MTFCA Forum

I’d be interested in seeing the variety of ammeter designs used in model T instrument clusters. Were they sequential in the changes of where the needle comes out, the screws attached and the Ford logo placed or were different manufacturers supplying them at the same time?

Early styles were elaborate. When Ford started adding electrical, likely lots of suppliers to keep up with sales demands.

Here are a few, one of the earlier suppliers was Hoyt.


1926-1927

So Dan, were there non-script ammeters installed in the factory as original equipment or are they always replacement units?

Here are 12 different "Ford" script ammeters that were used on 1919-25 Model T''s that had generators.. The 6 on the left have the "Ford" behind the needle, and the 6 on the right have the "Ford" below the needle. The ammeter on the lower right is a 1926-27 ammeter with the adapter ring that Ford provided so that it could be used on the 1919-25 cars.
Ford had many suppliers.

Nice display, Jim !

My Dad's '19 has a Liberty meter, marked "Ford" with a nickle bezel similar to the one on Jims display. The charge/discharge sides are reverse of any other meter (no, it's not the wiring...it's the printing on the dial) and for the life of me it always gets my attention when I drive it as the needle is always showing a slight movement in the "wrong" direction. The car also had an original style generator which was unfortunately lost during an engine rebuild.

Very nice display, Jim

I've got one somewhere that starts with an 'N'. Nader or something like that. Leave it to Jim to come up with a display as above. Neat!

Mark Osterman wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 17, 2020 6:28 pm

So Dan, were there non-script ammeters installed in the factory as original equipment or are they always replacement units?

Mark

If you meant the small 26-27 shown with the switch panel in my first post, that is a 'fixed-up' meter from Ben Martin. Ben used new guts from a reproduction and used the pasteboard face too. Those don't have script.

As far as known, all factory meters have Script. Like to keep the bezels from broken old small meters, as the reproduction small meters don't have the Model T style bezel. Correct look is the wide flat nickel plated bezel, the repros are rimmed alum most times and ugly to me

Here are original, and original bezel with new guts, and the typical repro with rimmed edge bezel.


And a few others, the early version with exposed mechanism, and some Script ones, and a small version (too small to fit to Ford panel, mounting screw centers off) and of course another product of Hoyt, a hand held meter.

What a wonderful collection of photos? I wish I could find my face plate that was printed on both sides. The backside was printed off center.
Rich

Jim ... love that they are displayed in what looks like a muffin tin!

Case & bezel are aluminum

Frank

I wonder if that came in a nice velvet box and a bag with a rope handle?

Tiffany (no relation to the jeweler) was a maker of lamps and things for autos, the fender light is one.

Mark, You have a sharp eye to catch my muffin pan for displaying the ammeters.

Larry, I'm sure that you have a Nagel ammeter. Five of the 12 ammeters in the picture are made by Nagel. They seem to be the most common. The 5 Nagels are all different in some way, -usually the Ford script is different. All of them have longer needles that pass over the Ford script.

The early Hoyt, #1, and the Sterling, #4, have brass bezels.
#7, and #8, have aluminum bezels and housings.
#3 just has a patent date and a model number.
#7, and #12 do not have any markings to identify the makers.

Scott_Conger wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:11 pm

Frank
I wonder if that came in a nice velvet box and a bag with a rope handle?

No bag just a box

Frank

I love it!

I have a bunch of original meters. Most all of them are Sterling. There are two styles. The most common one has SBC embossed between the two terminals, and the other has a deeper case that says Sterling.

#4 is a Sterling ammeter with a brass bezel and brass housing marked "STERLING.
#11 has SMC embossed between the terminals. Probably for "Sterling Meter Company" ?

#7 and #8 have aluminum bezels and housings.
#7 has no markings.
#8 has a logo that looks like EMCO or MECO

Anyone need any large Ford script ammeter faceplates ? I have a pile of them !