old motors

Any of you guys been checking out those old garages and sheds that are way back in yard behind some of these houses in wisc. and minn? I if had about a months wages to just check around and knock on doors theres plenty of old motors that are still in those sheds. I dug one up out of the dirt on the floor of a barn covered with hay., It was a sears water whitch made in the early 40’s, the motor only needed a coil and i couldn’t buy one so i got some 6 thousanths wire and , yes, i rewound one that worked. Nice blue spark. Put it in a water barrel and it pumped water. Theres lots of old evies, johnsons and mercs still around plus alot of the brands made in wisc, minn, and michigan. I talked to a guy last night that had a motor from his great grandfather and i asked him what it looked like. He said it had a single handle on the flywheel. I asked was there a name on it and he said not that he remembered but the flywheel was solid brass, i then expressed loud enough , you want to sell it, he said no! what a disapointment, This old motor had a red mahogany handle on it. Get it spinning as fast as you could, advance the stator and hope it ran after you got your hand out of the way of the handle so it wouldn’t break any knuckles. It had an updraft carburator and attached tank. The luck of some guys, gheese! I’ve got a 37 johnson that runs and still has the origional starter rope thats a 3 horse, opposed cylinders and both plugs fire at the same time. And its in good shape and still has the 15/16″ origional champion sparkplugs, im looking! It may look broken down and not worth picking up but you’d be surprised.