1937 Briggs & Stratton WM

[Mike in NC]

Here is an update pic of our Briggs WM. Hope you like it. It is about all together.

[Kevin O. Pulver]

It's a beauty. The old plug and wire are nice details in addition to the decal. Kevin

[Elden DuRand]

When I was a kid in the early '50's, my Dad and I built a "buckboard" car out of a piece of 1" plywood and junk laying around the place. It was powered by one of those little Briggs "washing machine" engines that was found in a junk pile.

I still carry the 4" scar on my left calf where the broken-off kick starter pedal cut to the bone one day. The next day (while the stiches were healing), Dad bought a rope pulley and the kick starter was history.

That was one tough little engine! The governor vane was broken off so we just wired the throttle wide open and ran it that way all the time. With the clutch disengaged, I'd "tune" the needle valve for maximum RPM and can still remember the way the cooling fan sang.

We must have run that thing 5 or 6 hours a day every day during the three summers we used it.

Aside from changing the oil a couple of times a summer and rings, a valve grind and a rod cap filing every winter, the little engine ran 'til we retired it after about three years of use. It still ran fine when I swapped it for something or other.

Ain't it Grand!

Elden

[R Pope]

I hot-rodded a little Briggs like that in the early '60's. Bigger valves, draw-filed the head, and used the cooling fan for a blower feeding a float-type carburetor. Even reground the cam! That little screamer would spin a new 4-hp Briggs over backwards, belt pulley to pulley! Built a scooter for it, but blew the rod out the side before it was finished.

[GarysToys]

Those were the day when dad said " if gas goes above 25 cents a gal. , we're leaving the car in the garage and walking everywhere."