Witte Gas Engine Serial Numbers
In its prime, this circa-1915 Witte 30 hp “sideshaft” portable gas engine was used to power a thresher. But by the time Harold Ottaway, Wichita, Kan., got hold of it, the engine had fallen on hard times indeed. The engine had spent much of its life on a small farm in southwestern Oklahoma.
Witte engine serial number. Can anyone tell me the size [HP]of a Witte engine with 16 inch flywheels and a serial number of B40424. It has a drag saw attached. Most of our stocked parts ship within 24 hours (M-Th). Expedited shipping available, just call! Most prices for parts and manuals are below our competitors.
The owner, though, wouldn’t part with it. A friend of Harold’s kept an eye on the engine as he passed through that area each year. In 1961, the call came: The owner had died, and the engine had been sold to a salvage yard, where it was being scrapped. Harold immediately contacted Harold Jones, owner of the Duncan, Okla., salvage yard. His source was right: Jones said that the engine had been cut up, and much of it had already been loaded onto a rail car. But Ottaway could have what was there, for 3 cents a pound (about $180). The vintage engine was in sorry shape.
The engine’s steel parts had already been removed from the cast iron: the portable truck wheels, crankshaft, sideshaft and connecting rod had all been torched off and shipped out. The brass had been stripped off and was long gone. To most, it looked like an uphill battle. Even Harold’s brother – an accomplished machinist and welder – scowled at the prospect of restoration. “I don’t know why he’s messing with that,” he said.
“He’ll never put it together anyway.”. But Jerry – with more than 40 years’ experience in welding – knew the Witte could be restored.
“I’ve gotten into a lot worse projects,” he said. “This turned out to be pretty simple.” And so began what would become a 20-year process of rebuilding parts for the vintage engine. Actual shop time was backed up by extensive research. Harold, for instance, used 4 hp, 6 hp and 9 hp Wittes from his collection to determine the engine’s stroke, and then set out to find the crankshaft meeting that specification. He found a close match in a 25 hp Superior crankshaft owned by Bill Hey, Baldwin, Kan. Harmon Machine Shop, Wichita, machined it to fit the Witte. Using a 15 hp Witte in his collection, Jim Withers, Osakis, Minn., scaled up bearings for the engine.
Withers also crafted the connecting rod and brass rod bearings. Meanwhile, Jerry was at work on a new intake valve and exhaust elbow. The part of the head where the exhaust elbow and fuel metering valve were was broken off and gone, so, working from illustrations in decades-old manuals, and scaling smaller Witte parts from his collection, Jerry refabricated that entire area.
The cylinder bolts had been torched off in the scrapping process, so Harold made new cap screws from one-inch stock. Charles Clupny, also from Wichita, produced a new gas tank and wood seat, and he and Jerry teamed up on the cooling tank and put in line fittings. Harold made a battery box and footrest.
Exterior brass pieces came from Harold’s collection, as did a set of Witte trucks, providing the wheels and axles. (The I-beam rails and axle cast hangers are the originals.) New piston rings were made by Joe Sykes, Lockport, N.Y. Sapphirefoxx. Harold used the one surviving governor weight to make a pattern for the other, and had it cast. He also made a pattern for the governor weight disk holder (which was broken and half gone) and had it cast. The project came together in the late eighties. Painting and reassembly were left to Jerry (striping was done by Shire Signs in Wichita). As Jerry’s collection grew, and Harold’s began to change, the Witte found a new home – when Jerry bought the fully restored engine in 1994.
It joined a set that included a 4 hp (hopper), 6 hp (hopper), 9 hp (one hopper and one tank-cooled), 15 hp (hopper) and 20 hp, as well as a full set of Witte headless engines. Pure and Simple: Witte Iron Works Engines Elegant in Design Witte Iron Works was established in 1870 in Kansas City, Mo., by August Witte. Although early production focused on steam engines, the company’s specialty soon became gasoline engines. Entry into that field came in about 1886, when Witte’s son, Ed H.