1938 571.11 waterwitch clean up.

snowseeker

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Messages
93
I started on this motor awhile ago. I only get a little bit of time here and there to work on my own projects so things like this motor take quite awhile to finish.

I like to buy old motors when they pop up for the right price within a reasonable distance from me. One motor in particular I always liked and wanted to fix up and have around was the waterwitch. Then a couple years ago (maybe last year?) I got a call from a member here (sorry I forget your name). He tells me he has some waterwitches for me so I load up the family and head over the the lake superior shore. I haul back 4 waterwitch motors! Two of the 1938 singles type, one of the early 1940's single and also an early 1940's twin. It was like christmas!

So I tore into and started in on the worst of the two 38's which was locked up. After some careful fiddling I got it to turn, after some blowing out and washing I got it to turn freely enough to test and got spark! From there I tore it apart.

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I cleaned up the entire block in the blast cabinet. I cleaned up the rod, crank, piston, and whatnots by hand. I found the rod to be .020" out of round so I stoned the cap down some to take up the tolerance. Oiled everything up good and assembled.

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I also blasted the cylinder and painted it a machine gray as well as the (saddle?) boat mount of the motor. The shaft tube is polished aluminum, the lower unit is painted an aluminum color. It was just to rough to polish up.

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Then I made up the exhaust, I got in a 2" tube with a .043 wall I believe which I stuck in the press and squished in a couple different ways to get the teardrop shape, then polished it as well.

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Then finally today I got the tank done, installed, plumbed, and machined a new breather fitting for. I also threw the cap in the lathe to clean it up.

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I can get more better pics when the sun comes out, if it ever does. I am going to try and get out on the lake this weekend to try and run it for the first time. I am excited!
 

robert graham

Admiral
Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
6,908
Beautiful motor/restoration....takes a lot of skill and know-how to make an old motor look like that!....love the tear-drop shaped exhaust pipe....
 

snowseeker

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Messages
93
Thanks much! I am hopping to get to the lake tomorrow and see what happens.
 

snowseeker

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Messages
93
Video of it running shortly. I am almost positive it has a weak coil. It will die after running shortly and then every consecutive run will be shorter and shorter till it doesn't fire at all. I did pull the plug and try to see if there was spark when it was dead but it was hard to see out on the lake. I was just happy to hear it run at least for a short while. I do have a spare for parts with a good coil as well, I may swap it in to try it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTn8wveCv4U
 

snowseeker

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Messages
93
I have had the motor in my basement since the run this summer. Every now and then as walking past I will go to give the crank a spin to keep things moving and have been noticing that it has a slight stick right off the bat. I would think after being run with an oil mix everything would be lubed quite well and should not stick for a long time. Should I dump in a bit of oil into the cylinder or something for long term storage/help with the sticking?
 
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