MTFCA Forum

Since I am sheltering at home and saw a speck of dust on my '27 T pickup and decided it was time brush it off. One thing led to another and I've almost got the car clean. I decided to post some photos of what I found under that speck of dust.


I finally got the speck of dust off and this is what I could see:


Looking back in time a few months ago I installed my engine after some work was done to it. The work was done by an expert until it came time for installation. Then I set up the magnet height and mag clearance whilst doing the install myself. As always I "tapped" my magnets down until all were within .002" of each other. Problem was they were significantly out of level and Ford calls for using a copper or lead hammer to lightly tap. I have done the tap thing many times over the last 20 years. This time my tapping was more vigorous. Close inspection of these 90+ years old aluminum cast spools indicates cracks in only 8 of them. Just so you won't call me "frugal" I decided to splurge and get all 16 spools for $20 (how can I be frugal, this is four times what the whole car cost!).

All I can say is maybe you should be very careful if you try and flick a bit of dust off of your car!

TH

Don’t forget the screws and if you or a friend has a lathe, making a few spools out of brass is a easy way to get the balance spot on.

That's heck of a great suggestion using variable weight spools - man, I shoulda thought of that !!!

Steve,

As smart and inventive as you are I am surprised you did not think of this 1st. I always read your posts regarding problem solving. Especially your ability to be creative.

frontyboy

I don't care if it's in the Bible, I hate the idea of whacking magnets with a hammer. I make shims and put them under the low ones. That brings them up to where all are within two or three thou. Close enough for gummint work.

Terry, I hate to mention it, but that field coil doesn't look too healthy either. While you're in there. . . . .
Nothing else to do right now!

Maybe that is why Ford made the early spools out of brass!

David

appears you're really passionate about the subject! (one for each post)

I’m almost done polishing the outside bass, one side lamp and two hubcaps to go. Now for the mag spools !

Scott, that's what happens on dial-up when the screen goes blank & you think you lost the page entirely. Oh well. . . .

Whacking magnets was fine when all was new, or almost new, but 100 years later we have to do things differently. First, the brittle century-old aluminum doesn't squash well; it breaks, as Terry has shown. Second, you're taking some of the charge back out of the magnets that you just spent a lot of time putting in. I have practiced and advocated shimming for years. This thread has brought out a nice new kink: I think I'm going to add the multi-weight spools idea to my shim method.

I second the motion on your field coil, Terry. You don't need another dish of copper linguini.