My Model T Milestone

Discuss all things Model T related.
Forum rules
If you need help logging in, or have question about how something works, use the Support forum located here Support Forum
Complete set of Forum Rules Forum Rules

Topic author
Ron Patterson
Posts: 533
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:32 pm
First Name: Ronald
Last Name: Patterson
Location: Petoskey, Michigan
MTFCA Life Member: YES
Board Member Since: 1999

My Model T Milestone

Post by Ron Patterson » Thu May 12, 2022 6:20 pm

After over 30 years of Model T ignition coil rebuilding,
I finished and shipped rebuilt coil #24018.
Ron Patterson


MichaelPawelek
Posts: 702
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:01 pm
First Name: Michael
Last Name: Pawelek
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1919 Touring, 1925 Coupe
Location: Brookshire, Texas
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by MichaelPawelek » Thu May 12, 2022 6:23 pm

Ron, Do you think you have the process down yet? :)


Topic author
Ron Patterson
Posts: 533
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:32 pm
First Name: Ronald
Last Name: Patterson
Location: Petoskey, Michigan
MTFCA Life Member: YES
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Ron Patterson » Thu May 12, 2022 6:37 pm

Michael (a customer from 20 years ago)
I enjoy telling people that when we both look at a Model T Ford ignition coil, we both see two entirely different things.
I prefer to work on coils that have no been molested by predecessors. Every time I think I'd seen it all, I find some "new" way to make a mess. :lol:
Ron Patterson


Kerry
Posts: 1297
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:42 pm
First Name: Frank
Last Name: van Ekeren
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1916 touring, 1916 pick-up, 1924 coupe, 1926 touring, 1927 touring
Location: Rosedale Vic Australia

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Kerry » Thu May 12, 2022 6:58 pm

:o Ron, How true! and don't limit it to just the coils, diving inside the engine will give you a how in gods name did someone think that was a good idea! :o :? :roll:


Don D
Posts: 284
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:36 pm
First Name: Don
Last Name: Demio
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1919 T
Location: Tennessee
MTFCA Number: 27167
MTFCI Number: 20405

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Don D » Thu May 12, 2022 7:04 pm

Ron,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, skill and abilities with all of us in the hobby.

Dom


Topic author
Ron Patterson
Posts: 533
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:32 pm
First Name: Ronald
Last Name: Patterson
Location: Petoskey, Michigan
MTFCA Life Member: YES
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Ron Patterson » Thu May 12, 2022 7:53 pm

Kerry
I try to stay in my own lane on this Forum.
Model T Ford electricity is my area of expertise.
Notwithstanding some posters here nobody is an expert in every aspect of Model T's.
Ron Patterson

User avatar

Oldav8tor
Posts: 1930
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:39 am
First Name: Tim
Last Name: Juhl
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1917 Touring
Location: Thumb of Michigan
MTFCA Number: 50297
MTFCI Number: 24810
Board Member Since: 2018

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Oldav8tor » Thu May 12, 2022 10:02 pm

Guys like Ron make this hobby possible. His coils are in my '17 and have carried me reliably over 5000 miles so far.
1917 Touring
1946 Aeronca Champ
1952 Willys M38a1 Jeep (sold 2023)
1953 Ford Jubilee Tractor

User avatar

Steve Jelf
Posts: 6464
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 9:37 pm
First Name: Steve
Last Name: Jelf
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1923 touring and a few projects
Location: Parkerfield, Kansas
MTFCA Number: 16175
MTFCI Number: 14758
Board Member Since: 2007
Contact:

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Steve Jelf » Thu May 12, 2022 10:43 pm

Steve Jelf's Coils 001.JPG
Ron does 'em up right pretty. They work, too.
The inevitable often happens.
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring


Wayne Sheldon
Posts: 3641
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:13 pm
First Name: Wayne
Last Name: Sheldon
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1915 Runabout 1913 Speedster
Location: Grass Valley California, USA
Board Member Since: 2005

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Wayne Sheldon » Fri May 13, 2022 1:42 am

The model T world owes Ron Patterson a debt of appreciation beyond measure.
My dad was a brilliant electrical and electronic engineer (rare for someone to be really good at both!). Although I have never met Ron Patterson in person, I have read so much of what he has written on the subject, that I feel as though I have known him for years. He is without a doubt one of the few people I have met or known that I feel was at or near the level of understanding electricity as my father was. I consider myself to be near the level of understanding electricity at about the one percentile (just don't ask me to recite the formulas? I just look them up when I need them?). Both my dad and Ron P I believe understand electricity about a hundred times better than I do!
The model T's system was an archaic science. Left behind as engineers refined production to a simpler basic. By the 1950s, what made the model T system work was essentially forgotten. Ron P figured it out. He wrote articles published in hobby magazines, explained it in ways people not predisposed to understanding electricity itself could understand the basics.
When nobody had a clue to what capacitor a model T coil needed, or why it was different than most modern applications? Ron P sorted it out, and found sources that would actually work and work well. He began rebuilding coils for people, and explained in ways they could understand the hows and whys a model T's original system was a good system! He taught other people how to rebuild the coils, and do it right. He is THE reason so many model Ts today can run well and reliably on their original ignition system.

Thank you Ron P, thank you.


Chris Barker
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:08 pm
First Name: Chris
Last Name: Barker
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1926 Coupe
Location: Somerset, Eng;and

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Chris Barker » Fri May 13, 2022 5:05 am

I echo the sentiments above from here in England.
Ron advised and helped when I set out to really understand the T system.

It seems to me that there is a universal rule that says:
'At some time in its life, the electrical system of every old car will fall into the hands of someone who shouldn't be allowed out without his mother.'


TXGOAT2
Posts: 6411
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:08 pm
First Name: Pat
Last Name: McNallen
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1926-7 roadster
Location: Graham, Texas
MTFCA Number: 51486
Board Member Since: 2021

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by TXGOAT2 » Fri May 13, 2022 8:35 am

"At some time in its life, the electrical system of every old car will fall into the hands of someone who shouldn't be allowed out without his mother.'".... all those guys who used to work at Lucas?

User avatar

FundyTides
Posts: 190
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:29 pm
First Name: David
Last Name: Wilson
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1927 Canadian Touring
Location: Saint John, NB, Canada
MTFCA Number: 51596
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by FundyTides » Fri May 13, 2022 11:00 am

My thanks to Ron as well for the excellent job on rebuilding my coils and for walking me through getting my generator working again. A very knowledgeable and patient man, two qualities that you don't usually find in the same person. Explains everything in a way that can be easily understood by the average person. People like Ron are the ones who make the Model T hobby so enjoyable. I really found Ron's recent article, on repairing the starter buss bar, in the recent issue of The VIntage Ford, very enlightening. I suspect that I have this issue with my starter and can't wait to make it my fist project on the T this season. Hat's off to Ron!


modeltspaz
Posts: 193
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:15 am
First Name: Mike
Last Name: Spaziano
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1926 Touring
Location: Bellflower, California
MTFCA Number: 21699

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by modeltspaz » Fri May 13, 2022 11:03 am

I purchased a set of 6 (four for the coil box and two spares) from Ron back in 2000.
I put the four new coils in the coil box on my '26 Touring and the other two under the front seat.
The two under the front seat are still in the same spot I placed them in when I got them. I have NEVER had to remove the four in the coil box since they went in.
Thank you for for 22 years of trouble free coil service.

Mike Spaziano.
Knowledge that isn't shared, is wasted knowledge.


Original Smith
Posts: 3284
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:43 am
First Name: Larry
Last Name: Smith
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 13 Touring, 13 Roadster, 17 Coupelet, 25 Roadster P/U
Location: Lomita, California
MTFCA Number: 121
MTFCA Life Member: YES
MTFCI Number: 16310

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Original Smith » Mon May 16, 2022 3:25 pm

I have a 1925 with Ron's coils that just turned 10,000, I've not had the lid of the coil box once.


Dan McEachern
Posts: 1181
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:08 am
First Name: DAN
Last Name: MCEACHERN
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: too many. '14 touring, 2 depot hacks, 2 speedsters
Location: ALAMEDA,CA,USA

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by Dan McEachern » Mon May 16, 2022 3:35 pm

Unlike Larry, I have to remove the lid on my coli box to replace the registration and proof of insurance because I keep those inside the coil box. This affords me the opportunity to say hello to Ron's rebuilt coils, but never more than to say hello and "see ya next year".


It's Bill
Posts: 279
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:41 pm
First Name: Bill
Last Name: Hoffer
Location: Mars, PA
MTFCA Number: 32571
MTFCI Number: 24364
Board Member Since: 2016

Re: My Model T Milestone

Post by It's Bill » Tue May 17, 2022 1:28 pm

Ron's coils take a lickin' and keep on tickin' ! Top notch work, many thanks, Bill

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic