A couple of guys in our local Model T club went in together and purchased a KR Wilson Pan straitening fixture. This morning I took my pan down to the shop.
I had a feeling it would be a little bent. In order to get the vertical pan bolts out of the frame I had to punch them out with a drift punch. Well I was amazed with a minimal amount of heat and a couple a of whacks on the pan arms how easy things came into alignment. The most amazing adjustment though was how easy the 4th main was to bring into the correct position. The bronze casting was slightly pushed down with a swift blow with a dead blow hammer it squished in to symmetry.
I guess the purpose of this post is just to express the amazement that these oil pans stay as straight as they do.
BTW this was a 4 dip pan on a 1926-7 engine and hogshead combination
Mike
straightening*
Fixed
I suspect 26/27 pans generally have less misalignment problems since the hogshead is connected to to the engine with two bolts, holding everything much better aligned even through minor parking mishaps that could have caused misalignment in earlier pans.
With prints that friends got from the Ford Archives of the 09-10, and the latter pan I made my K R Wilson pan straightening fixture useable for all T pans. Having a tool and die background and the proper tools to lay it out was a fun project. Drilled holes for the narrower 09-10 transmission cover dowel pins as needed,and narrowed it a little at a 6 degree angle in the area of the crank case arms. The block area is the same as the latter T's. Just need a milling machine to drill and narrow it. Depending what pan you are doing,the dowel pins are put in the proper positions in the transmission cover area.