1918 Henderson help! please!

[no7fish]

Wow, I can finally reply now!! I have been lurking on this board for a month now mysteriously without the ability to post or PM.

Anyway, I have come by a 1918 Excelsior-Henderson 4 cylinder that I am trying to restore and I cannot seem to find much info so hopefully you guys can help me out.

I have at least one of most everything for the engine/trans assy (it is missing the rest of the bike but I'm still going to do what I can with it....) but the pistons in it are aluminum and the originals I am told are cast Iron. Hence, I cannot get replacement pistons because I have no idea how closely these resemble the originals and I don't want to go playing with the compression ratio or piston height without knowing what I'm doing.

Any help guys? Any idea where I could find some pistons or info on the originals?? JE has said that they can make me custom reproductions but I don't know what dims to tell them...

Thanks in advance!
Rob

[c.o.]

Hey Rob you can try checking out www.hendersonmotors.com and see what you think. There are however a couple of Henderson guys that do hang around here a bit that may be able to lead you in the right direction. Some inline freaks believe that the Henderson was the best of them all!!!!

[exeric]

Rob, I have a set of cast iron Henderson pistons. My e-mail address should be in my profile.

[no7fish]

Hey, thanks guys! I can't believe I had never seen that site... Exeric, I am tapping out an e-mail to you now. Also, there are some new pistons for sale on the O4 site for a KJ, but will those fit in my engine? (it is an H model) Did they alter the bore or compression height dimensions in those years?

While we are at it, does anyone know the specs on torques and clearances on these motors?

[Tom Lovejoy]

Hend info

You can get copies from George Yarocki of original lit for your machine, The books - Hendersons those elegant machines by Richard Schultz and Golden age of the fours by one of the AMCA founders Ted Hogden I think, have alot of info. Good luck you've got one heck of a project, Tom.

[AdminGuy]

Why not use the modern alum. pistons? I sure would. pin height?

[Tom Lovejoy]

Yes, they changed quite abit through the years. You could use the old pistons for examples, but modern ones are far better. You can also get something like the old notes from the factory with lots of tricks from the good old days. Dean Salmans used to sell copies of this info, Iam sure their are others with it too. Very good info, almost all later then your model - but still very helpful. Best thing would be to get a hold of some body with a simular model I would guess.
The book Golden Age of the fours was on E bay a few days ago, I would read as much as you can on them first off. Just friendly advice and good luck Tom.

[exeric]

Pre K model Hendersons are very different, and when it comes to pistons for early 4's I would use a decent set of cast iron pistons over moderen aluminum pistons any day of the week. Cast iron pistons are like velvet to a cast iron cylinder, and their weight is part of the balance equation for the crank. I'm using the old cast iron pistons in my '17 and '19 and I don't hear any anoying piston slap. You have to face the fact that early American 4's are not high performance engines. Their strong points were easy starting, smooth running, and less messy than twins and singles of that era.

[no7fish]

Hi there, it's been a while and not much has changed. I have moved and am now working in NC. As it happens i have no real place to work on the E-H but I do want to get back to it.

The first step is pistons but I am also missing a pair of the intake blocks and the valves that go with them.

Exeric, could you send me an e-mail? I don't have all of my contacts from my previous work e-mail so I'll send you a PM with my personal one.

Thanks for the help everyone!