flywheel removal

Things are a little rough out in my shop right now. I am working on an old washing machine engine and it is just not cooperating. It's a Maytag Multimotor built in 1947. It's a two-cycle, two cylinder, horizonally opposed, air cooled engine that puts out a whopping 5/8 of a horsepower. It also puts out a lot of smoke, as the fuel/oil mix is 16:1. Well, let's just say that it will smoke if I can ever get it running. The problem is that I have to remove the flywheel so that I can tune up the ignition. But flywheels don't come off easily. The directions say to remove the pully and replace the hex nut snuggly against the end of the crankshaft. Then it says to put a piece of wood on the nut and sock it with a hammer to loosen the flywheel. It sounds simple, but it won't work. I have soaked it in penetrating oil for a week and every few days I go out there and whack it with a hammer. It must be welded on. On the otherhand, maybe it hasn't been off for 58 years, or whenever it was last used to do laundry.

A lot of these old Maytag gasoline engines are lying around in barns and sheds. People used to buy a gas-powered washing machine because their house didn't have electricity. But then electricity became available and they converted the washing machine to an electric motor. That was better, because electric motors are no trouble to start, they are quiet, and they don't fill the room with smelly blue smoke. So a lot of these old engines don't have a lot of time on them.

It's true that some of them were put to work powering pumps and stuff, but most were simply tossed back in the barn and left there forever. That's good for people who collect stuff like that.

Did I just say that I collect Maytag engines? Well, I have two of them and neither one runs, but I guess you could call that a collection. The other one is a 1932 model with one cylinder and it puts out 3/4 of a horsepower. It's about twice the size of the one I'm working on. And the flywheel won't come off that one either.
Howard