Shame about the Maytag - but nice you found a Thor...
Duncan, if you lived closer, I'd sell you one of my wringer washers! I'm "overflowing" with 5 currently in my collection! And that's in an apartment! Can you imagine if I had a house - I'd start a wringer washer restoration business!
Best of success in rejuvenating the Thor. My mother and grandmother both had Thor machines from the late '30s. I've attached a couple of pics in case you'd like to see some older models. From what I know, they were very reliable machines. As you can see in the photos, the wringer assembly had two options for tension control - a screw or an automatic tension set/on-off lever (the type my mom had).