My friend and I tore into the Maytag further over the weekend. This mainly involved taking apart and cleaning the "carburetor".

I say "carburetor", because the fueling setup for the Maytag 72 is ridiculously simple. The carburetor jet and pickup tube sit low in the fuel tank and the assembly is held in place with a set-screw. And corrosion - lots of corrosion.

With the pickup tube removed from the engine block, it was time to thoroughly clean it. Per the service manual (which I bought), the jet should be cleaned with a No. 72 drill bit. Bonus points to anyone who can find it on the workbench!

This and an unhealthy amount of carb cleaner were used, and a fair bit of junk was flushed out. You could now spray carb cleaner in one end and it would actually exit the other end, and quite smartly, too.

We also removed the air inlet tube (the piece with the knob) during cleaning. During removal, and especially during re-installation, we noticed that the air inlet tube was quite loose. Not knowing if that would cause an air leak, we added pipe tape around the stem as a temporary solution.

After re-assembly, it was time to see if the Maytag would finally start. We started out on the bench-top, like before. After many attempts, it gave hints of wanting to start but wouldn't. We then had the thought: "It's called a kick-starter for a reason, should we try setting it on the ground and actually kick-start it?" It turns out you can get a lot more momentum with your leg and body weight rather than with your arm...

It finally started and ran! We first got it running in the shop, but quickly decided it best to take it outside.

Now I said that it runs, but don't just take my word for it:

And a little bit later:

The Twin still needs a bunch of work. The ignition system probably needs a good tune-up, and I'm sure a better job of a full cleaning is needed. The inside of the tank (and the whole engine) really needs stripped, cleaned-up, and painted. I also need to decide the final goal of the intended restoration job, but at this point, I'm just happy that it runs!

This brings me to the parts Twin.

We took a brief look at the parts Twin as well, and I actually took a picture of it this time. It's in rough shape, and missing quite a bit - I knew this when I bought it. I mean, I bought it for $20 and am calling it "the parts Twin" for a reason...

The tank bottom is full of holes, and the tank top has a crack in it - which we just discovered. The crankshaft nose has some damage on the flywheel side, and the flywheel and most of the magneto are missing. There is also no starter assembly. It does seem to have compression, amazingly.

Since the red Twin is now running, my current plan is to keep that as the base. I want to tear into the parts Twin soon and see if the heads are any good. Hopefully they are, because then the goal would be to swap over the parts Twin heads as part of the restoration project. The heads on the parts Twin are I believe a two year only style (1937 & 1938), and should be period correct for the flywheel (The SN puts it as a Feb. 1938). Maytag only put an ID on the flywheel, so there is really no knowing what year the block is. Design cues can tell you the general period of the heads, but again no exact years. The goal would be to end up with a period correct looking 1938 engine.

Also, and unrelated: My friend has some new occupants in his shop:

A mutual friend had their living situation change abruptly, so these two will be rooming here for a while. I'm not too keen on when that happens (sometimes it can't be helped), but at least we get shop cats out of it for a while!

Actually, I bought two, both found at the Coolspring Power Museum Flea Market. As far as personal projects go, it's both really unexpected and totally expected. I was vaguely aware of the existence of the Maytag Twin, also known as the Maytag 72, but never looked into it. I saw one early on during my travels through the flea market, but passed based on price and condition based on advice from my friend.

Later on, I found what would end up being the first purchase. This one was sort-of bought on a whim for $20, haggled down from $30. I forgot to grab a decent picture, but its a complete long-block with a bottom mount fuel tank (more on that in a bit), though it was missing the flywheel, magneto, and pedal assembly. I figured for $20 I couldn't really go wrong, and that I'd probably be able to find something to do with it.

About ten minutes later, I stumbled upon the red one pictured. The seller wasn't at his table, but a friend of his was. A quick call between the two and the seller returned to chat. The seller, as it turns out, was Maytag Mark, an all things Maytag engines. He actually just purchased the engine from someone else at the flea market with the intention to part it out. While it was "complete" the long-block wasn't correct for the flywheel and tank by year for period correctness (early flywheel, early tank, later long-block), and the pedal assembly was broken and rigged. He said he was able to get the engine running briefly with starting fluid, but that it very likely had a fueling issue. He was going to dig into it later, but then I showed up.

Against my better judgement, and probably still on a bit of a high from my purchase of the $20 parts Twin, I said to my friend "the hell with it" and bought the red one for probably more than I should have (10x the price of the $20 parts Twin). At this point, having never owned an antique engine in my entire life, now owned 1.5 antique engines.

After the deal was made, Maytag Mark, myself, and my friend continued talking about old Maytag engines. Of course, I was paying close attention to what Mark had to say as to understand what I bought and what actually just got myself into. We eventually got to talking about my earlier $20 purchase. It was then that Mark realized the circumstances that I put myself in with both purchases. It turns out the $20 Twin was an early long-block, and would be correct for everything else on the red one. To quote Mark - "How can you be so lucky?" My response - "I don't know, especially since I knew absolutely nothing about these ~15 minutes ago!*).

My friend and I then grabbed his Forester and drove it onto the show grounds to come collect my purchases - much better than having to carry 100 lbs worth of engines a mile back to his car. After removing the also not correct long stack exhaust (not pictured) to get it to fit in his car, and dumping probably a half a cup of oily sludge on the show grounds from said exhaust (sorry EPA), both engines were loaded (as well as many other flea market finds that my friend bought).

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon when we returned to my friend's house, and we started to dig into the Maytags a little bit. We started with the red one, draining the old gas, tightening the engine mounts, and refilling with the correct 16:1 gas/oil mixture. We also started to clean the fuel pickup tube, at least what we could without much disassembly. It wants to fire, but it just wouldn't. We were exhausted from the weekend, so didn't push on further. Also, I think it could use new head gaskets, since towards the end of messing around we got a small flame-front to come out the head / block interface. I don't think this is correct... I should probably order a gasket set...

We finished out Sunday afternoon by starting to tear into the parts twin. I'm glad the red one has a good tank, because the parts twin certainly doesn't...

I don't know what happened in this engine's life, but there are several issues I see with this tank...

Right now the plan is to get the red one running, then dive into a restoration project combining the two in the process. I anticipate that this will be a fun (and long) project.

At least, I must assume so. I bought this on AbeBooks, mostly for my own perusal. I knew it was a former library book, but check out from which library...

Yes, that DuPont. Interesting note: DuPont is where polyamide (nylon) got its start.

The same seller has another book from the same series, also claiming it is a former library book. I should probably purchase that book as well...

This is now probably my favorite book of mine from a novelty standpoint, next to the Six-Sigma textbook I have that is bound upside-down and backwards...

If you made it this far, I'll be waiting for someone to post that Simpsons clip. You know the one.

I took some time this afternoon to check and re-adjust my tire pressure as I periodically do, and gave my dad a hand with the same task on theirs. We also took the time to check the spares as well, and they were certainly low. One was at 50 psi, while the other two were in the low 40s. Not the worst I've found though - I've found them at ~24 psi before.

I keep a bicycle pump with me regardless, but it is nice to only need to bump the pressure up a bit if the spare is needed rather than need to fill it from near empty with said bicycle pump on the side of the road.

Also an amusing note - all three spares are size 145-80 D17, and all three are different brands and countries of origin. A USA made Firestone, a Japanese made Bridgestone, and an Indonesian made Falken.

Occasionally, I'm reminded that the 350Z is a pretty nice looking car.

I’m visiting my parents this weekend, and my dad and I got to talking about old firearms. He brought up his old black powder revolver, which has been languishing in the back of a closet for at least 30+ years and which I’ve never actually seen. He dug it out last night and we spent some time looking at it.

Best I can tell it’s a High Standard Bicentennial. Its basically a replica of a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. My dad bought it out of the back of a magazine when he was 16 or so. He fired it quite a bit until he was tired of reloading it. It sat ever since.

It’s in pretty poor shape at this point, and is probably not anything that either of us would ever wish to fire at this point. However, it’s an interesting curiosity, and something that seems appropriate to share today.

Happy 4th everyone!

@highlander Needs cropped more to be convincing:

@dr-zoidberg Was the driver wearing shoes?

Hummbug, I say!

AKA EXA. Spotted at work - apparently one of my coworkers has good taste.

Also, best tailights of the '80s

@mm54 I misread that at first...

@pip-bip Ouija board or seance, perhaps?

@aremmes I’m usually not a soda drinker, but I’ve been buying the occasional Reading Draft here and there. Usually Black Cherry or Grape Smoothie (when I can find it).

@roadkilled apparently, yes. And he can keep it.

@classicdatsundebate their other, actual normal flavors are good. This one, not as much... it’s not bad, but I can’t say it’s great, either.

@urambo-tauro “bring a bucket and a shovel...”

Blueberry Birch soda... who comes up with this stuff?

“If the building has been leveled by an explosion, alert your supervisor and contact HR”

@bloody-the-resident-shitposting-saffer

Glad you guys managed to stay pretty unscathed throughout the event. I’ve been watching the coverage with interest as a Lehigh Valley native who still visits frequently. Some areas of Eastern PA and NJ were walloped pretty good! The Faulkner GMC and Volvo dealers caught me off guard.

The area certainly isn’t immune to tornadoes. There have been a few notable ones over the years.

@way2blu the 3.0L twin-turbo V6 in the TLX Type-S with the boost turned up could be interesting, too.