Abenaque3

Here I am at the '92 Dublin show running the freshly restored 2 HP Abby for the first time. I'm smilin' here , but you should have seen me a few minutes before this picture was taken. The intake valve seeped a little when we tried to start it the first time , and a ball of fire came out! One old Abenaque guru standing nearby , calmly said , "Don't worry, they do that sometimes, It'll draw it in on the next stroke"

This is the old girl as she looked when I dragged her home. This engine had spent the earliest part of it's life on a farm in New Hampshire pumping water for the cows. It was given to a friend of mine's uncle. The old folks at the farm were leaving and they told him to take whatever they wanted. This engine and a Heider , Rock Island tractor with friction drive were retrieved. Later, the tractor was junked! I guess it was pretty rough.

Like my uncle asked my brother one time , "WHAT did you let him take it apart for?" In my earlier days of mechanical curiosity , I took apart a good many washers , etc. that the neighbors would send my way , but I didn't get good at putting them back together right off! My father says I have Tinkeritis "REAL" bad!

This is literally a ground up restoration! I spent 2 weekends making the drop frame wagon. This is normally a stationary engine , but of course I wanted to take it to shows , so I built this wagon to keep the center of gravity down low. As you can see the 26" gear had been broken in 5 places. I "warm " welded it , at 400 or so degrees with a high quality , (but low tensile strengh ) cast Iron rod. It took me a whole day to weld it , not including the prep. time. The face wobble is less than .020" , and most people can not detect that it was repaired , even if you tell them!

Well let me tell you , it was one of the most fun and rewarding things that I've ever done! It runs very smooth , quiet and just barely sips on the gas. I swear that somebody's putting gas in it when I'm not looking! If you see another one of these , please let me know! As far as we know , It's the only one in captivity!