Let's rebuild another one/ Amp Champ

[Wallfish 698]

Pulled this one off the shelf to clean up and rebuild for the next project. It's in fairly nice condition so no painting need.

That's one of the nice things about these little engines. It's cold outside so these can be done inside and right on my office desk where it's warm.

I use a citrus based cleaner so no fumes inside the house but I've been thinking about getting an ultrasonic cleaner to drop all the parts in. There's so many little nooks and crannies on these things so cleaning it is about 80% of the work time involved time to rebuild an engine.

[Wallfish 698]

Started right after posting that pic so it took about an hour-ish to completely disassemble the engine. Not too bad as just recently doing one helped quite a bit.

Now for the 3+ hours to clean it all up! LOL

The generator section will start after the engine is done

 

[CNew 404]

That looks like a nice clean unit!

[Wallfish 698]

The piston and head on this engine had some scoring so they'll need to be replaced.

Notice the size of ring gaps on the old one (left)  compared to the other. That's a lot more blow by

Thought I had a NOS head but couldn't find it. Found a nice one in the stash parts anyway along with a nice used piston. It'll get new rings and should be good to go.  Sometimes the rings are a PITA to get off the piston.

The ring gaps should NOT be lined up near each other for final installation (like they are in the pic).

To quick test them, insert the piston into the head and blow through the spark plug hole. The difference from a bad one to the other is very noticeable so it's instantly known when one is bad. It's not a very scientific method compared to doing all of the precise measuring but these little things are not going on the space shuttle. Even the old one would've run but just not have the same  performance.

 

[Ransomes256 18]

I agree for initial assembly the ring gaps should not be in line but during running the rings will rotate around so at some points the gaps will align.

Neil

 

[Wallfish 698]

UGH

Got her all assembled and then saw this, the star washer that goes on the rod bearing. Pulling apart now.

Plus had the bearings fall, move in the cage so the shaft wouldn't drop in all the way! Those plastic cage bearings are MUCH easier to deal with compared to the steel cages.

Trying to get my desk cleared for work tomorrow. LOL

 

[Wallfish 698]

So not too bad. Just about 24 hours later, completely cleaned, new head, piston, piston rings, gaskets, O-rings and reassembled. Finally getting to use those induction gaskets Clint sent me a couple years ago! Might even be longer than that. LOL

Still need to do the upper carb and recoil. Think there's about 4-5 recoils that need to be done, They're not fun for me.

Tried looking at the Generator and removed the small front small bracket. Probably just going to go with a thorough cleaning. The way they manufactured it with soldered wires after installing the fixtures makes it difficult to disassemble without messing up some of those hard dried wires. They're not as bad as a TT but I know this generator worked too. Not worth the chance of screwing it up. 

 

[CNew 404]

3 hours ago, Wallfish said:

Got her all assembled and then saw this, the star washer that goes on the rod bearing. Pulling apart now.

I’ve had this happen so many times, those little needle bearings with the star washer can be a real pain!

 

you’re definitely making me want to pull out an engine and do something.

[CNew 404]

I finally bought an ultrasonic cleaner, now I just need to do an engine to see if I get results like you do!

[Wallfish 698]

5 hours ago, CNew said:

I finally bought an ultrasonic cleaner, now I just need to do an engine to see if I get results like you do!

I don't have one of those yet. It's all toothbrushes, Q-tips and a small wire brush.

But I do have some attachments for a Dremel tool too. A small polishing wheel with compound helps for some paint, cleaning up and shining the exhaust collector and rusty condensers. Wire wheel for heavily rusty stuff too like the coil laminates.

 

For the cleaner you can use a glass jar for the parts and fill the tub with water. For the jar I'm thinking use lacquer thinner as the cleaner. I just don't know if it darkens the aluminum or not. The citrus cleaner will if left too long.

This Amp Champ will probably go up for sale if anyone is interested in it. I have 2-3 others and one is practically NOS or it is NOS so it's a better example for my collection. Just need to start letting some stuff go.

[Wallfish 698]

All done on this one too

 

[Wallfish 698]

guess it would help to put the gas tank on. ooops! Good thing I looked at the pic on the screen

[CNew 404]

Looks great, how does it run?

[Wallfish 698]

19 hours ago, CNew said:

Looks great, how does it run?

I'll only put some fuel into the plug hole just to fire them off once they're rebuilt but haven't done it yet. Maybe I should consider making a test stand with a remote carb setup kind of like a Turbair Tot uses. Test run them then drop a new carb top on afterwards.

 

Just looked a bit deeper into the NOS stash parts and found 8 more sets of rings, some rods and a few other items so I'm going to rebuild some more. I have a bunch of NOS crank seals too but I don't have any new pistons so hopefully I find good pistons when opening them. Most are fine and I've yet to find any that have bad or worn bearings when opening them up for rebuild. I don't pick the engines that are  beat on and clearly past their prime for doing rebuilds and just use those engines for parts and hardware etc.

 

 

 

[CNew 404]

Definitely. I built a little test stand for that very purpose. Get them rebuilt and then do an initial run and then on the display shelf.

 

You’ve got a nice pile o’ gold there😉

[Wallfish 698]

22 hours ago, CNew said:

Definitely.

I'll need to do something. Wondering if one of those Octura carbs will work with gasoline. That would make for a quick easy setup for the carb test stand