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Maytag Engine
Maytag Logo

History

My grandfather was the chef mechanic for a local coal company. Due to his interest in mechanics he often would tinker with new inventions. Today he would be considered an engineer. Many, many decades ago he designed and built a corn stalk shredding machine. As a little boy I remember this shredding machine sitting outside of his garden shed. I knew that he stored the engine inside the shed and that it had been a long time since he used it. By the late 70’s the shredder itself was so rusted that all of the moving parts had seized. My grandfather passed away in 1978 so it has been at least 3 decades or more since the engine last ran. Since no one remembers it ever running I believe it is probably closer to 5 or 6 decades since it last ran. Anyway, a few years ago I remembered that the engine was sitting on a bench in the back corner of the shed so I went down to see if it was an old Briggs engine. To my surprise I found it to be an old Maytag engine. Maytag, don’t they make appliances? Where did the engine come from, I wondered. Well, I did a little research and found out Maytag made many engines for their washing machines since the rural areas in the early 1900’s didn’t have electricity. The last time I looked at the engine the crank shaft still turned freely. I wonder if it still does? Maybe I'll check on it this weekend.
My Maytag Model 92 on 09-02-2010

Pulling the old engine from the shed 09-02-2010

Thursday September 2nd we got a jump of the Memorial Day weekend because this year we had both Friday and Monday off for the holiday. Around 4:30 PM and in 90 + heat I headed to the old steel garden shed. It was crazy hot in there. That shed doesn’t have any windows so there wasn’t any airflow. Back in the far right hand corner sat the old engine and it still turned freely. I spent some time pulling it out and discovered that some mice had been nesting up against it. The aluminum flywheel is badly pitted in several spots and there is some pitting on the carb caution plate, but other than that it looks like it is in good shape. A lot of the original paint is still on the block and tank.

On Saturday September the 4th I cleaned it up a little just so I could locate the serial number to determine what model and year the engine was. I discovered the serial number 494829 was located on the outer edge of the flywheel. This serial number indicates that it is a model 92 probably built in June or maybe May of 1933. The next step is to give it a really good external cleaning and then start tearing it apart. I’m excited but I’ll have to wait till winter because I have tons of other work to do.
Engine with plug

Spark Plug Removal 09-08-2010

After work on Wednesday I decided it was time to attempt to remove the spark plug. Before dinner I sprayed the plug with WD-40 and returned about an hour later. I took a large Crescent and placed it on the plug. I fully expected that plug to be so seized up and that I'd either slip the wrench off or break the plug off. To my great surprise with just a little effort, the plug broke loose. After breaking it loose I was able to removed it the rest of the way by hand. Ok, so when has anyone removed a plug that has been in an engine for 50 or 60 years without any trouble? WOW! The next step was to take a compression reading. I grabbed my compression gauge from the tool box and went to stick it in the engine when I noticed all of my adapters were way to small. So, now I've got to find an adapter to fit.
Blue Crown Spark Plug

Spark Plug Test 09-09-2010

This evening I read that some of these old multi-piece spark plugs last 70, 80, 90 years or more. So, I decided I would find out if mine still worked. I cleaned the terminal with some emory cloth and connected it to my 1969 Briggs 3 HP go kart engine. I tugged on the pull start and amazingly the plug came to life. It had a very visible bluish colored spark. Now I am speechless.
Blue Crown TF Spark Plug

After some further research I found that most restorers/rebuilders do not bother taking compression tests on these old Maytag engines. Apparently their tolerances allow for the engines to run with very little compression. I've read that as long as there aren't any significant scratches or gouges in the cylinders or pistons these little engines will run like new. Further research produced several youtube tips from a backwoods mechanic calling himself shopdogsam. Shopdogsam has a wealth of information on these engines and really seems to know what he is talking about.

Created on 09/02/2010 12:37 PM by admin
Updated on 10/05/2011 12:50 PM by admin
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