Polybus

Thanks heaps for the input guys. I hadn't considered a chemical, but its certainly a real possibility, probably more likely than it melting itself with a constant, too high a current. OK - so it looks like the ball is now in my court. Time to start disassembling the little fella and see what's what, and make a list of parts required. I need to head out to Central Australia for a couple of weeks work in a few days, so the disassembly will be one of my jobs when I get back. Again, thanks for the help, and I'll send more photos as the project progresses. I've worked on lots of Stationary Engines before - but never an Ohlsson and Rice - so I'd really value your collective thoughts.

Ahhh Walfish - I've been reading through the Forum and IDed you as the bloke to speak to - if my search was fruitless, I was going to contact you. Firstly - Yes - I'm here in Sydney Australia. The eBay ad says he may not ship to Australia, but I will contact him and ask anyway, he may change his mind. You mention you may have a coil and a starter......would you be open to sending it to Australia? Of course I could send you the dollars via PayPal or similar. USMail to Australia is really expensive, so it would save me quite a bit if I could get all the parts from the one person, hence one package instead of three or four. And while talking about the coil - any ideas of what might have happened to mine - it may not be clear from the photos, but it looks completely melted. I'm thinking that perhaps it have a massive short somewhere in the engine, and so much current ran through the coil it got so hot it just melted. I wouldn't have thought that could happen, as I would have expected the very thin secondary wire to melt/break long before that kind of heat was generated. But maybe the secondary wire did break, but it failed short and melted into position or something equally silly. Anyway, I don't want to put a new coil on only to have a similar thing happen to it, so I will give the electrics a good check for shorts. Has anyone seen a coil fail like this before? Anyone got any theories on how it could melt so badly? Cheers.

I have just got hold of one of these, in pretty rough condition, but as usual, I want to resurrect it - save it from the metal recycler. At this stage I know I need two things, a front cowl, and a coil - any suggestions on where I might get them. Or any suggestions on what I might use if I can't find an original coil?? I've been reading a few things that suggest a Tecumseh coil might replace the original. The laminated core from the original must still be used, but the Tecumseh coil just replaces the original coil, fitting over the laminated core. Does anyone have any experience with that? Or other suggestions. Unfortunately, I don't think my coil can be saved.....looks like it been melted by some kind of sinister alien Heat Beam (or similar). It's an Australian Version, so it produces 240v, but I also note that the outlet seems to be missing as well.