MTFCA Forum

I like that! Plenty of light to see what your doing.
Sign says “Watch us do it” at the bottom
Bryant

I saw him do the kick wheel start several times. Jane would be standing on the passenger side and I always thought she might have had a hand in the start process.
Another one of his props was the methane Briggs single cylinder he would start with no gas in the tank, spark plug wire disconnected and a hose running from a chamber pot to the carb...

Will do, if it's anything exciting. If I happen to find someone with a hydraulic press big enough to fit it I might just go that route

I should have been more specific, when coming into town from the south end, as if you're coming from Likely.

Hey Norman I did check what you are describing and when the parking brake lever is all the way forward I am clearing the ramp completely. When I was putting the car back together I originally did have the problem you are describing and did have to shorten the rods. It was pointed out to me by someone that gave me the how to drive the car lessons....

btttttttttttttttttttt

Downieville California. Among the better known of California's early goldrush towns, is today a quaint historic town popular with visitors, in spite of the fact it is miles from any major town. The little town can become quite crowded during any of their many annual shows and festivals.

One of the things Downieville is most famous for, clearly...

The one hook that you do have is a correct hook. It is the earlier version that was made by the manufacturer. It has been my understanding that the manufacturer switched from the strap version to the forked version of the hook when Ford began using the diagonal support straps that bolted to the back of the block and went down to the pan mounting...

In the Queens english it's pronounced Gerr-Age. In Frence is it pronouced Geraush?
Craig.

This may answer some questions about the 6-ball:

and this from Ford Fix;
6-ball1.jpg
6-ball2.jpg

Yes, but....
You will probably need to remove some material on the lower side of the casting the pedal shaft sits in for reverse & brake. Primarily the brake.
Not enough clearance for the later band ear attaching stuff. If you have the HH off, make the modification. Makes things easier.
You may be able to do some minor grinding on the band ear....

Dan & Dan,
Thanks for the information.
I laid it out in CAD and it is right on.
 

Magneto Bolt Pattern.jpg

When I put my first T together, not knowing what was correct, I went to the auto parts store and bought a length of radiator hose to run the full length from the lower outlet to the inlet on the side of the engine. The car ran fine until it got warm then the long hose began to collapse and un-collapse kinda like it was breathing. After explaining...

Hello Pete,

Thank You for the lead.

If you have a mounting for a spare in the middle of the back of the car, it could be for a wire for a stop light.

Are these pics the correct routing? And, if so are there some missing items to make this routing a little more safe ? If not a fire hazard, I would think vapor lock might be an issue.
I'll hang up and listen.fuel line 1.JPGfuel line 2.JPGfuel line 3.JPG

That routing of the fuel line is correct for 1924 and later, as the fuel line ran between...

I couldn’t get the above link to open, but was able to find it easily by searching on YouTube directly.

Coming from Michigan, we stayed at the meeting hotel in Miamisbutg Thursday evening. Trailering down to Shandon early Friday morning in the still-falling snow was more of an adventure than the tour itself. :shock: But, in the end it was...

I thought it might be one of those accessory California Hardtop kits.

The new axle shafts are 1.063”. Originals are 1.062”. The original gears can have variations in their inside diameter. Some are worn oversize and some are undersize enough to be too tight of a press fit on a new axle shaft. To do a good job of fitting a good used gear to a new axle shaft, you really have to measure the gear inside diameters all...

Thank you Craig! The base is a very nice bit of cast iron and it rather heavy. Do have the cam gear. Good note on the Petronix!

Ahh, thanks, no, but probably very typical for the era.

The Ford issued manual for the T. Most everything we need to know is in there.
Lang's has them. I have two.... one in the shop, and one in the house.

There was plenty of salt on the Polar Bear Tour. Fortunately we had a day in the high 30’s (F) about a week after we got back and I was able to give Bonnie a good flushing inside and out, and underneath, even the engine. To make it a little more comfortable for me I was able to run a water hose from my house water heater through a basement window....

If the tank is still in good shape which it seems it is use it. Lots of T owners of Tudor’s would love to have what you have and it is original. Original were galvanized sheet metal.

Taking to long is not an issue in my mind. They use to make T tanks but not sure if anyone is doing it. Others might know. Your tank is good to go for another ten...

Good looking speedster. Great story too!

Of course Ford shipped more than ten engines at a time, that is not was not what I was saying. The other messed up stamped numbers are clearly , messed up , but this engine number is clearly readable, but by the time line, it makes it one number short, for as you show they are USA engines. While it is quite possible that one engine number was...

Great photo, Jay. I always enjoy the arrangement of cars etc. in these. I thought I was seeing some exhaust from the Coupe in the building until I saw the fellows smoking.
Thanks
Rich

AI is going to be the end of society if not the world given enough time. And as fast as it's gaining ground, it aint gonna be long either!

So recently my Model T started squirting water out of the radiator cap, very mysterious!
Long story short, I (unnecessarily) flushed out the whole cooling system to try and find the problem, which after all turned out to be perished seals on the radiator cap itself!!

Enjoy the video though...

Ah yes, the wonderful two man top that takes a team of six to operate it :lol: ... well Ok not quite!
I did this video a few years ago, demonstrating with a minimal amount of dignity that it is indeed possible for one to operate a Model T roof solo!

Enjoy!!

F3C7EF34-C27B-438E-B192-EBF638BD76C3.jpeg this is the marking I keep seeing for Parrish and Bingham. Obviously different. Iam assuming they may have changed it at some time? I can’t find an exact match.
Bryant

Thanks guys!

Appreciate all of the interest shown for the upcoming tour. as of today, the only known fact is the starting time, June 2, departing New York City.
The itinerary is still being developed, but fundamentally will follow the Lincoln Highway to California.
There will be a website or a blog that the itinerary and dates after finalization will be...

It just occurred to me that the shank keeper and corresponding holes in the shells may not be factory installed but done by some user down the road.
It doesn't make sense they wouldn't fit.
20240203_111242.jpg

Arnie

The single slot screw on the stanchion is correct factory fitting. The curtain hook has round hole, so machine screw was used. Plus if you have tried to install a nut there , on a captive carriage bolt, you will soon know why a slotted screw was used from the outside. :roll:

I am gown in GA, but there has to be some T guys in the Travers City, MI area that would love to help. If not, let me know and I can box up and mail you a Holly NH that is proven to be operating correctly. You can bolt it on, and, if your car starts right up, you have ID'd the issue and can move forward from there. Return the Holly or we can talk...

I can't speak directly to the MTH situation, but is sounds very familiar to a business decision my son and I made with a parts company for military vehicles that we owned. My son took a full time job and the contacts we got from the web site were mostly tire kickers looking for free information and resulting in very few sales. The cost of the web...

thank you!

That’s how I was taught; right arm over the passenger seat back, twist body while turning head to see clearly out the back window when backing up.

Frank,
Thanks for that information.

Here’s John Regan’s close up followed by Bill Brommer’s
Notice that Bill did a font that looks like the ones from the brochures. Also differences in the Ford Script. I had the hardest time finding a hi res Script for printing like the one John used so I basically had to trace it and redraw it

IMG_1456.jpeg...

Wiped off the dust. oiled the front and rear axles and shackles, checked the oil and water levels, checked the tire pressure and freed up the sticking choke shaft. Then drove down to the Museum last Saturday for the monthly open house at the museum. This is the Alpine Historical Society museum. We have vehicles from a buggy, to my Horseless...

Looking at this design, we can see the improvement in upgrading the device in the future.

Thanks batteryhowl . We can clearly see here, the nascent beginnings of function specific design, with maximization of parameters as the ultimate goal.

Pat, the copper aircraft line does have flared ends. It simply drains fuel from a wing tank to a center tank. In my 78 year old airplane the fuel line is exposed from the valve on the wing tank to the valve on the center tank so I can see it while flying. The line from the main tank to the firewall fitting for the gascolator and from said...

Deja vu

Click on this link regarding the history behind the photo and who is sitting in the car:

Some are way roomier!
20230317_085630.jpg
Allan from down under.

The roof profile that you sent is different from my car in that yours is 1.5” thick and what I have is just 1” . Also yours has a rounded relief edge on the outside bottom where the body panels would tack on . Mine does not have that detail. Does having that detail allow for better rain protection? I am about to tackle the roof and wanting to do...

I guess that makes sense, especially since the tag is upside down! And I’m assuming the radiator is a 1911 or early 12? From my understanding, Ford started putting “Made in USA” under the logo in 1912.

Hi Gary,
I've been finishing the interior on the 27 Tudor and got the doorway seal piece finished. The V piece of metal has material from the interior (cloth) wrapped around it. The seal is a piece of leather-looking welting tucked into the V metal strip which is pushed up on to the steel rib of the body in the door opening. I used my original...

Great! We love looking at old photos of our cars. Thanks for putting this one up!
John

The valve was no longer centered due to lack of clip and in turn it would no longer rotate in the valve body
Did have a stove pipe, since it is upstream not sure it affects anything
I will take the carb apart, nothing to loose with doing that
Thanks

Forgot to mention, Equally important is the flux. My local weld shop also provided me with Harris brand flux and I believe it made a difference.

Been so long since I have done silver solder, that I was going to ask about flux for it. What is a good flux for it? I have several kinds, but some of what I have bought in recent years is garbage for...

Yes, that is the problem with mechanically generated spark ignition systems. Its a real problem with a lot of hit & miss engines. As the engine speeds up, the timing gets more retarded; not what you want. Ford knew that, so he allowed the driver to adjust the timing at any time. And drivers back then knew how to do it.

Maybe he made the washers out of scrap from somewhere else in the process and that’s why he changed the dimension. Maybe somebody else has the answer for that also because I would love to know.
To the best of my knowledge also, they carry the same part number between the two.

Why he did that? You’d have to dig deep into Henry Ford’s brain.

The...

If this is about valves that stay up, be sure to check the valve pins and spring washers. Do a search and you’ll find a thread a few years ago about bad parts.
They would fail at a few thousand miles.

Photo number 14, the dirty 1915 touring car, has an unusual after-market radiator.

Hello group. My grandfather had this trunk that he claimed was from a Model T, but from all of the research that I've done, I'm not so sure that this is correct. Unfortunately my grandfather passed many decades ago, so there is no way to clarify though him.

Does this look familiar to anyone? I'm shocked that the leather straps are still intact!...

One of my first jobs while I was still in high school in the 1950's was for an auto garage. I got jobs like pulling off the head or things like that. However I got to observe the work being done by the experienced mechanics. The Snap on tool dealer came by every so often, maybe once a month or so. When mechanics bought new tools, they would trade...

When I bought the reproduction piece for my 1912 van, I had the vendor cut it into three pieces so it could be posted overseas in a tube. I specified two pieces the length of the sides plus enough to get along the top to the windscreen mounting clamps.Besides the shipping benefit, there was another side benefit. I could make the the two mitred...

Swap meet starts at 7:00 am on Saturday March 2nd, runs til 3:00 pm.

Thanks Dan, That is what I was looking for.

Whaaa ?? Steve is back among the living !! PTL !
Welcome back to the discussions Steve 🙏

Do you have the Ford Service Manual?

Fenders first, then the hood shelves with the hold down handles already installed, then the radiator studs with the lower springs, bar, and cotter pins, then the lower radiator shield, then the upper stud springs and inner thimbles, put a wedge under the studs to get more exposed threads, then the radiator...

I have used aluminum foil in a steel head. The threads had gotten rusty and when I tightened the plugs some of the compression would cause oil bubbles to come up around the plugs. The aluminum foil seemed to seal them just fine.
Norm

The change date surprises me. Over the years I have found many more 3 piece riveted gears than one piece ones. Given that the majority of production was in the 20's, I would have put the introduction of one piece gears much later than 1917. Is there a discrepancy with the introduction of one piece gears in Canadian production?

It is easier to...

What year did the car number cease?

The factory stopped putting the car number on the brass firewall plate early in the 1915 model production. Since 1915 model production for open cars started late, probably mid to late spring of 1915.
The brass plates continued to have a place for the car number through 1917, but the space was left blank.

I...

Nice picture.

IMG_8455.jpeg

Nice work Ken. That Stevens thread chaser is a most valuable tool.

I do wonder how how precise we need to be in some of the things we do when working on these old cars. I have found the steel outer plates far more deformed than the hub surface, and put that down to over tightening the hub bolts, so that's where I focused my attention. Refacing...

What years did Model T's have a narrow nose pan?

Interesting topic. I have a WWII Ford GPW jeep and every polt head has a script F on it, as do many, if not all of the parts. The representation on the military vehicle side of the hobby is that Ford was building the 280,000 jeeps they assembled during WWII under license for Willys and HF did not want to warranty Willys parts. And, he wanted the...

I read the article on the green 1911, which I remember from the past. Two things I dislike that the new owner did. That oval rear window, looks so out of place, but it is his car. Next are those English tires. They are ugly!

Yes, the rear oval window may look out of place, but it has been part of the car's history for over 100 years! It is the...

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the lights, horn, and starter on a DC circuit?
The magneto is only wired to the coils on an AC circuit.

So LED headlights never get a taste of AC current.

Non-starter cars (no generator too) depended on magneto. A dimmer was located behind the blocking plate where the Ammeter would have been. Models with...

George. Yes they have two brightness levels. They are large headlights type bulbs and probably wouldn't fit in tail light housing and would be over kill if they did. They sell other led bulbs for tail lights. Ledlights.com has the best selection and prices. ba15d is the part number of the ones I bought. If vibration is a problem the wedge shaped...

The answer to his question is yes. Remove the water pump and install the original metal pipe from the bottom of the radiator to the water inlet and install the old fan belt to see what it does. If your radiator is good, it will cool the engine through the thermo-siphon system without a water pump. The thermo-siphon system works in the following...

Yep, it's a 1917 wrench (part number, not year).

It probably got double struck when it was forged, like a double die coin. I just hope it didn't happen because a new person at Moore or Herbrand (or whoever was making these for Ford) was slow, and he didn't get his fingers out of the way of the die press when it came down for the next wrench, and...

So, we were able to get back at it today. Pulled valve cover and gasket and, yes, intake on 4 was stuck open. I got the job of cranking and my son put a screwdriver blade between the bottom of the valve and I would crank it over and it would rise and not come down, then he would tap a wood dowel through the plug hole and tap it down, spraying...

Steve, the beauty of the blocking I used is that you can easily raise the car one corner at a time adding as you go. The other nice thing is they cost nothing. They were made from scraps that I collected at local building sites.

Hi James,
The recomendations are great for high pressure requirements. If for low pressure as in model T apllications try Speedway Motors they have a
good selection of clamps for all aplications.
Craig.

Bill my Roadster backboard is buried in the back corner of my garage, so I can't get photos of it for you. The photos in my post are of Henrietta, my barn fresh tourer backboard. It has a wooden tray which is full width, sitting over and above the rear fenders, and extending forward almost to the front doors. The spare shown is strapped to the...

A year ago I made a similar frame from wood to install the hogshead on a 23 touring by my self. It worked very well. It was not needed to remove thr hogshead because I was able to lift it by myself.

Art Mirtes

There is more to the story on .270 regrind profile. The the duration and hence the overlap increases with .270 lift and its effects as explained by Glen Chadfin a few years ago.

Also I wonder how deep the case hardening is on original camshafts.

But ar this time, I guess regrinds are the only thing that is available for rebuilding engines.

Art...

my 1908 S roadster has canadian serial number on the block so they were making engines in Canada back then

Thanks Steven. For years, I preached to the other T owners, that if it does not start with one pull of the crank (after warm up) something is wrong. Then said to figure out what's wrong and fix it. I said that so many years that if my car does not start and run good I will be shamed by everyone. The only time it does not start good is when I'm...

Since its an updraft carb the special part of the manifold was to clear the generator.
The 04 was original equipment on some Chevy & Essex models.
--
This manifold made many years ago with a boss to accommodate Model T linkage. There are also original (aftermaket?) manifolds like it without it.
MOUNTING 0.jpg
--
Helpful documentation
Rebuild...

UPS came to the Cleveland Ohio area when they bought Cleveland delivery in the early 1950's. I started with them in the early 80's as a mechanic at the Middleburg Hts. hub. Actually had the chance to have old number 1 in my bay it was the 1913 package car, also had the opportunity to go over the new Model A package car. I did retire after 30 yrs....