I attended an antique engine and tractor show in West Liberty, Ohio over the weekend. There was a lot of interest in the TT and I answered a thousand questions. There was one other T there, a 24 Tudor owned by John Hall of West Liberty. It is absolutely beautiful. One fella came up to me and said, "I have just what you need." I didn't know what to expect next. He took me over to his pick up truck and showed my this piece. I admit I got kind of excited. He said he had no use for it and thought it was used in the old Ford garage in Ada, Ohio. I got out my wallet and peeled out some cash and brought it home. It looks complete to me. The meter is in great shape. All the magnets will grad a steel ruler. It definitely needs a restoration. I would like to hear from some of you as to value, is this a good tester, how common, and what I should do with it.
Since I don't know what you paid for it I can't comment on that part, but if it was a deal between a willing seller and a willing buyer it must have been ok.
Anything like this can be restored. It depends on how far you want to go. There are some guys who have made their own testers from an old Model t magneto, and some parts could be available.
Ask him if he has another one for me.
They generally go for $700 or more. If you beat that, you got a deal.
Nice find. It's a Ford 18-Z-245 coil tester. Check if it has a serial number stamped in the base near the back. The early ones built by Ford have that. The later ones were jobbed out to a supplier. Ron Patterson can give you all the details.
This will give good service and they are really easy to restore. I have one that I'm restoring right now. When it's done, it will probably sit on the shelf in my office next to my Service Electric unit. I use an Allen Electric for rebuilding coils because I like the location of the coil box better than on the other two.
The 18-Z-245 is cast into the side of the base if it's an early Ford one. I think it's on the left side, but not positive.