Richard Olivier

A couple of month's ago while visiting Rolly Evans to see if I could help him with any thing on his newly acquired 1920 Stanley, we took a coffee break and I happened to see a Cad drawing Rolly had done of his Stanley Pilot. After examining the drawing and remembering that at one of the Auction's Jerry Hackett lost the bid on a Stanley pilot, I decided to build one from Rolly`s Cad drawing.

Jerry was having an awful time with the Maxwell pilot and was looking for an alternative. The Maxwell kept going out, or making a large fire whenever he was out driving the Stanleybus. People were stopping and asking to help and some one called the Fire Dept. Passengers were getting concerned about the large flames coming out from under the bonnet.

To build the Pilot I started with a piece of gas pipe 1-1/2 diameter by 4-3/4 long. I trimmed and squared the ends, cut a slot .480 wide down the whole length making a (U) shape, then put it in a vise and squeezed the slot closed, welded the seam down the whole length, then welded a cap to close up one end. The opposite end of this tube has a 2.000" by 2.398" by .950" block machined to fit the Stanley adapter plate. The plate also has a slot machined 1.400" wide to hold the vaporizing tubes. Next, I used a .025" wide milling saw to cut in gas release slot's down the length of the oval tube .125" apart, to .500" from the adapter block.

The Vaporizing tubes (2 pieces) were made of cold rolled steel, .500" diameter, by 3 inches long, with a .125" drilled through. I milled a flat angle (I think its close to 8 deg.) so they blend to a point, then clamped together, and welded them together so they don't leak.

I used the .350" tubing that makes the 4 way cross to hold the fuel jet, using the tap drill as the through hole. These were aligned and welded, (check drawing). A .064" wire was filed or ground to, 027" dimension, to fit the fuel jet, and attached to 1/4--20 screw on opposite end.

The mixing tube was made of .500" steel tubing, and drilled with .187" drill per the print, and flared with a flare tool, then pressed into the hole on the adapter block. According to Jerry Hackett the Pilot works super.

Note by editor; The original Stanley V-shaped pilot vaporizor was designed so it could be cleaned with a long drill bit. Mr. Olivier has chosen not to keep this feature. Mr. Evan's Stanley pilot drawing may be seen at his web site, to which this link leads.

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