Maytag - the South African Connection !!
(10th August 2007)

Maytag Model 92. Hit 'n Miss, two stroke, vintage washing machine engine.
Serial number 720382 manufactured in June 1936

This Maytag engine was donated to the SEL Charity Auction in December 2006 by Dave Rotigel and I was lucky enough to place the winning bid.

It took a while for me to get all the necessary paperwork done on this side and Dave finally posted the engine to me on 11th April 2007.

    The package reached me on the 19th June 2007.  ( Not through any fault of the seller had it taken so long - I had to apply for an import permit on this side and other considerations meant that I had only given him the O.K. to ship in April - also by "Economy Surface Mail" - Hell, I think it went via the North Pole and then some).

Of course this was a very exciting time for me - I got a Maytag, maybe the only one in South Africa. My first call was to my friend Justin Ludewig (he understands these things) and he came over and helped me unpack the little beast and assemble it.
Dave had dismantled a few bits & pieces to get it to fit into the box, it was all well packed and the only thing missing was the Axe - I'd always thought Maytag's came complete with this "final solution" tool :-)
 With Justins help it was running within 2 hours.

The engine was in surprisingly good condition and the only part that needed some attention was the big end bearing. A previous owner had attempted to file the caps down but had done a bad job and they were misaligned. Justin sorted this out in no time and scraped the bearing to get a proper fit. It's as good as new now. The carby had a broken lip where the airfilter fits and I fixed this.

    I stripped it down a few days later and started cleaning and painting. Maytags produced in 1937 were green so that is what I used. It may not be the correct shade of green but was some paint I had in stock so I decided to use it - I'm happy withn the result. It has taken some time to get it all done but the engine spluttered into life again last night (9th August 2007).

It needs a muffler and I think I'll fit the missing cutout mechanism. There is a letter on the way to Maytag Mark Shulaw as I write this. I've made my own decals and they will go on as soon as I've sorted out any teething problems. I then have to make skids for it which will also probably happen this weekend.

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Maytag 92 running within 2 hours of arrival.	Smoke - It runs again after restoration.	It's running - the camera flash freezes the motion.
That smile says it all.	Adolf & Jacqui helped get the Maytag running again.	More Maytag smoke.
Thanks to Dave Rotigel - another running maytag.

New skids for the Maytag.	Temporary homemade muffler for my Maytag	Another view of 'lil Jim on his new skids
View of the top decal (homemade)	The warning decal (also homemade).	Decal & Serial No.
" 'lil Jim"	A drawing & explanation of the muffler I made. (1200 x 1055 pixels - 97 Kbytes)	View from the Carb side.

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