was improper disengagement of the starting gear, which created
intermittent resistance as the engine ran. In time, this resulted in wear
and chips around the outer edges of each Babbitted rod. Sadly, the
disengagement of the gear was a simple physical process that the
original owners did not practice.
Valve springs were checked, bent into form as required, cleaned
and reinstalled.The rebuild
Rebuilding an engine isn’t a faint-hearted task. It takes generous
soaking of bolts, good tools, loosening of parts, scrubbing, reforming,
bending, bead blasting and generally returning the parts to like-new
condition as the long-defunct IHC Auto Wagon factory in Akron, Ohio,
intended.
When we hit a brick wall during the rebuild, one of us always had
ideas and contacts. If there was a technical question requiring old
drawings and diagrams, I searched diligently and found the answer. I
consulted other experts in various cities. Quirin tapped friends who
knew what he didn’t in making parts, machining over-the-counter items
or tuning up a nine-decade-old vehicle that had not run for a long time.
“They told you about 20 years? That it had run 20 years before you
bought it?” Quirin asked. He was leading toward an assertion: “I think it
was a lot longer than that.”