A video from @thebarnbrothers runs a little over ten minutes and is captioned “1927 Jaeger engine off of a concrete mixer. Will it run?” with the hashtags #antique, #engine and #hitandmiss. The on screen text reads “1927 Jaeger,” and the first words are “This engine is 99 years old. Let’s see if we can fix it.” The presenter calls it a 1927 Jaeger Machine Co. hit and miss engine, one that was used to power concrete mixers back in the day.
The presenter says the engine is not seized, but it is in parts. The whole lower end is exposed, the crankshaft has grease cups, the head is already off, and the rocker arm is missing. The piston has been exposed to the elements “for who knows how long,” but it spins over, and the presenter says a lot of burn dust sits in the cylinder. The presenter believes Hercules made the engine and Jaeger put its own name on it, and says this is the first hit and miss engine worked on.
@thebarnbrothers 1927 Jaeger engine off of a concrete mixer. Will it run?
Taking the Piston Out and Freeing the Rings
The presenter says this engine came with a few others that had all been taken apart long ago and then sat in a barn for decades. The stated goal is the same as always: get it running with no new parts, as cheaply as possible, with minimal tools. To check the cylinder properly, the presenter removes the whole rod and piston, and while working the piston out the presenter says “Wow, that was close” and “We’re in a pickle now.”
The first scare is a ring that looks snapped. It turns out the rings are simply cut at an angle, but all of them are stuck. Liquid Wrench goes on, and the top ring starts coming free. The cylinder shows what the presenter calls minor scoring, and the presenter notes that the last engine worked on had a crack in the cylinder, so this bore gets a closer look. A hone goes in, and “that’s working pretty good,” followed by “call that good enough for now.” The engine is too heavy to lift onto a bench, so the work happens on the ground, and the presenter is glad this one has a head gasket.
Cleaning follows: barn dust comes off the engine, the grease cups are cleaned out, and the presenter works on the piston until the bottom ring starts to move and dirt is pulled out of the ring groove, which is “what we want.” Because the lubricant washes off as the rings loosen, the presenter adds more and lets the piston soak overnight rather than risk breaking a ring. The next morning one ring in the middle is still stuck, as expected, and then the presenter reports that all of the rings are finally free.
Where the Resistance Really Came From
Reassembly goes badly at first. With the piston back in and oil added to the cylinder, the engine still feels “crunchy,” with a lot of resistance, and the presenter says that makes these engines much harder to turn by hand. The piston comes back off to find out why. The news is good: the friction was coming from the lower end of the connecting rod on the crankshaft, not from the cylinder. That, the presenter says, means the engine is going to work out.
The open question is how tight to set the rod bolts, because overtightening locks everything up. For now they are left as they are. The head goes back on to check for compression, and the presenter points out that the engine is only missing the most crucial part, the rocker arm, while also mentioning new nuts. The video ends with a spin of the engine without the rocker arm, the line “We have a long journey ahead for this engine,” and a request for viewers with ideas on getting it running. The engine does not run in this video.
The Method Worth Taking From It
The order of work in the video is simple and each step answers one question. Check that the engine spins over, take the piston out so the bore can be inspected for scoring or cracks, free stuck rings with penetrating oil and patient soaking rather than force, and then test the bottom end separately, because the tight feeling after reassembly came from the rod bearing and not from the freshly cleaned rings. Separating those two sources of drag is what kept the presenter from condemning a cylinder that was fine.
More from Steel Horse Rides
- Restorer Rescues a Dead 1967 Ford Mustang Found Buried Under Leaves and Shows the Careful Steps a Decades Dormant Engine Needs Before It Can Safely Run Again
- Creator Opens a Belgian Barn To Reveal a 1971 Citroen DS21 Pallas That Has Sat There Since 2005 and Explains What It Will Take To Revive It
- Creator Rescues a Nineteen Eighty Nine Honda Gold Wing That Sat Two Years in a Shed After the Owner Got Scared To Ride and Shows How It Cleaned Up for Nine Hundred Dollars