MTFCA Forum

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Recent OCF posts here and on Facebook have included comments that some old friends missed seeing me. Well, I've missed going and seeing them. Contemplating the situation, I had a couple of thoughts. One is that my days of driving to Michigan in a T are over...

I've piled up a lot of swell memories over the last 80 years, and driving my 1915 to OCF has been a great one.

...wonder how well this has worked from when it was done?

Worked OK for me, but it hasn't been 100 years yet.

The crank has a small hole near the first bend. The little bend at the front end of the spring fits into that hole like this.

Pretty scary, with everybody driving on the wrong side.

The unpaved road looks surprisingly smooth. Does the Go-Pro do that, or is it really smoother than most unpaved roads?

After my brief white tire fling in 2017 I decided they aren't worth the hassle. I found Blockley tyres easy to order and mount, and I believe Blockley sets higher standards for the factory to meet than Coker and Lucas do for theirs.Time will tell about that. Unfortunately the Trump regime has decid...

Be safe out there, no matter how vigilant you are, stuff can - and will - happen. [/size] Exactly right. I have no memory of my wreck, but I know the intersection. It happened to be in a medium-sized town, but it could have been a country road with little traffic or a city street in Chicago. You ca...

If Saturday twilight presents you with a choice between dinner and the headlight drive, stick around for the latter. You can eat later.

Click on their name.

Where? How can I find it if he's not online at the moment?

Get the MTFCA Axle Book, if you don't already have it, and dig in. Too much work? Nope. It won't be fixed in a couple of hours, but it ain't rocket surgery. You can read and follow directions.

https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG79.html

Apparently my age and my TBI are making me helpless.
How can I send an email or a PM to a forum member?

What if you are a spectator and not a participant? [/size] Just pay at the gate and walk into the Village. My situation is a bit different from most. Traveling by 1915 runabout (no trailer) I was privileged to stay with friends in Wayne and drive to the day's events each morning. Unencumbered by a ...

The look of the wall, and trees inside, has me thinking a park or cemetery somewhere in the Dearborn area. I can't imagine the Village ever having a wall like that around it.

Ed is right about Piquette. If you can arrive a day early to allow plenty of time there, I think you will be glad you did.
Getting in and out of the village is pretty simple.

My memory is far from reliable, but I seem to remember that in a previous post the location was determined to be a street in Dearborn.

As the old saying goes, you ain't seen nothin' yet. The American people wanted this, and voted for it, and now they're going to get it. Good and hard.

Spot welding worked for me. No more cobbling the thing back together out on the road. I knew it would last for years, and if it eventually went bad another new one wouldn't break the bank. I would spot weld that one too. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

This shows the correct wiring for your car. Follow it.

Any decent farm supply will have a proper 6 volt battery. If a kid working there tells you six volt batteries are not for cars, you can tell him it's for a tractor. :D Voltage is (or should be) irrelevant to starting. A Model T in good condition starts easily with 12 volts, 6 volts, or no battery a...

In the forties we took old 66 in the summer because we didn't know it was too hot. Somehow the whole family survived. Mom did nix breakfast in Kingman when she saw all the grub swimming in grease, but that was a different issue.

Watch for 5-Z-829 at swap meets. Much handier than the usual wrench.

The proper adjusting nut #3426 (09-27) has a groove across its face. The proper washer #3415 has a raised spot that keeps the nut from turning. Wrench #1917 is the official tool for this, but there's a ratchet version that's less tiresome. Screen Shot 2025-08-24 at 2.27.45 PM.png Screen Shot 2025-0...

Doesn't Glen Chaffin's Axle book show the easy way? I seem to remember seeing it in one of those MTFCA books. i should have shot a video when I did it.

Modern inline filters usually mean trouble in the Model T gravity-feed system. I fought trashy fuel for a long time until a loose baffle flopping around inside caused me to buy a new tank. The old tank took the trash with it and I never had the problem of trashy gas again because I was very careful...

A revolutionary concept: When in doubt, read the directions.

They're wood. Part #3083. There has been much discussion. I use them. I also use engine pans. I use good rims, so I don't waste money on flaps. I use stock ignition because it's more reliable than a disturbutor. I paint my wheels body color, like Ford. Do my comments upset anybody? I'll lie awake a...

Terry is quite right. I drive on country roads a lot, and I found that magnetic lights would not stay put. I ended up with turn signals attached to the car, and that arrangement was fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH85w4Yqhi4
You can ignore the noise. I had the radio on.

They're all the same. Pictures won't help.

Here's one version of rear axle removal. Part of it may apply to what you're doing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mZzAt9Q_4

You don't need a spring spreader to remove the shackles. Just loosen the perches enough to relieve the tension.

I can stand this, but I drive country roads a lot.
I don't need extra weight bouncing on the neck.

I watched until they got into the cringeworthy cranking, then I bailed. Jay said a Model T is an easy start, and it should be, but that one was stubborn. Probably because people were watching.

Confusion comes with the words "the truck conversion". Ford started selling pickup trucks in the 1925 model year. Before that they sold you a chassis (car or truck) and it was up to you to build or buy a body for it. Ford did not sell a conversion kit. There were several companies that made afterma...

Like Neal, I try to spread the wealth among several. We are lucky to have Lang's, Birdhaven, Chaffin's, Snyder's, etc. I've bought parts from all of them.

Stopping to shop at Birdhaven.

I don't remember if this comparison came from Scott, but it shows the ineffective .100" float valve opening that causes fuel starvation, beside the proper .125" opening that doesn't.

I hope somebody will try it, just to settle the question, and install a new valve in the stem to see if it works like the valves always have.

If you're in Needles and need gas, go to K Street and cross the bridge to the Arizona side of the river. It will save you several dollars.

Steve went to Pepperdine when he was in LA area before moving to farm life in Kansas. [/size] George is sort of right about that, but there have really been two places with that name. In the sixties I graduated from what I consider the real Pepperdine — the college established in 1937 by Western Au...

If the question is for me, I don't know. I haven't changed valve stems since 2023, so I have no experience with the current tubes. If anybody is trying to reach me and can't, I'm useless for that too. Each day, life in the Digital Age becomes a deeper mystery to me. It's miraculous that I can still...

Now that my age starts with 8, there seem to be more of those times when I don't understand what's going on. This is one of those times.

Aha! Quite right. Ford didn't bother with flaps for clincher tires. On new rims they would be a waste of time and money. I'll extend that 100 years and point out that if your rims are good enough, flaps are still a waste of time and money. I have driven thousands of flapless miles because I paid at...

Shall we complicate the discussion? Some people will take the defective brush out of the rotor and toss it, and make a new one from an old generator brush. Apparently if you have the skill to make a good fit, it works pretty well.

If you bought a new 1915 Model T car, what did Ford charge for the flaps?

Yes, there's no comparison. Flaps deplete your funds much more rapidly.

Yes, original metal stems do clamp on, now that I think about it. I haven't bought any recently, but the last time I did they were not hard to find and not very expensive at swap meets. Long ago I got in the habit of buying rubber stem tubes and converting them to metal stems. The $29 difference in...

...go around St, Louis any way you wish...

Or go right through it. Washington Avenue is five blocks from the Arch, and takes you to Eads Bridge into East Saint Louis.

There have been many discussions of New Day timers over the years, often with detailed pictures. You can spend a lot of time with Mister Google reading about these timers, but it all boils down to a couple of points. 1 There's New Day and there's New Day, sometimes excellent and sometimes miserable...

As usual, Allan is correct. Kelsey and Hayes were separate companies until the end of Model T production.

https://www.modeltford.com/item/2800HS-HY.aspx

https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG108.html

I don't know how much of 66 is still drivable. [/size] That varies by state. In California, much of the San Bernardino County part from Barstow to Arrowhead Junction was fine when I went that way a few years ago. In western Arizona (Topoc to Seligman/Ash Fork) nearly all of it is good. In eastern A...

Many miles of these bricks remain in place today. [/size] IMG_0248 copy.JPG Yes, they do. The late Bob Bush, old enough to remember the prewar years, told me the city used to have a three-man crew that spent the summer taking up and relaying the bricks a block at a time where they had become uneven...

Frank's picture reminds me of this shot I took in the mountainous NE part of Iowa.

Britt, do you have any other photos of the car? I don't care what plates were on it in 2012. What I'm wondering about is "incorrect" features other than the unorthodox hood. If there were other creative alterations they might be helpful in identifying the car.

Come on, folks. This is Iowa, not Colorado or California. Driving T15 down to Knoxville isn't quite like climbing Pike's Peak. It will be fine. I drove over some hills in Iowa, and one of them may have called for a little bit of timer adjustment, but we're talking about the mostly flat middle of th...

Be sure the gasoline in the car is fresh.

If you drive often enough, gas in your tank can't get old.

A drive of fifteen miles is nothing. At the same time, it does mater which fifteen miles you're driving. While any drive of any vehicle can end badly, in a car pushing the century mark it makes sense to choose your battles. By living in Pella, you've already made a good choice. There are no interst...

When I see online advice involving interaction with "the DMV", I'm reminded that states are like Model T cars: They're all different. What works in Kansas or Illinois may not apply in California.

OATMAN GRADE.jpg Oatman grade in summer? You bet. 1941 Plymouth sedan. The memory has stuck with me since the forties. The lack of any a.c. didn't spoil the adventure. This was the main east-west highway, so there was no shortage of traffic. You would crawl along in a line of cars following a big o...

At the risk of being deemed a wet blanket, I'll slosh a bit of ice water on this subject. Some 40+ years ago I set about trying to reconstruct the ownership history of my 1939 Packard. I was able to go back and find the owner before me, and the owner before him, and the owner before him, etc. The p...

I gather you're fairly familiar with the California part of your trip. The last time I was over the Arizona part several years ago, Topoc to Ash Fork was still quite driveable. From what I've seen online recently, I have doubts about old 66 from Seligman to Ash Fork. East of that, don't expect any ...

I was bitten by the Model T travel bug, and made four round trips between southern Kansas and Dearborn, Michigan. A mostly stock 1915 runabout was fine for that, as it was all in the relatively level middle of the continent. For a trip like you have in mind, I would make one important modification....

A few years ago when I pumped a clincher up to 72 psi with the hand pump, the Schraeder valve in the stem was all the check valve I needed. My pump's hose connector that screws onto the stem has no center post because that would hold the valve open and the air would come back out. I can't imagine t...

No need to crawl under.

A DIY version of this is cheap and easy.

Oil sight tube.

I believe I already had the clamps, so I spent less than $1 on this.

Brasso!!! That kills it for me. The stuff bearing that name today is not what we used when I was in the army in the sixties. I wouldn't give 2¢ for a case of the current Brasso. There are some good polishes, and people gush about how wonderful their favorite is, but many are only available online a...

Jerry's comment on the hood is on the mark. That's not the stock 15-16 Ford hood in the photo. The correct hood would have six louvers.

By now they may be perfectly OK. My bad experience with them years ago has caused me to avoid them in case any of the defective ones are still around. The chance of getting another of those bad ones prompted my practice of specifying Hartfords.

This is a little OT, but about an old Ford. We moved to Lomita in 1950, and when I was drafted in 1965 mailboxes were still out at the street and mail was delivered by a guy driving a Model A panel truck. When I got home two years later there were sidewalks, the mailbox was back at the house, and t...

You came to the right place. You can also get answers on Facebook,
but the baloney content is higher there.

I agree, two grand tops, depending on the condition of the engine. The presence of a water pump suggests that the radiator is probably shot. The bare bones for a decent TT are there, but Terry's list shows that you will need lots of parts. You live in a perfect place for finding some of them, becau...

It's been a couple of years since I bought new Hartfords, but I'm pretty sure the stems I cut off were rubber.

Many aspects of the Model T are simple, and should be. That includes spark plugs. I like the original Champion X plugs and other T-era plugs, and it's fun to pursue old (and still good) ones at swap meets or online. You can buy the X plugs new, if you want to go the luxury route. But you can get by...

I've been getting them from Coker, but I expect some of the other dealers sell them too. I don't know about 21" because I haven't needed any of those.

Apparently the bigger ratchet wasn't different enough to get a separate part number. The parts book shows the same thing for all years.

I've resorted to Hartford tubes, which have held up well. I get them with rubber stems for the lower price and install my own metal stems. Yes, they're made in China, and the quality is OK. People are equally smart everywhere, and any country can make good stuff if enough customers want it.

...one of the pins with a spring clip attached to one end that allows easy removal of the pin without the need of a cotter pin.

That seems like a great idea until the clip breaks. Yes, it does happen.

The eastern reaches seem have the most interest.

Isn't that where a majority of the people are? I was raised in the West, and I still think of it as the home of the best camping. But I'm used to being in the minority.

A swell thing about Missouri is that most of old 66 is still present as state and county roads.

On old 66 near Lebanon, MO.

I suppose I should mention accommodations for Model T travel. In that department it's definitely different strokes for different folks. On some of my trips I've indulged in the luxury of a motel once or twice due to weather or the desire to have folks in the next county not smell me coming. But tha...

I gather that your car lacks a Ruckstell, prompting you to avoid Oatman Grade. You can do it via AZ95 and AZ68, the long way around. It's been a long time since I traveled old 66, but as I recall it was a good road east from Kingman until you get to Ash Fork. From there, on into New Mexico, you're ...

It's working OK in south central Kansas.

Yes, hiring a motel room every night costs too much. But even in a city I have usually found a decent sleeping spot on the secluded fringe of a huge parking lot. The $0 price is very helpful. I experienced harassment by a "manager" once during my several years of such overnight stops, and moving to...

Freeze plugs? If you want them to be period correct...
https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG87.html

The 8-5-28 parts book has no picture, but it shows #3837 tie bolt for eight-leaf springs 09-27, and #3838 tie bolt for nine-leaf springs 22-27. That tells me there's not a special 26-27 version of either bolt. This shot among my pictures is labeled BOLT, SPRING, REAR, NOS. If I remember correctly, ...

I can imagine myself using an exhaust whistle, but not this. I want four good spark plugs, intact and well-adjusted. Brand doesn't matter. Champion X, Wards, Splitdorf, Horseshoe, whatever.

Norm is on the right track, whether a particular Model T runs well or not. If I go shopping for another T, I'll take a pass on the ones with "upgrades" that aren't easily (cheaply) corrected. I don't subscribe to the superstition that a disturbutor is "more reliable". Experience teaches me otherwis...

Amazingly, all my Model T driving in wet weather has been on paved roads. That leaves me with no photos of my own muddy car. This picture comes as close to the subject as I can manage.

….as some of us have already found out the hard way.. [/size] Yes, what happened to me in Huntington, Indiana, spoiled the whole trip. But as I see it, that could have happened anywhere I chose to drive in a town. The odds of such an incident are mighty low on a local country road in Kansas, but ge...

Allow me to add the complication of a coin unknown to many Americans today — the half dollar. When I was learning money in the forties it was still quite common. Silver dollars (Morgan and Peace) were more plentiful than paper singles in Nevada until 1965. 1024px-Walking_Liberty_Half_Dollar_1945D_O...

It has been a great privilege for me to drive to the Detroit area for the OCF several times. I would recommend it for Model T drivers who have the luxury of free time and a reliable car.

Until they folded a few years ago, Berg's was the place to go for black-era radiators. I was sorry to see them go.

I don't guarantee accuracy, but the Fahnestock book has a
cotter pin list that's mostly correct.

If it is the radiator what are the recommendations of where to purchase a new one or would it be better to have a new core installed? [/size] For a totally new radiator, the only game in town is Brassworks. A recore may save you a few Benjamins IF you can find a shop with somebody old enough to kno...

Fortunately there's a lot of information available, much of it inexpensive or free.
These pages may help:

https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG52.html

http://acimorelli.readyhosting.com/mtdl/default.htm

Overheating may indicate it's time for a flush and a clean-out, a radiator recore, or a replacement.

https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG96.html

I happen to have the same carrier. One of the lugs on my Hayes rim goes at the bottom and the carriage bolt takes a lug nut to hold the rim in place. For a rim without lugs, I gather you'll need a spare lug and nut to go on the bolt.

I believe the Vintage Ford had a big article on Ford oil cans. At this point I remember some things I've seen, but can't tell you when I saw them.

Linus is very much into vintage motor camping. Maybe he will post pictures of the event.

How does an April 15, 1916 engine make it "technically a 1917" engine? [/size] Because of the difference between calendar year and model year. The first Model T cars were 1909 models, though they were made in 1908. That pattern continued. The model year usually began in August or September. So a Fo...

Kevin, the serial number says the engine in your car was made on Saturday, April 15, 1916. Is it purely crank-start, as a car of that vintage would be, or has it been updated with a starter? You are in luck. When your car was new, half of all cars were (Model T) Fords. That means parts for it were ...

Yes, I believe round and pointy is right. You may not need to buy a new needle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTiStUTU9IE

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