uh pretty hard to read still got a lot of mud and stuff inside the frame but i think i'm gonna have to lift this up on the forklift to be able to clean some of that out but yeah so that's it 1947 onan thanks for watching

Channel: SmallEngineMechanic

Views: 85,179

Keywords: antique, old, vintage, historic, history, machine, engine, motor, generator, power plant, light plant, dynamo, power, Onan, Kohler, Katolight, Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, International Harvester, Hercules, Waukesha, Continental, Repair, Restore, Rebuild, SmallEngineMechanic, Barn Find, Farm, Tractor, Recovery, Electricity, Gasoline, Diesel, Fuel, Oil, Natural Gas, Pump, Ford, Starter, Streamline, Art-Deco, 1940s, 1950s, World War Two, WWII, Post War, America, American, Made in USA, Railroad, Pullman

Id: ZD8xgN3JNVw

Length: 43min 59sec (2639 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 28 2021