Just purchased another Perfecto from a nice fellow from Tuscon. He brought it to Santa Cruz because he was picking up a car he recently purchased. I met him there today and brought it home. It looks like a good one. He removed it from running car. He said he tried it out and it worked fine. I checked the shifting action and it has a neutral. Not surprising because its a low serial number.
This will be my third. They are both fun and challenging to restore.
Warning: Newbie-speak ahead...
How is this different from a regular model T rear end?
Well Richard, you are now known as the Perfecto King!
Danial, it's two-speed. You can see the shifter just to the right of the pumpkin in the first picture.
So, two-speed as in a Ruxtell type of gear box?
Yes, Danial. The Perfecto was the for-runner of the Ruckstell. I believe many of the parts interchange. The two speed rear end is, I believe, one of the few accessories that Mr. Ford thought was helpful. You have an underdrive and a standard gearing. The underdrive low is great for parades and steep hills, while the underdrive high is between the standard low and high and is used on not-so-steep hills that would require the standard T to downshift to low on. I have a Ruckstell in my Touring, and another on the bench to go into my "Doctor's Coupe", (oops, another topic you shouldn't mention on the forum!)
Aside from some design differences Prefecto and Ruxtell are the same. Prefecto is the early version. That's the simple version there is a lot more information but as they say, buy the book if you want to learn more!
Interesting, thanks. I'd consider installing one. My T crawls up the steep hills at a snail's pace.
Just a few short words. The Perfecto is the forerunner of the Ruckstell. Although the same in concept, the only interchangeable part is the big ball bearing. I believe all those produced commercially were manufactured by Hall Scott, although they did acquire the rights from another. I believe the Perfecto was the first commercially available two speed axle.
They are a more complicated and better engineered unit in some respects but not as beefy nor as forgiving as a Ruckstell. New parts are not available so you need to do a fair bit of mechanical restoration. Alignment is critical.
They are a hoot to drive and shifting is smoother than a Ruckstell. If you are interested in the mechanical aspects and comparison to a Ruckstell, there was an article I wrote that appeared in the Model T Times about a year ago.
There aren't too many around. Fred Houston has one in a speedster that he adapted to Ruckstell innerds. Speedy Bill has one in his museum. A couple guys in Southern California and that's about all I know about. I buy all I find because I get a kick out of restoring them and bringing back to life an important piece of automotive history. Here's a couple photos of the first one I did.
Richard
Found this early Perfecto adv, think it is the first one, Oct 1920 Ford Owner.
Glen's book on Ruckstell says the first Perfecto ads appeared in Dec 1920 in Ford Owner.
Where do they get overdrive from????
I think Ruckstell made their own 40 tooth ring gears that fit together with their special 12 tooth pinions giving 3,33:1 in direct drive, which can be considered an overdrive compared to std Ford 3.64:1
Perhaps Perfecto had the 12-40 combo from start?
Larry
Appears you could get 3:1 gearing in the Perfecto, or this was as Roger posted, avail from the beginning for the 'overdrive' per this adv Feb 1921.
Dan, I have seen that ad before although it may have been dated later. What is interesting to me is that none of the ads show the variation in internal parts I have seen. The only difference I see in the ads is that some show no internal roller bearing on the Perfecto side and some do.
Hard to trace the evolution in terms of what came earlier.
After taking apart 5 Perfectos so far and seeing the areas of wear and warpage, etc, its pretty easy to see why certain features of the Ruckstell axle were adopted.
The two biggest problems with the Perfecto are 1. The narrow internal ring gear which engages only about 1/2 of the planetary gears, causing premature wear on the planetary gears due to the tremendous stress on only a portion of the gear teeth.
2. The fact that the thrust plates are too easily warped causing misalignment of the carrier. Can't figure out how that happens but, it does in about half the cases.
All that aside, the strongest feature is the capture of the shifting clutch both OD and ID resuling in a smooth direct engagement going into and out of Perfecto gearing.
I've run both Ruckstells and Perfectos and the Perfectos are more fun to drive.
Daniel,
The Tulsa Model T Ford Club has some great articles on hill climbing performance. Add more weight and that decreases hill climbing ability. Change rear axle ratio impacts hill climbing performance with a trade off better climbing but less top speed or better top speed and not as good at climbing. Increasing engine torque and horse power also has an impact on top speed and hill climbing. They used a Tudor for their test car. See:
Bill Gent's tips for a good hill climber
http://mtfctulsa.com/Tech/billslist.htm
Power, Torque and Model T Performance
http://mtfctulsa.com/Tech/power_and_torque.htm
Model T Accessory Heads
http://mtfctulsa.com/Tech/heads.htm
Fred Houston's 12 steps to a good running Model T for touring
http://mtfctulsa.com/Tech/fredslist.htm
One of those discusses that because the Ruckstell adds weight, that you can sometimes achieve the same hill climbing capability by changing the head and cam or some combination to give you some more “umph” to get up the hill.
There are a lot of other good articles on their site.
Respectfully submitted,
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