LOL yah more memories. I was not part of the duck and cover generation I guess, although I am not too much younger that Larry. But, I too liked to take apart small engines. My dad gave me one when I was a wee kid, maybe 5 or 6 and I pulled and pryed it apart piece by piece. I didn't fully understand the concept of screwdrivers and wrenches at the time, but I did find that one way or another, they could help me get parts off. Anyway, when I was done, I had one part that really intriuged me. The magnet off of the magneto. At that time, it was a really powerful magnet and I kept that for years. I remember using it to pick up BB's when I spilled them all over the floor. I never got them all, but it helped immensely. I learned quick that when saturday came around, I needed to wake up early and get the he11 out of the house before my mom came through with the vacuum. Every time she picked up a BB in the vacuum, there was hell to pay.
Anyway, when I got older, my Dad had a mower that died. It sat for a couple years until I took a small engine class in HS. for my term project, I rebuilt that motor. It was a complete rebuild. It was taken apart to the smallest piece. Honing out the cylinders, replacing rings, rebuilding the carb, checking crank bearing, etc.... Anyway, I got it all put back together finally and put it on the bench and pulled the starter cord and I will be damned if it didn't fire right off and run like a top. That motor was dead and probably 15 years old when i rebuilt it. The mower was long gone, so it just sat at home on a shelf in the garage for year or so. It had a horizontal PTO for self propelled wheels. My buddy had a movers dolly he had made in a shop class and we took the motor and mounted it to the dolly laid it horizontal and put bike wheels on the other end of it. Then we mounted the lawn mower motor to it and hooked a chain to the PTO and one of the bike wheel sprockets. We could sit on the dolly, get it rolling, engage the PTO and actually ride the damn thing. There was no steering, but it went about 10 mph straight ahead......I don't remember what ever wound up happening with that motor.
Now what was the topic of this thread?