Saving weight on rebuild

[mspeters]

Have started a rebuild of a spare motor. It hadn’t run in 30-40 years and was seized-up. The chromium plating peeled and the aluminum on the cylinders corroded due to condensation and dirt. Needed a hydraulic press to remove 2 of the pistons from the cylinders. I will use NOS jugs stripped and replated in US Chrome’s NiCom - a blend of Nickel, Silicon, Carbide.

The generator and starter are swapping to modern 24v Denso based parts. I’ll sacrifice some originality to shave 54 pounds combined, but the M38A1 starter is costly. The alternator is a Komatsu 24v 50 amp tractor unit that I swapped into a leftover black Powermaster case. It needs simple mods to the Mite’s generator bracket.

[Radar4xfour]

Thanks for posting pictures to show all of us new and old to the Mighty Mite scene what bad cylinders look like. Also thank you for the comparison of the generator and starter alternatives, very informative! Curious, if the starter and alternator are available in 12V why not go that route and save another 25 lbs. +/- with one less battery? I've yet again needed to purchase Two 51R batteries for one of my Mighty Mites. Yes, if it were not for originality I'd be tempted to save weight and ease the pocketbook pain of purchasing 2 batteries.

Keep up the good work, looking forward to more pictures as the project progresses!

Radar

[mspeters]

Hi Radar,

Will add more photos in coming months.

The ignition coil pins the choice to 24V. There are rare 12v coils that fit in the waterproof distributor for overseas contracts. Midwest Military had some years ago. There are some on ebay (in Turkey) . https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-HANSING-BR ... Sw9N1VhS~Q. It is an orphan part, so would need spares to avoid a backwards conversion if the 12v coil went bad (or left the ignition on and overheated) and a replacement couldn’t be sourced. The 24V M151 electronic ignition module probably won’t work at 12v.

[Urban Camo]

Hi I was wondering how your re-plating came out on the cylinders.
What was the cost if you don't mind me asking?
I have an older gentleman with a mite that hasn't been driven in many years.
I pulled the plugs on it and used a small lighted camera type bore scope to check for the peeling and flaking on the cylinder walls.
I'm just trying to get a feel for the cost of having the cylinders redone if he wants to have them done.
Thanks for your time.
UC

[walcdc69]

Hi Sir,
I am new to this forum.
Thought I would jump in on the rebuild question. I had my MM Jugs restored just last year. The process was a coating done by a company named Millenium Technoligies out of Wisconsin. This company is first class. The cost was at $250.00 per cylinder. The process is Nic A Sil coating. Hope this helps!
I can provide more info if needed.
Thanks Wally

[mspeters]

NiSil plating ranges $200-250 per cylinder. Millenium and US Chrome are the names mentioned often.
Had a two sets plated 10 years ago; great results, and no worries of future peeling like pure, hard-chrome.

They may charge somewhat more to strip the old pure chromium.
I recently had 4 NOS jugs NiSil plated, but 2 had portions of aluminum porosity lurking under the chrome and
plated with a few small pinholes. Had to recycle and replate a few of the original jugs to get a full set of 4.
Waiting on Carrillo (Arias) pistons, balancing, then can start engine assembly.

The missing link for rebuilds is cross-referencing for undersize bearings for mains/rods with old ancient
catalogs. NOS crankshafts are difficult to locate now. Seems AMC would have used an existing bearing shell ??
I think King Bearing was original provider; they seem to have shifted to auto transmission parts.

[Urban Camo]

Thanks for the replies.
I will pass on the information to him.
I used a small blue tooth APP based flexible camera to look inside cylinder's with but can't seem to get the images stored on the camera's app off the app and transferred to my computer to do anything with them.
The cylinder's don't appear to be as bad as the pictures you posted .
If a had to describe what they look like I'd say kind of like the texture of a football or the skin on the back of your hand .
He is getting up in his years and would kind of like to go for a drive in it again.
The batteries are toast in it from lack of use. But from what I gathered after talking to a few people and reading a few posts the peeling / flaking of the chrome could do more damage to engine if not taken care of.
I didn't just want to get new batteries and try to start it and do more damage.
Since the vehicle is not mine I'm just trying to give him as much information as possible and let him make the decisions .

Thanks again
UC