Harry's OLD-ENGINE #18

Fairbanks Morse Eclipse
Pump Jack Engine
including Fairbanks Morse
#1 Hand Pump

Mother does the hard work. Eclipse Engine does the work.

Pumping water with 1914 hit and miss gas engines and windmill pumps, a restoration project for antique engine shows. Hear the pop of the hit and miss gasoline engine, the grinding of the pump jack gears and the flow of water into the pail!


This is an engine that found me at the Portland, Indiana Summer 2000 Engine Show. It was on Charlie's trailer and evidently, it had my name on it, or at least something happened that made it come home with me. To top that off, I had just seen a Fairbanks Morse hand pump at an antique shop in Oregon, but for some reason, I didn't buy it. Not certain where I saw it, when we got back home I went on the internet and using a few search tools, I found the phone number for the shop. I made the deal with them and Yellow Freight did the rest. Moral of the story, he who hesitates pays extra. $100 for trucking please.

Anyway, restoration work begins! The engine was complete and not in too bad shape so a simple teardown and rebuild will do the job. Although I prefer Hunter Green for old engine color, a lot of original gray remained on this engine, so GRAY it is!

Before on the block after on the base. Glass Bead Blasted and Painted

After a couple days work at tear down, cleaning and blasting, the parts are ready for assembly.

The finished parts.
The parts list!

Some heavy bead blasting to do here on the base and the pump.

The rusty stuff!
The pump has "FAIRBANKS MORSE CO." embossed down its side. I still cannot believe that I didn't buy it on the spot.

I managed to get the 1-1/4" pipe stub out of the base of the hand pump. Gibbsed it, torched it, cooled it re Gibbsed it, re torched it. I had the stub locked in my bench vise and using the pump arm as a lever through the holes where the spout fits, gave it the heave - ho! That has to be the toughest take-apart situation ever!

The plan is to align bore the bottom of the pump cavity to accept the plunger from a standard well pump cylinder. The whole thing will then be mounted on a plank with a pail in a continuous flow loop, using 1-1/4" pipe and a check valve underneath.

The Engine!

I used a N.O.S. KW-Coil for the buzz coil ignition that I had picked up on eBay. It didn't work very well in testing and the contacts were sparking a lot. Damned if they weren't installed upside down so that one of the points was up and out. After changing this over, it produced an extremely hot spark. No wonder it was in new unused condition!

The Fuel Tank!

Another problem of note: upon the first test run, the mixer adjustment was quite erratic. When attempting to start it for a second time, it wouldn't go at all. No fuel! The problem turned out to be a jammed foot valve in the fuel pick up. Burnishing the check gate into its socket cleaned up the surfaces and made it work properly. There is a 1-2-3 marked on the mixer adjustment screw top. Start on 1 and run it on 3 after a warm-up.

Funny thing, I got the battery box from Charlie at the Portland Swap Meet a year earlier. See how these things tie together? Ironic!

CLICK HERE for Fairbanks Morse manuals and catalogs.

The Works RUNNING!

Florida Flywheelers' 2000 Show


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