Thread: Grandkids Coaster Car build.

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It just tickles me to death that Cade enjoys working with his hands and learning about this stuff.

“…..Betcha Cade is already wondering how to make that engine have more power!!!!....”

Dave, if he’s anything like me that’s a real possibility. I still remember the first old engine I got running by myself (I was just a couple years older than Cade at the time). It was an old flat head Briggs & Straton washing machine motor with a kick start that had been laying down in the old machine shed for years. It was so neat to just get it running. Of course after it was running I found out that if I disconnected the governor I could get it to really spin up. It actually survived that pretty well……it was when I started mixing my own fuel that I managed to blow the head right off of it……yup, just a ring of head bolts holding a few pieces of cast iron were left on the block.


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Originally Posted by Mike P

It just tickles me to death that Cade enjoys working with his hands and learning about this stuff.

“…..Betcha Cade is already wondering how to make that engine have more power!!!!....”
Dave, if he’s anything like me that’s a real possibility. I still remember the first old engine I got running by myself (I was just a couple years older than Cade at the time). It was an old flat head Briggs & Straton washing machine motor with a kick start that had been laying down in the old machine shed for years. It was so neat to just get it running. Of course after it was running I found out that if I disconnected the governor I could get it to really spin up. It actually survived that pretty well……it was when I started mixing my own fuel that I managed to blow the head right off of it……yup, just a ring of head bolts holding a few pieces of cast iron were left on the block.

I had one of those old kick start motors off of a Maytag washer on a crude "go-cart" that my Dad made when I was about ten or eleven. All of 1/4HP as I recall, and driving through a jack-shaft it had a top speed of around twelve to fifteen MPH! Used to pull into the Phillips station and "..fill'er up" for a nickle or a dime when there wasn't gas left in the lawnmower can at home....

Love the pictures, Mike. Kids learning how to make things happen is a great part of growing up!