I've recharged the magnets on many T's in the car. I have had no problems yet doing this. Has anyone here had a bad experience doing this?
I and a bud did mine...no problems yet.
Neighbor and I completed the task this past weekend. Spent about an hour total and it was a success. Back on mag and running fine.
I have done 3 and had good results.
I've done several and never had any problems.
Let me add that in my limited experience an in car recharge will bring back about 85 to 90% of the mag. On one of my cars I individually charged the magnets and set it up by the book and that car has the best output of any mag I have ever had. I can put a jumper wire from the mag post to the mag horn and it will growl if you give it the slightest pull of the crank. Just my .02
I haven't done this chore yet, so I have no personal experience beyond reading about it. But here's what I read from Murray Fahnestock:
Since tests of the ford Motor company showed that trying to recharge the magnets in the car resulted in less than 60% of the magnetizm [sic] as compared with recharging the magnets out of the car, this method is not recommended.
The magnets cannot be fully recharged in the car because the flywheel is of soft, cast iron and so much magnetism leaks off through it rather than passing through the hard steel magnets mounted on it.
I take this to mean that charging magnets in the car may improve magneto function, but charging them out of the car will improve it better.
Ford's preferred method of charging the magnets is to remove the transmission and charge each magnet. That's a hell of a lot of work.
Steve,
I have no way to measure my in the car magnet recharges. I will bow to Murray Fahnestock's numbers. Every car that I have tried an in car recharge has had dramatic improvements in mag output. I will add that I use a DC welder as my power supply.
The October 1926 Ford service bulletin has eight pages that go into great detail on how to charge the magnets inside the car. Ford also sold the equipment to the Dealers in order to do it. This appears to be the expected way for the dealers in 1926.