MTFCA Forum

I dismantled a November 1919 engine to free it up for sale and found this. Removed the manifolds, head, tranny cover, crankcase, tranny and field coil. Problem was evidently in the 4th main. Anyway, was annoyed I couldn’t simply remove the cam gear cover. Upon further inspection I found this bronze piece bolted to the engine and crankcase on both sides of the crankshaft behind the crank pulley. It looks store bought with the Pat’d numbers and wear from the pulley. But the tin piece under it appears homemade. I surmise it was installed to bring the crankshaft forward thereby bringing the magnets closer to the field coil ??

I should also have said I removed the 2 bolts fastening the cam gear cover but still couldn’t remove the cover. Finally used a screwdriver to pry up the bronze accy....

Joe Bell gave me one years ago, think I made a small batch that went to Lang’s. Pretty sure they make them now and carry it in their catalog. At least they did. Yours is worn out but easy to build up with some good bronze rod. They are a bandaid item, but could get you until your next rebuild.

That was an accessory that was fairly common. In fact the vendors sell them. Lang’s has them for 19.95 and call it a crankshaft shim.
You could also file the holes in the main bearing cap in an slotted shape to move the cap closer to the crankshaft to lessen the end play. That was a quick farm fix but it did work.
It’s interesting some accessories are being reproduced and it’s because they work. Of course it’s not like installing a new end cap but folks did what they could so they could keep their T going.

Well I’ll be darn. Never seen that repro in the catalog or ever heard of this accessory. Twice in my 54 year Model T hobby I’ve had one engine rebabbited and another 3rd main replaced. Thanks guys !! Mark, you’ll get yours tomorrow

A few years back when Martynn Vowell and I were trying to get Derrick Pangs runabout going we used a repopulated version of that to make up for clearance on his warn engine. Worked like a charm. None of the suppliers had one in stock but Royce was kind enough to offer one that he had. Thanks again Royce.

George N, Royce is good people! I miss his presence here.

Many years ago, I saw a tired old engine with a couple pieces of hard wood hammered into place between the pulley and the oil dam. Once they wore into the pulley, they seemed to stay fairly well. The engine had obviously been leaking enough oil to keep it well lubricated.

The trouble with that fix is that it's at the wrong end of the engine. The aim is to keep the magneto gap small - but above zero!
The alternatives which shimmed the third or even second bearing would have been better......for a while.

An old timer, long gone (Eric Goodey, of the famous Berkshire clan) told me an old trick for starting was to use a tyre lever to tweak the pulley forward and narrow the mag gap enough to get it a spark on the first pull on the handle.