1928 Onan generator

[f350ca]

A friend of mine bought this generator in 1968 when building his cottage. Don't think he ever used it, lent it another friend who took it around to steam shows and what ever. His friend passed away about 10 years ago. Bill mentioned a while back that he should get it back so he spoke to the widow who said it was sitting in the shop. So off we go to get it, turns out this chap had a foundry where he cast bronze injectors for steam boilers. We ended up coming home with the generator and a bunch of copes and drags, casting sand, ceramic crucibles, etc. It was too wet to get back where the propane furnace was sitting so we have to go back for it one of these days.
Back to the generator. By the serial number it was built in 1928, produces 1500 watts 110 volt dc. Was set up to start automatically when you turned on a light or appliance in the hose then shut down when you turned it off.
It has one of the coolest engines I've ever seen. 4 cylinder water cooled overhead valve (in 1928) 2 inch bore and 2 1/2 inch stroke. It develops a staggering 3 hp at 1000 rpm. My lawn mower develops more power. Has a brass shrouded rad that sticks up on top. A thing of beauty.
It was seized from sitting, we filled the cylinders with diesel and let her sit for a week. Tapped the crank with a hammer and she broke loose. Gave her some more diesel to hopefully break the rings loose, and let her sit for another couple of weeks.
Today we tried to fire her up.
Hooked up 2 12 volt batteries, yes it wanted 24 v. Pugged a light into the socket and she started rolling over. Would only fire with the choke on so I pulled the carb apart. There are no adjustments at all. One fixed jet which was plugged solid. There had been some damage to the one part where the two halves bolt together, someone tried to file it back and made a mess. Brought it home milled the surface straight then made a spacer to fit. The Venturi tube was bent but I managed to straighten it up.
Sorry for the log ramble. Will get photos of the genset next time Im over there, for now here's the solid brass carb. I've seen really old cast iron ones and lots of aluminum, but never brass.





Greg