http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAYTAG-HOT-ROD-Gas-Engine-72-TWIN-Hit-Miss-Ice-Cream-Machine-RESTORED-w-SPARK-/151042297849?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232ad28ff9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-1929-MAYTAG-RESTORED-LONG-FRAME-GAS-ENGINE-HIT-AND-MISS-WRINGER-WASHER-/171075708576?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d4e826a0

Drool!! Too bad I have shelved the Maytag project for a while. I think I bit off more than I can chew for the time being.

What do people mean by "hit and miss?"    I see quite a few wrenches listed on eBay as "hit and miss."

The speed of the old dual flywheel engines is governed by a centrifugal governor. The ignition will fire once and speed up the engine so that the governor will hold the exhaust valve open for a few revolutions until the engine slows.  The governor will then allow the valve to close, the engine will fire again, speed up and the cycle will repeat. This usually happens when thee engine is running without a load. The sound is very distinctive. HIT, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, HIT, miss, miss and so on. If the engine is put under a load, the RPM will stay low enough that the engine will fire on every other stroke like any 4 cycle.

I love the sound of those things. Do people ever use them for anything other than icecream now?

They haven't been used for much of anything for a long while. They are horribly inefficient, while the governor stops the spark, or exhaust so they work less unloaded, they still slurp up gas like a pig slowing down and speeding up all the time....

Some Asian autos have ignition cutouts for engine overspeed tho, I kinda chuckle when I hear some idiot racing his car down the street and the engine cuts in and out....