MTFCA Forum

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I keep posting but I'm pretty sure nobody ever tries it but oven drying the spokes prior to assembly makes them smaller in every dimension which solves the tight tenon and the clocking problem and produces the truest wheels I have ever assembled. They just have to be re-hydrated after assembly to sw...

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For one of my oil pump assemblies I fabricated a plate the size and shape of the carb outlet which was about 1/8" thick. It had a 1/8" o.d. tube silver soldered into the side of it over which a 1/8" i.d. vacuum tube would fit. Placed between the carb and the intake manifold it made a "no modificatio...

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He is the brother in law of the QC manager, Som Ting Wong.

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There are at least three different solenoid types, regardless of voltage, based on their internal wiring. They look almost identical and are easily confused. The first has the solenoid coil connected internally to the “battery” post and has a small stud for the trigger which will energize the coil w...

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It would still work but the drying and rewetting would take longer and the finish might not hold up to the heat. You
Could try one spoke as a test to check size and finish degradation.

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The most true running and the easiest to assemble wheels I have done were those that I preshrunk the spokes for prior to assembly. I heated the spokes in the oven for two or three hours at about 300 degrees drying the wood to near zero moisture content. The reduced dimensions allow the spokes to be ...

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Several months ago I made up about two dozen solenoid/cable/mounting bracket kits after I had installed some on my starter cars. I wanted to time study the manufacturing and establish material costs for the components based on multiple assemblies. I have "donated" a number of the kits to the common ...

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I am considering replacing the fenders etc. on my 1919 Roadster with new and hate to strip the mounting hardware from the existing parts since they are in pretty good shape (no rust) and could be used by others if unmolested. Is there a place where replacement mounting hardware can be purchased, new...

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The hcct in question was rebuilt and the meter was recallibrated by Bob Cascisa several years ago.

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Ron, I would no more argue the dynamics of coil rebuilding with you than sword fight with Zoro. Even though I have piddled with Model T's for thirty years or so, I still consider myself to be a rank amateur in most respects. I ruminated on your post through the night and awakened this morning with a...

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Mike, I'm firmly in your camp with regard to the benefit of the ECCT and the "time to fire" philosophy. It makes sense analytically and proves itself practically. I am still amazed at the varying results I get from the two HCCT's, the Strobospark, and your device. The proof comes when the coils are ...

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I have decided to make up ten kits just to get a firm number on material and labor. They would include the 2/0 cables, solenoid, mounting bracket, trigger wire, clamps and bolts to mount. That would be all that would be required to complete an installation that used the foot switch to energize the s...

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This car came with the aftermarket switch and the extension. The manufacturing tolerances on the switch aren’t good. It travels too far to make contact and when it does, the Chinesium contacts need to be wiggled just so to get enough current through it to satisfy the starter. Since I was experimenti...

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Oh, it’s been on the road for a while. Eric was concerned with function rather than beauty so it is as safe as possible but isn’t the most beautiful car on the road. The seat is split and the upholstery for the top is still in a box. The original paint was alligatored so I occasionally strip and pri...

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That is a Frankenstein-T that I purchased some years ago from a middle aged man who was confined to a wheelchair for several decades following a cancer situation. He and his wife traveled around the Eastern U.S. gathering parts where they could be found. He had the engine, transmission, starter, gen...

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I am contemplating making a kit. I think it can be sold for under a hundred dollars for solenoid, cables, mounting bracket, trigger wire, and clamps. Do you think it is worth pursuing?

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One from the side.

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I did the ‘19 yesterday. It took about half an hour to install. Here is a top view.

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Dan, I had the same problem when I got my speedster. I could downshift easily but the upshifts were difficult to the point that I thought I might damage something. Kevin Prus advised me to pack the plunger and spring hole with grease and I did, but the problem continued. I lightened up the spring te...

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I took advantage of the Christmas time off to play with my '26 touring. The foot starter switch was to the point that it had to be engaged squarely and carefully and still wasn't making great contact. It was either time to replace it or attempt a repair. I decided to add a 6 volt solenoid but didn't...

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Being somewhat lazy and pragmatic I would probably clean the existing threads immaculately (maybe even retapping a half a thread to expose new metal), wirebrush the male threads, apply enough J B Weld to fill the male thread and reassemble with very light pressure. Wait until tomorrow and then drive...

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I play with rebuilding coils just for the fun of it and occasionally find an anomaly that I can't understand. I have accumulated a number of test apparatus and enjoy comparing the results on them when done with a coil. I recently did a coil and tested it on an ecct, a strobospark, a manual hcct and ...

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I have collected old rusty tractors for years and have tried everything I could think of to seal down the rust and enhance the patina. I was surprised when I accidentally sprayed “TrickShot” penetrating oil on an old Fordson engine and was rewarded with a nice low luster finish. I did the whole trac...

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I have often used what I believe is “jewelers” silver solder to make repairs on thin brass parts. It has a low melting temperature and will work with mapp gas as long as there isn’t much mass to the part. I tried another alloy that is used for refrigeration repairs but found that it required too muc...

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Now we need a socket to fit the acetelyne burner that would gimbal on both planes to fit the logolites. Easy retrofit with well focused pattern.

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I reworked a Dewalt drill battery recharger to tap the 18 volt output using a battery charger pigtail with one end permanently wired into the battery side of the switch. The charger still can be used to charge the battery when disconnected from the car.

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Find a friend with an electric golf cart. Connect across as many batteries as you need to get the voltage you want. 8 volt batteries will yield 8-16-24-32-40 or 48 volts and they are deep cycle to take the heavy load.

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Another of my brainfarts. I have built a valve in my mind a hundred times that would use manifold vacuum to open and when the manifold vacuum dropped to near zero would fall closed automatically. As long as gasoline remained in the carb bowl to start, the valve would require no attention at all. Whe...

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Interested in the package. How do you want paid?
Dave Kahle

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I have had good success with drying the spokes in an oven to near zero moisture content before assembly. They can then be assembled by hand with very little pressure applied. After assembly I remoisturize them to swell them to a tight fit. Sounds crazy but works quite well. Not for the faint of hear...

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I agree that Model T engines do not need ZDDP. I don't need to brush my teeth either, but I do to make them last longer than they would otherwise. It could be argued that even high pressure flat tappet engines do not need ZDDP either, but they wouldn't last too long without it. It seems to me that a...

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I think the whole thing must have been a setup………..I don’t see blood on anything, no dropped wrenches littering the landscape and not nearly enough oil on the floor!

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I am somewhat reluctant to respond to this thread since it has been explained to me several times in the past that I am not seeing what I think I am on other subjects. But I can't resist, so here goes. I have been rebuilding coils for about ten years for my own consumption and have now done somewher...

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My father was a truck driver as I was growing up, not the over the road kind, but one who hauled coal from the open pit mines to the tipple to be processed. Back then it was possible to ride along with him and I did as often as I was allowed. I remember being absolutely fascinated by all of the mini...

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I have fixed worn shafts in everything from the crankshaft in a Fordson tractor to a 2" diameter planer shaft to carburetor shafts by wrapping the appropriate wire into a pocket turned at the point of wear on the shaft and soft soldering, silver soldering or J.B. welding the wire in place and turnin...

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I purchased a pile of T parts just for the heck of it, sort of a grab bag thing and my grandson picked them up and delivered them to me yesterday. There was a quite an assortment of pretty good stuff including a late (26-27) flywheel with a complete transmission. I think it must be the dirtiest tran...

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I have been blessed with a number of Model T's and two Model A's and enjoy them all in one way or another. I also live very near Cook Forest State Park and can access it without ever traveling on anything but gravel and narrow paved country roads. In that rural environment I much prefer the T's wher...

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How much difference is there between the steering columns from 1919 to 1924? Will they interchange?

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Would the installation of high compression pistons or head increase or decrease the possibility of carb icing in your opinion?

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Was this published by "Marvel" comics?

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When I made the first one of these I went to "Horror Freight" and bought the three universal set (1/4, 3/8, 1/2) for ten dollars but I wanted to make a number of them and had no idea what I would do with all of the left overs so I found a place in California where I could buy just the 1/4" ones for ...

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I have made a few different types of shutoff handles for my gas tank and this weekend and settled on the ones using a 1/4" drive universal joint as a beginning point. They work well and don't cost much and are easy to fabricate. It looks like they will work well within 30 degrees of straight on. I m...

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One must take into consideration the rate at which Model T’s breed. I started with one about thirty years ago and now count six. Not rabbit breeding efficiency but respectable none the less!

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I wonder how fast a thirty cylinder Model T would go?

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I have them in two model A and two model T cars as well as the steer tires on my motor home. I notice the biggest difference on the model a's for some reason. I can drive them at 60 miles an hour with one finger on the wheel until I come to a stop and then the car gallops for a few hundred feet unti...

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That is the setup I made to test the rare earth magnet flywheel vs. the stock setup. The benefits are that I can test at various fixed rpm and easily change air gap as well as switch back and forth with different flywheel/magnet configurations. The battery is there because we have been fooling with ...

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Here is the worlds heaviest and least practical HCCT (not really hand cranked). All I need is the spark ring.

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One I have experienced at car shows is "the danged fool got the steering wheel on upside down".

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Any chance of a tight valve guide in cyl one and two. Good time for a compression test.

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I have had the pleasure of restoring a number of Fordson model F tractors which used a clutch that was similar to the Model T setup and shared the same problems. When the clutch plates wear against each other for a long time they actually mate to a near perfect fit which when glued together by cold ...

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Jerry, If I had it to do over again I would make my kids each take a teaspoon of MMO every morning just to be safe!

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Beautiful ride up the Clarion River from Cooksburg, Pa to Ridgway Pa. through Cook Forest State Park. The road is pretty level but rather narrow and the speed limit it 25 -35 mph, much of it newly paved. Access to Cook Forest is 30 minutes north of I-80 from Clarion exit. Ice cream available at the ...

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I am one of those nuts that relies pretty heavily on MMO and JB Weld for simple repairs so you may want to dismiss much of my advice. To make a repair to the outside of that piece I would radically wire brush or use electrolysis to remove every bit of rust from the area and the cover the damaged are...

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My cars are “fair weather” creatures and are never in an unseated space and never driven in the cold. I maintain the antifreeze levels only to prevent corrosion. I wonder what concentration of antifreeze would provide maximum cooling and provide the necessary rust protection.

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As an option: I posted a while back about wheels I did for my '19 roadster where I oven dried the spokes to shrink them before assembly and then re-humidified them afterward. The wheels run more true than any other that I have done and went together without all the fuss. The process didn't receive m...

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I think they break because the stick. Has anyone experimented with applying a babbit or Teflon sleeve over the original valve to reduce the required torque and subsequent leaking?

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Scott, You don’t have to try to be condescending, it’s a gift. I know exactly what you are saying. By the way, I have twenty or thirty Fordson model F tractors and they time the same way.

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It occurs to me that 15 degrees after TDC can’t be ascertained unless TDC can be confirmed. I’m just not as handy as you are so I need to provide myself with a helper. I guess I’m still a novice having only seven Model T’s for about thirty years, but I’m willing to learn.

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Mark, I’m. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer and my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be so I find “horizontal” sort of an arbitrary value to time an engine by. I built this contraption in an hour or so and the cost was about ten bucks for material. It doesn’t show me approximately where TDC is...

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I didn’t know Rube (my hero) was an aircraft mechanic.

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How about keeping transmission band litter out of the oil tube?

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How much do you think a reliable oil filter would extend the life of the engine, oil changes at the same interval?

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I’m thinking rev2 should have a whistle in the indicator shaft to announce compression!

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Timing device

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The material you see on the spokes is “Nelsonite” which is a dimension stabilizer. It soaks primarily into the end grain to prevent end splitting and retard the movement of moisture into and out of the wood. It will have no effect on the finish, whether paint, stain, or varnish.

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Max, The rare earth magnets did outperform the stock ones exponentially. The air gap could be increased to over 1/2" and still perform well. The problem would undoubtedly be how to detune the rare earth flywheel to where it was hotter than stock but not overwhelm the ignition coils. I'm still workin...

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For what its worth, I have been experimenting with rare earth magnet replacements for the Model T flywheel just for the fun of it and in order to test the output of the experiment I mounted a "T" flywheel to the chuck of one of my engine lathes and mounted a newly rewound magneto to the carriage so ...

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this is where I am currently[attachment=0]shutoff.jpg

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I have read a number of solutions to the problem of extending the fuel shutoff handle from under the car to the outside. For sure the passing of time makes the trip to the ground and to the center of the car further with each birthday and I now find it a quite a chore to make the journey. As a resul...

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I had a chance to play some more today and found some more interesting things. I speculated that the aluminum "magnets" would lighten the flywheel by about 8 1/2 pounds and someone said that might accommodate for the added weight of a Scat crank. I had one in the shop and weighed it and a stock T cr...

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I think my meter is the problem. I just hooked up a coil to the new flywheel and had consistent spark at 112 rpm and intermittent spark at 84. I didn't get to try the stock flywheel because I tried the setup at 1550 rpm and had fire flying everywhere for about 15 seconds until everything went dead. ...

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I had these spaced really well on the post but when I submitted them the page realigned and screwed up the works. Sorry about that

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It seems the more I look the less I understand. At the request of a previous post I disassembled the stock flywheel and recharged the magnets since I too was surprised at the low voltage the first test produced. In addition to that I replaced the magneto coil with one that I picked up from Kevin Pru...

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It looks like these magnets will reduce the weight of the flywheel by about 8 1/2 pounds. Do you guys think that would make a noticeable difference in performance, all else being equal?

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My most original steering wheel was on a Fordson tractor I purchased years ago in California. The story that came with the tractor was that it was one of Henry's "gift" tractors in 1918 which was given to a farmer by the name of McCracken in Santa Rosa. I have no way of substantiating that story but...

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Some interesting and surprising data. I completed the lathe setup with the flywheel and mag and was able to make some voltage tests this afternoon at various speeds. The voltages with the stock magnets, recently recharged, yielded the following at .020 air gap: 364 rpm 1.0 volts 492 rpm 3.0 volts 64...

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The flywheel is mounted in the lathe and the mag mounting is being discussed. Maximum speed of the lathe I have is 1550 rpm but that should make an interesting test. I will be able to change speeds easily and am anxious to see if the voltage increases in a linear fashion. Same with varying air gaps....

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330 million people in the country and most don’t need a stent. The ones who do are glad that someone looked into them.

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One of the guys who works for me has one - he won’t sell her though!

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Scott, there has been anxiety recently about the loss of Fun Projects voltage regulators and just a few posts ago information on how to rewire a starter for 12 volts. Apparently there is some interest in this type of thing. It may well be that a good stock mag might work with the solid state regulat...

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So here is plan B for the improved mag project. If it won't work you might tell me so before I spend any more time or money on this cranial flatulence. We recently had to replace the magneto coil and voltage regulator on one of our commercial front cut mowers with a 27 hp Kohler engine and when we t...

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My fascination with the magneto is based primarily on the "why not" factor. I find some sense of joy from doing things that are outside the box. The benefit of the rare earth project would be, in my mind, that the samarium magnets are almost bulletproof with respect to heat and the air gap in the ma...

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I recharged both of the original flywheel magnets a while ago so I can’t verify the weight they would hold but I have a very heavy industrial magnetizer and always give the magnets all they will take. Neither flywheel has been installed in an engine so I am confident that they represent any fresh or...

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I have been playing with flywheels and magnets the last few days. The previous thread was getting lengthy so I decided to post some results separately. I had two flywheels with freshly recharged original magnets and another on which I installed both neodynium and samarium cobalt rare earth magnets. ...

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Made a change in the magnets tonight and the voltage increased to about 7 volts at 190 rpm. Ordered 100 samarium magnets today which should make about a 40 percent improvement.

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Apologies, the tip speed of the magnet poles at 1500 rpm works out to 64 miles per hour, I only missed it by a factor of four. Amazing what a nights sleep will do for your math skills.

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Samarium cobalt magnets provide approximately 85 percent of the field strength of neodymium (cheaper and much more common) but have a maximum operating temperature of 500 to 700 degrees F. where ordinary neodymium start to fail at 200-250 degrees F., which might still work but are on the border of c...

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Here's another thing to sleep on. If my math is correct (and it may not be) the tips of the magnets on a stock flywheel travel at 250 miles per hour at 1500 rpm. Multiply that by the 32 poles rotating through air and oil and consider that the ends are as square as they were sheared at the factory. T...

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I run a number of itimers on my cars and am not as concerned with the coils as I am with those timers. The magnets I have made replace the unbalanced steel ones with machined aluminum ones which would significantly reduce the weight of the assembled flywheel, improve balance, maintain the original a...

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I’m not smart enough to understand the physics involved with a choke or how to size one for the application. I’ll modify the setup to maximize the output and report back for further instructions. This thing really fascinates me!

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Thinking of replacing the motor on the hcct with a vfd controlled one. What would be your best guess of an rpm that would best simulate an average quarter turn hand crank?

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Correction - I borrowed the mag gauge from my speedster this morning and found the ac voltage to be around 5 volts at just under 200 rpm. The hcct showed 16 strong consistent sparks at that speed. I used rather small magnets and could easily replace them with stronger ones. In your opinion, should I...

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My hcct runs at about 190 rpm. How much voltage do you think would be too high at that speed. I need an analog meter to be sure what I have but my digital meter is bouncing around at twenty volts or so.

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Jerry, I won't be adjusting the coils on the hcct but will use it for a test stand for the newer magnets on a flywheel. Because it is motor driven it will make comparison testing more accurate than in a car and the flywheels can be exchanged or re-shimmed in just a few minutes. I would like to then ...

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I am seriously considering making up a flywheel with the aluminum "magnets" and operating it on my motor driven HCCT just to see how it might perform. Do any of you metallurgists have any recommendations on whether to attempt to bend the bars or weld them at the junction of the poles and do you have...

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Just a wild thought. How would it work to shape aluminum bar stock into the size and shape of conventional "T" magnets, bore a blind hole in the face of each end and epoxy a 3/8" rare earth magnet (correctly orienting polarity) such that the binding plate would cover the magnet. Appearance would be ...

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I am fortunate to own two reconditioned Wilson HCCT's, one hand cranked and one with a motor, and a Strobospark. I took delivery of an ECCT just last Friday and have become a believer in just two days. I am proud to own a piece of history with the Wilsons, but am very impressed with the new tester. ...

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We have made many thousands of spokes, always hickory. Due to its density it shrinks two to three times more with changes in moisture content than other species, with exceptions. There are actually two rates of shrinkage across the grain. Radial shrinkage of hickory is slightly less than two percent...

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George, Referring to me as a wheelwright would be like calling Jack Benny a concert violinist. I do these things for my own amazement and its always gratifying when they work out. I just don't want to pass on without sharing what I've been fortunate enough to find along the way.

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We buy our hickory from the yards at 7 to 8 percent moisture content which is the correct EMC (equilibrium moisture content) for our eastern inland area. Since the wheels will be subject to atmospheric humidity, being outside, the spokes would naturally expand during the summer months from the point...

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