MTFCA Forum

We are thinking about having some of the shim/spacers made up. The one piece shim. The originals I have are .015. They would not take the place of the brass laminated shims but would supplement them. This was original to the T engine. Ford part number 3272.
Question, would there be a market and if so what thickness would people like to see?
Mark

Mark, depending on the process to make them, it would be nice to have some original .015" items, and some .010" ones. By combining these two, multiple settings in .005" increments could be achieved. I like to have the magnet keepers ground once they are set to the correct height. This makes them absolutely true, but it does mean that a light grind needs to be compensated for when setting up the clearance to the coilplate.

That way, the brass shims would only have to be used to tilt the plate as needed, rather than space it as well.

Allan from down under.

Mark

Think that many would use this large shim, hope you make them.

One of mine is .018 so don’t know factory spec but likely were around this size. Think one size will be ok.

Mark Gregush wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:37 pm

We are thinking about having some of the shim/spacers made up. The one piece shim. The originals I have are .015. They would not take the place of the brass laminated shims but would supplement them. This was original to the T engine. Ford part number 3272.
Question, would there be a market and if so what thickness would people like to see?
Mark

We normally end up using shim stock of .002, and .001. That would make 4 points 9, 11, 1, and 3, perfect, with a .030 thousandths gap.

The mag coils that are between 9, 11, 1, and 3, are filed down, a few thousandths to the same height, if needed, as the Dial Indicator reads, on the 4 standards.

The two on the bottom will read from not under .006, to not over .010.

No matter how you do it, they have to sit 24 hours, to let them Acclimate, they can, and do change a little, they are cast Iron.

You can already buy .010 thousandths in Steel, in a horse shoe made for the Model A Flywheel housing.

Some spacers shims, for major height adjustments would be handy, and for me would be the fine adjustment shims of .002, and .001.

Thanks Mr. Mark,

Herm.

I will be keeping my eye on this and see how the feedback goes. Thanks Dan for posting the photo. I forgot my camera at the shop and was going to do same.
Mark

We are doing some pricing. Our guy can do the .015 and .020 on his laser but .010 is too thin, I am going to look into water jet on those. We are also considering doing them as a two piece unit. Like the one Dan shows but cut in half. It would lower the cost because of less waste.
Mark

Other manufacturing methods to consider.

You could stack up a bunch of shim stock sheets, of varying thicknesses, and have the whole stack wire EDM'd. Fixturing would be the challenge, but not impossible. (Did a similar thing for a work project some years back)

OR

You could do a search for places that make "steel rule dies". A fairly cheap process that should work for something like this.

Mark, the beauty of the one piece shim is it stays in place while you fiddle with individual shims to make adjustments. Making it two piece sort of reduces its advantage. You may find that the cost of material is the least cost in production when compared with tooling/cutting/packing/marketing. Good on you for having a go at this for our benefit.

Allan from down under.

Mark, I forgot to mention that .015" and .020" shims would do nicely. That would allow .005" increments, except for .025", by adding your shims in varying combinations.

Allan from down under.

I agree with Herm. You need to make shims of different thicknesses to get an accurate job.

Larry, you are right about individual shims being needed. The one piece ones are used to get you somewhere in the ballpark. Once they are set, the juggling can commence with individual shims. Not all set-ups require the thicker, one piece shim, but when one can be used, it makes the adjustments with thinner individual shims much more user friendly.

Allan from down under.

Well, I for one am interested. I have a goofy problem (I'll do a tell all in a later post) that requires me to add approximately .065" in shims, and the one piece jobs would sure be easier. I'll be keeping an eye out........

Thanks for the suggestion of "whole stack wire EDM". I looked that up last night as it was new to me and just fired off and email to a local place that does such work.
Mark

Another place we need shims, is for the mains and rods. I know they are available in .003, but how about .001 and .002? I've been making my own for years, and hate it!

I found these paper shims between the flywheel and crank the other day.