Orientation or Identifying the front or on side of an engine

Most of the larger and less desirable engines, such as your M have an excess of flywheels, one, to be exact. If you walk to the end of the engine where the flywheels are located (assuming your cylinder is horizontal, we'll get to the vertical engines in a minute), you will see there is a left and right side. Walk around to the left, and, take a seat in the chair you have already placed there.

Notice that this places the flywheel close to your right hand, and the head of the engine and all the various ignition and other devices are mostly in reach of your left hand. While you are sitting there and observing all these points, consider that if you were sitting on the other side of the engine, you wouldn't be able to see many if any of these things. That is why the other side is called the "OFF" side. That is pretty much it on nomenclature of which side of the engine you are on. There is the OFF side, and, the other side.

Now, to the vertical engines. Many of these, but not all, have the excess of flywheels. Some, such as the Maytag, and one really nice Lister D that I have, have only the necessary one flywheel. Never trust engineers who build in excess parts. They are only trying to sell you more than you need, and maybe they even have a special relationship with the shipping companies. Anyway, back to the vertical engines. Find one that you can walk around. Carry your chair. Make several trips, walking slowly and looking for such things as carbs, and mags, and some of those other exotic things such as cranks or places to stick a crank (I know, some of you have special places to stick cranks, but we aren't going there tonight.). When you find the side that, if you parked in your chair you could reach more of the knobs, valves, and other such stuff, you have found the front of the engine.

I hope this has been instructional and, even helpful. Your problem of keeping track of where things are coming off your engine does remind me of the first time I pulled apart the brakes on a Renault Dauphine. I used my 35 mm camera and took pictures as I tore it down. Then I developed the film, printed the pictures, numbered them, and used them to see the sequence of reassembly. Do you have a camera?

Finally, I know there are Maytag Engines in Washington State as I have two in my collection I found there. I'll bet there are more. Why not try to find one of them and you won't need to worry so much about keeping track of all those parts.

Regards,
Ron Carroll
Clearmont, Missouri USA

PS: My M has the excess flywheel, and it is only a 1 1/2 HP. Why would such a small engine need two flywheels?