I was at Chaffin's garage when I saw the magnet adjusting tool, then said no way to the price. But someone had made up a tool with the transmissin shaft.

I went home, found my broken crankshaft, grabbed a rod and mounted it to the crankshaft at the rear journal, then mounted that to the flywheel. Now I have a way of setting magnet heights using what looks like a good method without investing $150 in a tool I may never use again. Since I am awaiting another magnet recharging as the original will not pick up 2# - 3 days after charging, I have not tried out this idea other than looking at it. But I think it may work.

VRay
Your comment "the original will not pick up 2# - 3 days after charging" is interesting. I wonder why? cracked magnets maybe? Or?

I made mine the same way. I did mount a wrist pin that I ground some off at the grouve so it could slide up and down. I found my low spot clamped it there then moved the tool around and adjusted my magnet heights. I had not made sure the holding clamp plates were flat so caused a little problem there, but it came out, not bad.
MarkG

A couple pictures would be nice as I will be near this point in the comeing weeks and would rather not tie up 150 bucks in a tool that I wont use often.

magnet height gauge

The magnet that would not hold, I put in a vise and could not break it. After a dozen + heavy mechanical agitations (big words for hit it with a sledge hammer) it finally broke. Inspecting it with a jewelers loupe, it had fracture lines in it and had so for a long time. BTW, those magnets are not that brittle!

Picture eh. Let me see if I can take a few good pictures and post them. I have to go to Annapolis next week from the west coast, so it might take a couple of weeks to get them posted. Adding a wrist pin might be a good idea too. I actually used 2 rod caps to make the lower spacer and thought I would just mount my dial indicator, zero it on the low magnet and see how that works.

I will post again with how it works.

BTW, my new Texas T axles came in today. They look real nice!

they aren't that expensive if you get them from Bob Scherzer.

Where do we contact Bob Scherzer?

A word from my own experience in recharging magnets and setting magnet heights: IGNORE the Ford manual's instructions about "rapping" high magnets to equalize heights. When the aluminum spools were new, this may have been OK, but with age and heat on them, they are often brittle. In addition, rapping the newly charged magnets tends to un-do the charge. For these reasons, I always shim low spools rather than "rap" the high ones to get them all the same height. If you have the Wilso gauge, it's easy to find the height of the highest clamp and use feeler gauges to determine the thickness of the shims needed to raise the low one(s).

A good option is to make a set of new spools from aluminum or brass, and if a few need to be longer or shorter than the rest, you can make them that way and do away with shimming altogether.

The real advantage of the Wilson tool is that once the magnets are set up, the tool can be bolted to the crankshaft flange, the tip flipped over and a corresponding setup of the field coil can be made using shims to properly space the gap between field coil and magnets. This eliminates taking the flywheel off and putting it back on numerous times to set and check clearances.

Good idea about not rapping the magnets on the spools. I rapped them while charging to get them to take the charge better, and I make shims to bring the low ones up. All my magnet spools are brass. I did not know there were aluminum ones out there.

Phils posting is almost exactly what I had in mind.

And for $150 I will do it the hard way. As I think about it, Chaffin's or a supplier could rent out a tool for say $25 more than the selling price and you get the price (aka deposit) back upon return. I know that I would do that knowing that the Wilson Tool could be turned.

R.V. you are right, rapping on the magnets will reduce the magnetic charge. However, whether you rap on a magnet pole piece to adjust the height or use shims, this should be done prior to charging the magnets. A light rapping on the magnet arms during the charging process will help align the molicules and give you a better charge.

The idea of renting a readily available tool is fine but we never rent or loan an original tool. Some original Ford, Wilson or Stevens tools are invaluable and cannot be replaced.

Warren and I know the value of a good tool. When I rebuilt my first Model T flywheel, I built my own tool and used it for a few tranny rebuilds. Then, I saw the one of the Wilson tools reproduced by Bob Scherzer. When properly adjusted, it allows you to set the magnets then shim the mag ring. This means that you only have to mount and dismount the transmission once to double check your work before final assembly. If you're really bold, you can go ahead and wire the mag ring bolts first, then you won't even have to remove the transmission after double checking your gap. I have no regrets about selling my home made tool on Ebay and upgrading to the proper tool. The price difference between my tool's selling price and the Wilson tool was minimal.

Glen, my magnet charger continually "raps" the magnet poles automatically during the charging process. I prefer to mount the charged magnets on the flywheel and leave them there while aligning because of the variations in magnet thickness, especially of the later type, which of course affects the heights of the clamps. I could do the R & R thing if I was careful to mark everything as to where it goes, but I'm too lazy, so I put it all together and leave it there. I just have to raise the magnet screws to slip the shims in.

R.V., I'm more lazy than you. I always mount the magnets, then adjust height by the hammer method making sure that the spools are not damaged then charge the magnets in place. Your method is probably better but more time consuming. Ford must have used the the method I use or none at all as you never find shims under the spools.

Later on in the black era, Ford may indeed have charged the magnets in place but I have never seen any documentation on it. Everything I have shows them being charged one at a time. That doesn't mean that they never did it, just that I have no information on it. I do have a photo showing a full set of 16 magnets mounted in a special facing chuck and having their ends ground to ensure a uniform pole height. This was in 1912-13. At that time the spools were made of brass. Of course, later on, they were all aluminum and I guess it's possible that when the switched the material they also switched the method.

You are 100% correct that Ford never used shims here. The factory used the "rap and squash" system, as you do, which was probably fine when the aluminum spools were new, maybe even still warm from the casting dies. My experience has shown that nowadays those old spools are often very brittle and porous; instead of compressing under the hammer blows they just crumble. Others seem to be hardened by time, heat, and dirty oil, and they resist compression until the point at which they also just crumble.

R.V. is right on about the spools crumbling when "tapped", or as he says: the factory "rap and squash" system.
From my own experience I found that shimming the low ones is the easiest/best method to use.