Does anyone have a 1941 Wizard WB6? If so,would you
be willing to take a few pictures and email or post
on this site? WB6 is equivalent to 1941 Mercury KB5...the picture on East Coast Marine
Old Mercs of KB5 a little fuzzy and may or may not be same as WB6. An ambitious restoration project may
result if parts pile has all/most of the good stuff.
Thanks
Louis
As Ronald Reagan used to say "Here at GE. progress
is our most important product"
1)Update on Wizard WB6...can verify that WF4 pistons,rods,cylinders and crankshaft
will swap in and it all works...completed assembly
and displayed as a work in progress at a local
meet...all the cosmetic treatment remains to be
done...tank and rewind from postwar WD4S (Gold)
2) crankshaft taper from stuck motor that a prior
mechanic used pipe wrench on (leaving gouges and
raised metal)... after filing down high spots
...better but not good enough,
looked around and found a flywheel that was not going
to be needed and some valve grinding paste...apply paste to taper insert in flywheel and rotate
partial turn and back for a bit, clean, inspect, and reapply paste and repeat until satisfied...did not take too long to get from barely
acceptable to pretty good...only recommend this
if the rest of the crankshaft is good and you
have a spare flywheel with a good taper you
will not need,
As always technique may/or may be appropriate to
your situation...
Mercury parts manual states that prewar pistons, rods
and cylinders No Longer Available sixty years ago
and indicates that postwar rods, crankshaft pistons
and cylinders could be used...later crank journals
apparently heat treated for use with needle bearings
so rods,crankshaft and pistons required.
The first time assembly of WB6 seemed to turn over too
hard so tear down,hone cylinders and sand roughness
off scored pistons then back together watching that
piston rings did not overlap the locating pins...
bad news will not be long in coming if you get
that detail wrong.Yes it does happen.
Tank and rewind pretty simple...all cast aluminum tank twins prewar and postwar Mercury or Wizard use same parts..
apparently even rope plate and rewind models
use same tank part number...curious.
Once tried to use a KE4/Mark 7 cylinder
with a single and found the original piston
rod assembly bumped top of cylinder...not
every swap will work as hoped.
Early postwar cylinders had uneven (KE3 too)
diameter exhaust ports while KE4/Mark7 have even size exhaust ports. I think Wizards thru WF4 and possibly
WG4 used the early postwar cylinders
Point of it all is that an apparently hopeless
old merc or wizard may be worth another look
...and a little help from a parts motor or two.
Louis
Correction...per manual first production run of KE4
used the older uneven port cylinders.
WB6 now has hot spark, a friend with more hands on
experience cleaned and set points on the magneto
I held the plug wires to verify a tingle on each.
Removed water pump assembly (for safety reasons)
and pulled it over. It sputtered and ran a little. Probably the first time in fifty years...expelled a little trash from exhaust. A lot of details remain
but a long way from where it was.
Louis
