Today was that rare thing, a bank holiday with nothing planned, so I decided
to drag an engine from its slumbers and have a tinker. I chose my 1913
Fuller & Johnson Farm Pump Engine which has probably not seen the light of
day for five years or more. Fresh fuel and going over with the oil can and
it started first swing - how dull! But I soon had something to play with as
it slowed nearly to a standstill before the governor demanded another hit,
sometimes too late to prevent stalling. This was quickly rectified by
cleaning up the catch plates and slightly increasing the spring tension on
the catch lever. After that it ran very nicely for an hour or so, a sharp
shower of rain doing nothing to put it off it's stroke. So I took some
pics, shut down and treated it to a wipe over with my favourite oily rag.
I am reminded what a nice engine the FPE is, the Americans have (had?) a
wonderful way of building things both cheaply and well, using just the right
amount of the right material in the right place - look at the front axle of
a model T Ford for a prime example. The run also reminded me that I should
perhaps attend to the knocking little end!
Pics (including a rare appearance of yours truly in new album on webshots
page below.
- posted
16 years ago