[SEL] Sieverkropp

[jbcast at charter.net]

We had a local show this weekend, the last few years we've been doing a babbitt pouring demo. It usually draws a group of interested people, men, women, and children. A professor-historian narrates it over a portable p a system, he knows the questions to ask and tells an interesting story as we are setting up and pouring. This is more marine related and how the boats needed maintenance and sometimes the bearings were poured on the bank of the bayou. 
   When I got there Sunday morning I was greeted by a local man that said he wanted my he to ID a small engine. He told me it was two cycle and had an exposed connecting rod. My first thought was that he didn't know what he was talking about. We went over to his truck and sure enough it he was right. After looking it over for a few minutes I could read the first and last few letters of the name cast into the hopper, Sie         p, the rest was covered by a bracket someone had added. I realized it was a Sieverkropp, 1/2 hp horizontal. I looked it over, admiring it, and told him it was cute. He said he watched the demo last year, wanted to sell it and wanted me to have it, it came from his uncle and he didn't know how to run it. The price was very reasonable so I came home with it. The commutator for the timer is broken, some of the fiber is missing and I don't know the location of the inlaid contact. If someone knows where to put it, or has detailed pictures it would be a big  help. The governor weights are on the flywheel but nothing else, from Wendels description it just kills the ignition. Pics would help here also. Does anyone here know the purpose of the little poppet valve, looks like a backfire relief to me. I did manage to get it to run a little at the show, fuel dampened rag over the intake and a wire at the end of the connecting rod so it touched at tdc to operate a buzz coil. From what I've read since getting it this is more than a lot of them have done. Thesi engine seems to have run quite a bit looking at the wear on the timer contact and the bushings in the connecting rod.
J.B. Castagnos
Belle Rose, LA