09-20-2017, 07:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-20-2017, 07:45 PM by ted johnson.)
Back on '58/'59, when I had my first dead axle Bug single A-400, Pop gave me a Clinton outboard. I spent a month converting it to a kart engine. One of the machinists at Radiation, Inc. (now Harris Electronics) made me a crank adapter for my Mercury clutch. The engine was about 7 cubes, had the twin intake and exhaust ports like an E-65, and ball bearing mains and needle bearing rod. I remember having a heck of a time converting the shrouds to make them similar to chain saw shrouds. The engine mount was a bear also. I put a saw reed and manifold on, and a Tilly carb. I had just gotten it sorted and running very well when Pop bought me a pair of the then new E-65 Deluxe engines, and his old dual dead axle Bug to put them on. I sold the outboard engine, and soon realized that I shoulda kept it. It was actually as quick as the twin E-65's. I was only fifteen years old, and had a lot to learn! The guy who bought the engine put it on a very early '59 wide frame Wasp. and did very well with it. Of course, it was way too big in displacement for the A Class he ran in. The locals all thought that it was the standard 5.76 C.I. Clinton displacement. Ted