From:Tom Wilcock e-mail:tom.wilcock@sympatico.ca
Subject:RE: RE: Winger / Vandre story Date:Thu May 27 06:15:09 2010
Response to:2951
Gene: I remember Dick telling me the Henderson 6 was started in the early 1930's. The cylinders and crankcases were new. New parts were readily available then. Tom Wilcock

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Dave,

I remember that day quite well, I was at Carl's shop when the inline 6 went for a jaunt around the shop! He said to me, "Well, guess I'll have to do something about that".

Just a bit of correction on the history though, Dick found the basis of that machine and came to Carl for help. Dick bought the Rolling chassis, stretched to accomodate the 6 cyl. case already welded together. There were cylinders on it, but no guts at all. Carl took it from there. I never knew who did the first part of the job. I seem to recall an older issue of the AMC with a picture of an inline 6 Henderson, sounds like some back issue review is in order.......

Carl went through that motor a third time, after the fire at Dick's shop destroyed it.

Gene Harper

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One day Dick Winger called Carl Vandre. Dick had this idea to build an in-line 6 cylinder Henderson KJ. Carl agreed to tackle the project.

Carl took two KJ engines in various states of disrepair which Dick supplied, cut 'em apart, removed one cylinder from each, and and glued them back together. Engine block, crankshaft, camshaft, etc.

Everything looked good, so Carl fired up the engine on a test stand. The engine started right up, the crankshaft pushed the appropriate pistons up and down, the camshaft opened the appropriate vales at the right time. Perfect, except for one thing...

The engine and the stand walked themselves right across the shop floor - Carl had miscalculated the counterweights on the crankshaft, and it was horribly out of balance.

Carl made up a new crankshaft, and then Dick was the proud owner of a In-line six-cylinder KJ.