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I...but that's...Hmmmmmmmmmm...
- Thread starter Downeaster
- Start date
I dig the kid's WW1 British Brodie helmet. I guess he's already deaf from the London bombing, so no worries about going deaf from the outboard motor.
Seems like a whole lotta work for something that can only be riddin' for 4 or 5 min before it seizes from overheat. 
... or hook a garden hose to it and run in circles like an old "control line" model.
...that's what I was going to suggest: a sort of biggie Cox model car.
hovel
ol' stupid
I think we're looking at a Bendix Eclipse, an air cooled outboard about that vintage. I'm guessing the drive mechanism is a belt off the prop shaft which would allow for an idler pulley tension clutch. Cute.
I wondered if there was such a thing. Didn't see a water exhaust on the shaft housing, but wasn't aware there were air cooled outboards. Probably about as common as hen's teeth and unicorn farts...
I like the kid's attitude: "Da fuq YOU lookin' at?"
By golly, Rustie, you might be right! I looked at that and thought it was an old gas tank design. The lack of a starter is pretty solid evidence tho.
hovel
ol' stupid
Nope, and we do not have a good picture. If that's a battery, it doesn't appear to be connected to anything. I think the cable running up to the motor is probably the throttle. The Bendix did not have a recoil starter, just a rope sheave on top, which we don't see. Look close at the down-tube coming out of the power head. Just below the power head you can barely see little cooling fins on it, it is the exhaust tube. The smaller diameter tube is the drive shaft housing. Electric outboards of that vintage did not look like that.
Dunno.... that does kinda look like a battery and cables....
hovel
ol' stupid
I finally blew up the picture but still can't see the cables, only the one. The cable is going up to about where it might be connected to the throttle advance or carburetor. If so, it is pulling in the right direction. See the fins I mentioned ? Some old motors had a battery ignition or were converted to that if the magneto went south. It's a Bendix Eclipse.
Gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road.............
Ok Mystery solved, @hovel is correct, mostly. That is a battery/cable, it is a Bendix Eclipse. But it is a battery powered, air cooled motor.
