Identifying crankcases

KariFS Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:55 am

As we all know, among the reed .049s there are ~~two~~ three different tapered crankcases and then the cylindrical style. The cylindrical style was introduced in ~~the mid '60s~~, ~~I think~~ 1970. In the early '60s a groove for the starter spring in the cylinder base was introduced.

I ran into a crankcase that has the cylindrical front end but no spring groove. It was disassembled when I got it but I have a small grey backplate that I think belongs to this one. Can anyone tell me what model this is from and roughly from what year?

The narrow-neck no-groove one with the red backplate and yellow needle is probably from a Stuka, right? The cylinder has number 2 stamped on it. This one seems not to have been used much.

The one with the 8cc non-stunt tank is most likely from a Spitfire, or what do you think? The cylinder has no number on it.

KariFS Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:30 pm

Darn. Posted this on the wrong department Embarassed

Moderator, please move this to the Cox discussion area. Thanks.

**Admin** Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:27 pm

The extruded case first came out for the Babe Bee in 1956. The taper of the nose is very slightly different between the 1956 cases and the later 1957 cases. The spring groove was added around the later part of 1961. The thicker tapered neck cases were introduced sometime in 1968 and the straight neck case was introduced in the beginning of 1970. Straight neck cases can be seen both with and without the spring groove.

Your straight neck case has a snap starter hex drive plate which came out in 1986 so your case is likely from between 1986 and 2005 (when I believe Estes actually stopped manufacturing the parts).

KariFS Fri Nov 07, 2014 5:24 am

Admin wrote:The extruded case first came out for the Babe Bee in 1956. The taper of the nose is very slightly different between the 1956 cases and the later 1957 cases. The spring groove was added around the later part of 1961. The thicker tapered neck cases were introduced sometime in 1968 and the straight neck case was introduced in the beginning of 1970.

Thanks Jacob for the answer. It never occurred to me that this engine was so new, since it was the most beat-up one in the box I bought Smile

Do you (or anyone else) have a picture of the "Thick tapered neck" version? It's probably relatively rare if it has been manufactured only for less than 2 years.

Is there a chart or a table somewhere where all or most of the different crankcase, backplate (text, no text, mesh, no mesh, metal, plastic), fuel tank (text/no text) versions are listed? I have seen a lot of this info while surfing, I guess I should have written some of it down to make a table Smile

Did the changes of the crankcases of the RTF/Product engines occur roughly at the same time as the changes in the Bee family? From the inventory management point of view that would make sense.

crankbndr Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:09 am

Mark Boesens .049 Collectors Group has the most info on Bee parts I've seen with photos.
Join the group, go to photos, go to albums, find Baby Bees,

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/049Collectors/info

There is a whole lot of other stuff in there too