MULTIMOTOR

     The Multimotor was an attempt to adapt the already well accepted Farm Pump Engine to more general belt work. A slightly modified upper crankcase case was mated to a new lower base with two wide arched legs. The lower gear shaft was made longer and the crankshaft was extended for mounting pulleys. All other parts were carried over from the Farm Pump Engine and like them the new Multimotors were available in both air and water cooled versions. A 2 wheel hand truck, recycled from the earlier 1 1/4hp People's Priced engine, was optional as were several sizes of flat and round belt pulleys. A belt tensioner was included with mounting options for either side of the engine. Unlike other engine series the Multimotors featured a serial number with a Z prefix, the brass name tag being riveted to the crankcase above the outboard main bearing. As changes were made to Farm Pump Engines they were carried over to the Multimotor. Several surviving engines sport a mix of plain flywheels and others have the raised letter flywheels. Also some engines had a main crankshaft pulley with 4 spokes and were keyed to the shaft, others had a solid cast pulley and were affixed with a simple set screw. They were painted the same as the Farm Pump Engines too. The Multimotor was aggressively advertised by Fuller & Johnson but were not a success. The base was rather narrow and unstable on anything but solid flat ground. The engine also failed to achieve its rated 1 1/2hp as it lacked the final bevel gear reduction of the Farm Pump Engines. It was said many of these engines were returned to the factory. The name MULTIMOTOR was trademarked by Fuller & Johnson on March 2nd, 1911 and they claimed the name was in use since January 20th, 1911. General advertising came soon after with the earliest ad to date being May of 1911. It seems the Multimotor was produced and sold until mid 1917, it is unknown how many were actually built during that time. Given these engines are scarce today it is likely only a few hundred were ever made.