MTFCA Forum

See if you can guess what this is and what happened.

Is that seat material with some portion of a metal tab sticking out?

My guess, it's a crease in the upholstery, and something was jammed from behind. Must be a roadster.

Key stock that you forgot to include in reassembly

Looks similar to this.... rats trying to pull the rat bait down their hole ... yes in the barn where I keep my model T

My first thought was that someone dropped a flash drive into the gorilla enclosure at the zoo and it is laying next to the concrete wall guarded by the occupant.

Great answers! See the bigger picture. It is a Bendix key that went missing for 30 minutes when it fell out and silently wedged itself between the mechanics creeper head cushion and the creeper. I could not figure out where it fell including turning over the creeper (it did not fall out) until I carefully examined the creeper head cushion itself. It took pliers to extract it. -- IV

WOW, That would have driven anyone nuts!

Now I know what happened to mine. About 3 days ago the last part I put on a rebuilt motor was the starter. Had to rob another starter.

Those Bendix keys are a lively bunch, they seem to pop out of position at the slightest provocation. I found mine once on top of my transmission door screen, it got tossed up and caught by the magnet.

Without the key in place, all the starter force is taken by the spring bolts and they won't last more than a few starts before shearing.

It is nearly impossible to see or feel what the key is doing when you slide the Bendix onto the shaft.

I learned early on to check the fit of the key in both the starter shaft and the Bendix head to insure that the head can slide on the shaft smoothly without pushing the key out of its slot in the shaft. If I ever have to replace it again I'm tempted to use some loctite to affix the key into the starter shaft slot and let it cure before sliding the Bendix on.

It looks like a bendix key wedged in the crease of a creeper head cushion.

How did you know???!!!!

Jeff5015 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:38 pm

It looks like a bendix key wedged in the crease of a creeper head cushion.