Blog

A blog about my the history, acquisition and operation of my 1911 Model 62 Stanley Steamer.

1914 Stanley 606 For Sale

A rare Stanley roadster is up for sale in the UK. When it comes to 10HP Roadsters this may be as good as it got for Stanley. With an aluminum body and the largest boiler to be coupled with the nimble 10HP engine this little car is quite a performer.

"1914 Stanley 10hp Model 606 Roadster.  Rebuilt by the notable Goold family in the late 1990s, the current owner has enjoyed it regularly since 2007. The car has been fastidiously maintained and recent expenses include a new superheater in August 2103 and tyres in the last 12 months. A fresh boiler certificate was issued July 2013. The car is in great running and cosmetic order and is offered with VCC passport."

The asking price is $87,500 GBP (Roughly  $141,400 USD).

See the full ad at PreWarCar.com 

Stanley Breaking a Steam Line

The first day of the Skagit tour I toured with Pat and Merrily Farrell in there 1914 Stanley Model 606. I was happy to have him traveling with me on the road because I was having issues with my driven fuel pump. The shaft is quite warn and the new packing wasn't sealing like it should. After many adjustments I finally got it to stop leaking before we left the parking lot but by the first stop I'd already overheated the pump so the fuel was starting to vapor lock.  I obviously got the packing a little too tight. By the time we left the stop the pump had cooled down and seemed to be working just fine. We traveled about 10 miles before I started to smell what i thought might be raw fuel. Unsure if the fuel pump had started leaking again or not I decided it was wise to pull off into a parking lot and take a look.  Knowing about my ongoing tribulations with my fuel pump Pat followed in suit.  I hopped out and lifted my floor boards to check on the pump and by the time I turned around to  ask Pat a question I witnessed the following.

 After Pat removed the smoke bonnet it was clear that the feed water line from the feed water heater to the boiler check valve had failed right at the flare. There was no way to isolate this line to make the repair so he had no choice but to blow off all the steam in the boiler. Of course neither of us had a piece of the right size copper to repair the line so Pat befriended a local fellow with a hot rod who took him to the near by general store to source out the necessary parts.  After he returned Pat made short work of putting the whole thing back together. It ended up taking about an hour and a half before we were back steaming down the road. An impressive showing by Pat of fixing a problem on the side of the road that would have put almost all Stanley owners on the trailer.

  The reason for the break was most likely vibration fatigue that caused a crack right at the base of the flare on the copper line. The location of the line was what made the issue a real problem. Because of this I would recommend using Stainless Steel tube for anything that is located under the bonnet.

SACA Steam Clinic

 The vapor clouds have died down on the 2013 SACA Steam Clinic. It was an informative event with five steamers in attendance. They included John Kieper’s Model 735 Stanley, Bob Ullrich’s Model K Stanley,  Ron Schroeder’s Model 63 Stanley and The Farrell’s whole Stanley collection.  Our Model 62 Stanley ran a flawless tour with our biggest issue being a pilot that blew out once.

The big event of the tour was when Ron Schroeder turned a hard left and punched the steering rack right into his burner assembly. It created a fist size hole where you could look up from the bottom of the car and see a portion of the tube sheet. I ‘m impressed that Ron managed to run the car for about a mile before he realized what had happened because there would have been a lot of flames coming out of a hole that big. Lucky for Ron it was a clinic and everyone worked together to get his Stanley back on the road the following day.  The issue turned out to be a result of the drag link length and a rack that wasn’t properly centered.  

 All in all it was a great clinic. Special thanks to the Farrell family for having all of us steam guys over and keeping us entertained.

Visiting a professional.

I had the pleasure of visiting Pat Farrell to discuss all things steam. Always an interesting and highly educational visit. He was busy working on replacing the boiler in his 1914 Stanley Model 606. As you can see from the pictures it's a tight squeeze!

We had an intriguing discussion regarding the authenticity of having blow down valves mounted on the front cross member of pre 15 Stanley's. After much discussion and looking thru a few photo albums worth of pictures it sure doesn't seem like they were placed there by the factory.

1914 Stanley 606 Boiler Replacement