Friday, March 25, 2011

Alan Whiter's "Vickie"

Here's an e-mail I received from Alan Whiter on March 25, 2011:

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HI
Have just finished the Vickie Engine but with a small burner flame it would not drive the fan so I added a flue which added the extra heat required, it now runs extremely well and is much admired by all.

I have also ordered the super stirling fan for my next project and hope to eventially construct the Farm boy and Howell V twin engines.

The drawings are exceptional and construction notes excellent.

Regards

Alan Whiter


Friday, March 11, 2011

V-4 Distributor Miter Gear Source

DOES ANYBODY HAVE A SUPPLIER FOR THE 15 TOOTH 48 PITCH MITER GEAR SET FOR THE V-4. THE SUPPLIER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SMALL PARTS.COM. AS PER THE LATE MR.HOWELL, HOWEVER THEY NO LONGER HANDLE THEM. I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND A SUPPLIER, CAN ANYBODY CLUE ME IN ?       

REGARDS TURTLEHEAD

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Here's what Jerry recommended to me via email when I asked him that question.

"The Stock Drive gears Part Number A 1B 4-Y48015 will work. I don't
know what the cost is.  

wmberg.com has 72 pitch stainless gears that are more precision,
but they cost $65.00 plus $15.00 shipping.  Part Number M72N-7S

I will probably get these a little later on when I make a 1-1/4" diameter
distributor for the V-Fout because they are far more precision than
the Small Parts or the SDP gears. 

Regards,

Jerry Howell"


 As above he suggests "Stock Drive Products" as a source of the original gears. You should be able to find your local distributor for them from their website.

The 72 pitch gears Jerry mentions are larger in diameter than the originals and are not a direct replacement.
Since I was making the V8, my distributor had to be designed larger in diameter (I chose 1-1/2") else the spark towers would be too close together so I re-designed the whole distributor with a larger tower diameter to accommodate them. Very expensive though, but they provide almost no backlash in the rotor which I guess should result in more accurate timing.

Sage