Hello, about 15 years ago I stripped and rebuilt one of these for Mark Goodson. It is a very interesting engine, 3 cylinders, 6 pistons, 2 cranks chained together
to give asymmetrical port timing ( it is a 2 stoke). The middle cylinder is a double acting pump supplying fuel/air to the outer power cylinders.
The hand starter works through a fierce sized spring to spin the engine, the hand leaver has a Vincent kick start serration, this hand lever was missing so I used a spare
kick start lever to turn the engine over. The electrics were all aircraft quality, screened to stop interference as the boat was to have a radio. The hand starter was only a back up I think.
It was set up for economy as it had to be capable of a given range as dropped form the aircraft, usually a Hudson.
There is an article that about the rebuild in MPH. This engine went to Denver some time after completion, there was a overhaul write up supplied by the military with the engine when I had it, sadly I did not think to copy it. John.