I had the pleasure of meeting the vice president of the st louis model t club today. He took a look at my 27 coupe, was planning to set my coils, I am having trouble starting it. I dont know who this ron patterson is but steve thumb is the man to see if you want any coil work done. He done a fine job adjusting my coils, while I watched and he explained. But it was not my day, steve diagnoised my t, and he came up with a bad rear end. so the saga continues. if steve sees this, thanks alot steve. later from poor ol mike dixon
There are quite a few people out there that are rebuilding and adjusting T coils. Some people are doing it correctly with good results. Some people are doing it incorrectly with variable results. In my opinion, most of the people that are restoring and adjusting coils "correctly" can not deny that they are utilizing some bits of knowledge that have been shared by Mr. Patterson over the years.
The rear end problem is very common and no surprise. I expect Steven Thum told you all about it, but here's an introductory page on the subject:
http://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG79.html.
my car is very hard to start, it is much better after steve worked on it though, it doesnt turn over fast enough to start, steve found that the rear end is dragging after he jacked up the rear wheel and turned it by hand. sooooooooo
Mike's car has hard clutch dragging when cold problem, so I jacked up one wheel and found that the rear axle is locked up side to side. Since I have never heard of a posi-trac Model T rear axle I am assuming that the axle has a problem. It will be interesting to open this axle up and see what the problem is.
As for the coils, somebody had rebuilt the coils with new capacitors and new points but did not adjust the points, so they were sparking in every way put correctly. Since I use a stobo spark I could determine that the new capacitors are probably the correct ones.
Thanks Mike for the endorsement.
Steven
Something to look forward to: When you have it in good condition it will start easily by hand, with one pull of the crank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCWnmPrxKo0&list=UUFVx528ORtpDgCPJXbFCA6w&index=3 9&feature=plcp
Steve,
" I have never heard of a posi-trac Model T rear axle..."
They do/did exist. I almost bought one in Hershey a few years back, until I asked myself, just what was I going to do with it. I believe Les Schubert is looking into reproducing some.