TOPIC: 1955?? elgin key shift

we picked up a 1955 or so west bend (elgin) 25 shifts from 25 to 15 to 7.5 whith a turn of a key...was wondering how rare these are and if they were any good to start with...this one is locked up but all there don't know if i have a parts motor or if it's worth trying to build...any advice helpful...john

Sounds like the old 8-6-4 Cadillac....hope it works better than they did

They are not that rare...Finding one with the key that it came with is

Most set it for full and took the key out...then it got lost

They were made as that you could use them on lakes with max Hp limits and other lakes with out having to have many motors