87 Year Old Briggs and Stratton- Will It Run?

What's going on guys, Jeff, here with the Motor Mindset channel? We're in the storage unit here and we're going to see if we can find a project for this weekend and see what we can find. No, no, not feeling that, not feeling air. Refrigerated Volkswagen What do we have here? How about we go take it out? I'll give you a better view. This is what we are going to work on today. This is a Briggs and Stratton model. I'm not sure. What

year

is? I haven't looked up the serial number yet. I think it's about 30. I guess it looks like it was set up to run a washing machine or a lawnmower.

Maybe it has a jack shaft. It's that cool. little idle also this is a good start, which is great, it's all locked up there. I bought it at a swap meet last

year

, paid $20 for it and thought it looked like it would be a fun little project, so here we go. bring it home and let's get into it safety first the bad boy ain't going anywhere it's okay we have the engine in the shop on the bench don't worry my lights are installed here it never hurts to have a little extra light. Look up. the serial number and it looks like this engine was manufactured in December 1935 if I figured it out correctly, that makes it 87 years old at the time of filming here and like I said before, it looks like it's all complete, it even has the tank. which is cool, I don't know if it's good or I'm sure it's probably all rusty on the bottom, but it's nice that it has a tiny little copper fuel line, a couple of loops that go around this weird little fuel line. mixer, it

will

be interesting to look into, it looks like it might be I don't really know if there is a governor or something and it doesn't look like it is throttle governed, it looks like it is a fixed throttle type setup which would make sense for a washing machine application something like that and this seems a bit strangling.

Everything is blocked. The kickstarter is locked. I think the engine is blocked. I'm pretty sure that's how it was when I bought it. Oh yeah. I don't know if you guys can see there we go, I guess it's not blocked, um, well, let's take out that old automatic light plug, let's try to put some oil in the cylinder, that's going to be a little tricky because being a flat head. We've got our valves right next to it here, the spark plug is practically on top of the intake valve, which is a little strange, and then our combustion chambers up here, a very low compression, low horsepower engine, so let's try to get this .

Plug it in here and put some oil in there and crank this engine up a little bit. Let's get some penetrating oil. Hopefully we don't need that. That's what we're looking for. A small wire brush. Maybe try cleaning up the threads around it. that spark plug a little bit should work, I think we're going to try tilting it to the side so we can point the plug up, maybe that way we can get some oil to start soaking in a little bit. around those threads I have to find a way to hold them. I have a feeling we're going to use the propane torch quite a bit on this project just to persuade some things I didn't have. a plug sure to fit.

I have a 22 millimeter wrench that fits perfectly. I don't have many standard tools, honestly, most of my vehicles I guess are metric, but it

will

do. okay, I've been warming it up a little bit just trying to free it up, make it a little easier. I haven't had much luck so far, you don't want to force it, just keep working back and forth eventually. It will come loose, you just have to be patient, so I'll put a little more heat on it and then keep doing it and eventually it will come loose. Another thing the seat will do is let all that penetrating oil start to work. it works its way into the threads and hopefully frees some things up.

I have the map gas running here only because I didn't think the propane was doing much of a job. The problem is that this is all cast iron and cast iron really loves to soak. It increases heat, so it's hard to heat it really well with a propane torch. Map gas burns a little bit hotter than propane, so I've been working here for about five minutes, let's give it another shot here to see if we can free it up, no. nothing yet, let's give it an oil injection to see if that works up to there, stay tuned, what do you say?

We try to work on the kickstarter a little bit, let the spark plug soak, hopefully we'll get some of that oil in there. Persistence pays off. It just takes a few heat cycles and a little bit of oil to get that plug out of there, we didn't break it, that's great, it's going to be too hot to handle it here so I'm going to lift it up with the wrench and then maybe grab it. with the cool jaws, it's also a neat old plug, it's probably period correct, d7 auto light, it looks like b7, I don't know, let's see if we can grab it with our jaws here, its little baby jaws, oh come on, how much thread does?

There you have it, come on, I don't know if you guys can see it looks like we have some rust on the inside, which I guess isn't surprising, there we go, interesting combustion chamber, weird configuration, well, let's put some oil in there . and let's move on, okay, we've got some oil sprayed on the head. I think we're going to tilt the engine back. How do we like that oil that's been dripping? That seems fine to me. Put it back in, okay, oh, we're losing oil. No exhaust valve should be open. All that oil just leaked out of there.

I guess maybe we'll keep it at a little angle. Here the piston must be completely. that sounds good there must be something inside the fan shroud no all things considered it really feels like it's pretty smooth oh yeah I have high hopes for this one I think it'll be a runner I'd say let's keep working on this on this kickstarter to see if we can free that shaft and after that we can try to see, I don't know if we need to take the kickstarter shaft out to remove the fan shroud, it looks like we will have to do that.

Yeah, I guess it's not a big deal, we're just going to look like it's just two cotter pins and a couple of washers, that'll be good anyway. I'm thinking we can probably get it out from the back. here, yeah, okay, so let's take out these two cotter pins. I don't know if you guys can see it or not, take these two out and then get a punch and a hammer and maybe we can take them out once I get this cotter pin. wrench, I think I'll be able to drive this whole shaft down. Hopefully, I think it might be wiggling back and forth a little bit, but I've been heating it up, I've been soaking it and I haven't been getting great results, okay, just see if we can lift this washer.

I don't know if there's actually any oil in there, it looks like it, so in theory I should be able to start lowering it. Let's see, I've got a sludge here, I've got a little drift type deal, give it a couple of taps, I don't want to break anything, this is all cast iron, obviously, and cast iron is strong but brittle, so let's give it a couple of taps to see if Nothing will happen yet, I think I'll have to keep warming it up and just like the spark plug I just have to be patient so let's give it a try, it certainly doesn't seem like it wants to move.

I took that and I don't do it. Do you know what that was? I took a dental pick and scraped around the edge. There appear to be brass bushings on both of these castings, which is pretty cool. I guess I'll keep warming it up and maybe tilt it upright and give it a try. work it a little more with the kickstarter, the other thing I thought about, I don't think that's the case, but it's possible that maybe just the pedal rotates at the end of the axle and the axle is stationary, I don't think that Makes a lot of sense because there is no bolt or anything holding the end of the shaft.

I think it's pinned somewhere or maybe pressed. Just a thought that crossed my mind. I don't think that's the case. I think this whole shaft rotates when you kick it and these brass bushings support my theory, so I think I'm going to tilt it up and maybe work on it a little bit and see if we can get it to move a little bit, we're getting there a little bit. a little bit of movement that we didn't have before oh yeah, we're getting some. I couldn't get that cotter pin out, it's just in a bad place and since I can't turn the shaft, it's hard to get a grip on it in a vise. or anything, so what I'm doing is just warming it up and hoping for the best.

I'm going to try soaking it again. I think if I can get that shaft out, I can turn it and then I can get it. Pin it in place and then pull it the rest of the way, but as it stands now I think this is the only option I have because I really don't want to try to have to go in there with a drill bit and drill the thing through. so I'm going to keep warming it up and see what happens, okay it's definitely moving hmm I'm going to see if I can get that cotter pin out now, even if I break it, sometimes I found that if I get a little hit I can hit it. each side so I guess I don't have much to lose here, we'll see how it moves, maybe I can even if I flatten this side out, maybe I can just hit it all the way in without worrying too much about damaging it.

As long as I can get it out so I can get that shaft out, I think what's happening is that I'm not getting enough oil through these washers, so I think it's still stuck on that side because I can see the entire shaft. flex it turns a little when I put weight on it, it was moving more than it was, but I want to be able to slide those washers away from that boss so I can get some good oil in there, yeah, I don't think so. that's all the moving pin, I think it's just the head, let me give it a little tap, I'll see if I can get through it, I wish this exhaust pipe wasn't in the way, but I'm sure the odds of the fact that I can turn that's pretty thin, let's see how to get to it from this side, it's not much better, something is moving around me, see if I can reach it from below, maybe we can move it from that side and free it, it's like that.

It's a bad angle, maybe I can hit him with a punch from below. I think I'll just put the grips on and keep working. That's the theme of this whole project. I guess he's still working. Know? I'm going to see if I can find a pipe wrench and try to get it out that's right in the way. Take a big bite. A good pipe wrench always helps. Most of the ones I have are very worn out. teeth, they're all dull, they don't really grip, yeah, I don't know about this, I've got a good place to put my hand, I've got a pipe on that, ah, my jack handle's not big enough, okay, yeah, I know.

I don't know if this will work out, it would be good, although yes, I'm putting all my weight into it, that it doesn't move, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. I just want to see if I can pull it off and make things a little easier, but let's go back to see if we can move this cotter pin, yeah, that's about to break, here we go, maybe now that means I can drill it, let's see, I don't think that that is moving. I also don't know if I have a smaller bump, yeah nothing, well maybe now I can grab it from the other side.

It would be nice if we could take a big bite out of it and just pick it up, but that's so locked in there. We may have had some movement, maybe it's hard to tell, tilt it up to see if I can have a better chance, just make that thing turn into a mushroom, that's no use, compromised, now I guess the blow should, yes, should pass by there. the big guy that didn't help ah that exhaust is right in the shape I'm going to see if I can try to remove that exhaust elbow on the head there's a locking collar there maybe once I can get it loose then I can turn that elbow and I can get a direct shot.

I have that key. I ended up breaking the other side. Worst case scenario, I can go in there with a small file and file it down so I can at least get past those washers. and then once I get it out, maybe I can put it in the drill press or maybe I can get a straighter shot, put it in the vise or something, but I'm going to try to get this elbow out, I think it has to go out. Regardless, just so we can get to those valves, I'm guessing we have at least one stuck valve, this thing has no compression, even by Flathead Briggs and Stratton standards, so let's see if we can free this collar, look we're at it.

I'm not out of the woods yet, but the fact that it broke free is a promising thing - get some oil in there and keep working. I guess now let's try putting a socket wrench on that slightly tricky fixture. I was trying to remove this leak. The whole engine is moving, I don't really have any way to hold it very well, so I'm working with what I have here, so I'll see if this elbow will come loose, it would be great if it does. but I think we're going to have to heat it up like everything else, take a good bite out of it, who knows how many heat cycles this thing has been through to really cement it in there.

I wish I had a pair of good clamps. To really hold this down, I can always put it in the vise, but I don't know, we'll see it's hard to tell, I almost felt like it might have been moving there, come on, let's just drop it down there a little bit. Against my better judgment, I did thatlet's have to hook up our fuel system here, um, I don't know if it's still going to run on that and we're getting a little pop, maybe we'll try to spray it while we're turning it, so we'll be there. Come on, she's a racer, let's turn this mixer off, blow out our fuel line here, flush the tank and then we'll see if we can get her to run on her own fuel system, I don't know if I'm going to pull. this mixer off, I mean realistically there's nothing in there that can really get dirty, there's no float, there's no needle or seat, we just have this plunger that goes to the governor and we have our mixture screw down, so which there isn't There's a lot to clean up, but I'm going to take you to the air compressor, blow this out, run some carb cleaner through it and then we'll try to empty our tank.

What do you think we have the tank? we have the fuel line connected we have a fresh gas center we already know it is a runner do we think it will run on its own fuel system? I think it will have our ignition choke. I will give him. a little spray here let's do about a half choke it's a little smoky remember we put the atf and acetone in the hole there so it's probably just the excess oil burning off we have a mixture adjustment on the bottom of the mixer here. Might as well open it up a little bit, looks like we're starving for fuel, just a little bit of a choke, let's give it a little more, so let's try a cold start.

It's been sitting for about 24 hours, so pretty good, I think there's that. Finally guys let me know if you liked it, make sure you like it and subscribe, let me know if you want to see more stuff like this in the future, thanks for watching.