Rarity is a relative term. "Rare" might be accurate in portraying how many male relatives I have that don’t display the signs of pattern baldness, but I would not use "rare" as an adjective describing a Thor twin. I have owned a few Thor opposed twins in my time as a collector, and seen many others.
The tanks are sheet metal, and prone to rust. They are also thin-walled stampings, so prone to dents and dings.
Your motor is indeed pre-Kiekhaefer. He took the Cedarburg Manufacturing Company over in early 1939. Some early motors used a lower unit with an angled profile on the leading edge, others were rounded like yours. I’m not positive when or why they installed one style or the other.
Thor outboards are built primarily out of steel stampings, which was Thorwald Hansen’s specialty. The rebuildable or replaceable bearing inserts (especially those in the powerhead) are prone to wear, and if the upper crankcase bearing gets worn out, these motors will not start easily or run properly. You can check the clearance by pulling the flywheel from one side to the other to verify if there is side wobble present or not. If you can see or hear the crankshaft clanking back and forth in the bearing, she likely needs some rehab work before it can be run.
I’m not certain that your Thor has the correct carburetor on it. At the very least, I do not recall ever seeing a carb like that on any Thor but somebody else might be able to chime in on that.
They were supplied with Eisemann and American Bosch magnetos, I think yours has the A-B type on it, just like the last of the small Caille single cylinder models used until they were discontinued in 1935.
Here are some scanned images that I have on file.
EDIT – I do not understand why this page will no longer allow me to attach JPEG files. When attempting to upload jpegs, I get an error message that files only with the .TIF extension are "expected".
Error
Image file type mismatch: expected extension tif but extension jpg given.
WTF is up with that?
ANyway – Hope this helps, but even I can’t view the attachments at the moment.
Best,
Chris S
He's livin' in his own private Idaho..... I hope to go out quietly in my sleep, like my grand-dad did..... and not screaming, like the passengers in his car...