Stumbling upon a 1913 10 hp Stover Model X
California mining engine finds a carburetor, originally bought for a Fairbanks-Morse restoration
Leslie C. McDaniel
December 2000
 |
Stover Model X.
Leslie C. McDaniel
|
When Rick Crawford got hold of an early Stover Model X, it was less by design than by default.
A Stover engine was, in fact, the furthest thing from his mind as he restored a 4 hp Fairbanks-Morse T. Instead, he was thinking about the carburetor he needed to complete the FM project.
RELATED CONTENT
The Rock Island Plow Co. dates back to 1855. They manufactured not only plows, but various horse-dr...
Familiar forms from farm and field...
Model Builder Makes the Jump to Full-Size Engines...
1919 engine once powered paper plant...
Old iron becomes father/son activity...
“I went to a swap meet, and I saw one for $2. I have a buddy who’s very knowledgeable about engine parts, and he said, ‘Buy it: We’ll adapt it to the Fairbanks-Morse, and get it started, anyway.’ So, I bought it and hung it on the wall of the garage, where it sat for two and a half years. I never touched it.”
One day, Rick’s friend called. He’d found a Stover for sale.
“Do you still have that carburetor?”
“Yeah. ...”
“I’ll be right over.”
When the two matched the carburetor to the 1913 10 hp Stover, it was a perfect fit.
“It was the exact carburetor, as best as we can tell,” Rick said. “It looks like it’s actually the carburetor off that engine. I think the previous owner had lost the carburetor, and somebody else found it, because the likelihood of that floating around is just zero. Needless to say, we put the carburetor on. I took it to (a show at) Vista, and the guy who had started the restoration just about killed me.”
The ignitor engine was originally used in a mine.
“Originally, it was used in a California mine, probably a silver mine,” Rick said. “It was actually in the shaft; it had a hoist on it. In fact, the hoist was still on it when I first saw it, but it was extremely heavy and large, so it’s not on it now. They used it to hoist up ore on a tripod. They hauled it out in pieces, and I believe that’s how they put it in, because it was so heavy (2,000 pounds). It was probably about as big an engine as you would see in the mines.
“When it came out, the rod was bent like a U, but it’s the same rod that’s on there now,” he said. “The person who got it out didn’t do much with it before he sold it.”
When the second owner got it, the engine was missing the carburetor, so he straightened the bent rod, started restoration, and then spent three years trying to find a carburetor before giving up.
“I was the third one to work on it, and finally get it running,” Rick said.