MTFCA Forum

I recently inherited a 1926 model T that has been in my family (grandpa and father) since 1961. I knew my dad put a new exhaust pipe on it a decade or more ago. Tonight I noticed something on the very end of the muffler. What is it? It rotates. Is there a time or reason to rotate it? To where? When? What is this thing called? My google-foo not working well tonight…

That is an exhaust deflector, It is out of place as it should be directly over the muffler outlet. It is used to deflect the exhaust downward towards the ground and away from the rear axle and under-body. As you can see, it's effectiveness is sometimes less than desired.

mtntee20 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 10:48 pm

That is an exhaust deflector, It is out of place as it should be directly over the muffler outlet. It is used to deflect the exhaust downward towards the ground and away from the rear axle and under-body. As you can see, it's effectiveness is sometimes less than desired.

Thanks for the quick response. That makes sense! This looks better….

Now I had to noticed the burned wood floor…. That will be another exploration another day…

Is it common to have that significant charging near the tail pipe?

Charring is not common. Dirty, black, sooty deposits are more common, especially if the muffler is not up to snuf.

Allan from down under.

Putting another small bolt in the muffler body will keep the deflector from moving out of place. I doubt if the deflector caused the wood charring. That may be the result of a rat nest fire, or who knows what.

Looking through the exhaust outlet, it looks like the muffler middle shell is out of place. It looks like when the muffler was assembled, the middle shell shifted out of place as the end plate was being tightened. It should be centered on the end flange inside the outer housing. If the middle shell is out of place, it most likely does not function as it was designed to, resulting in a very loud exhaust. When assembling, keep in mind that the holes at the end of each section, alternate from one end to the other so that the exhaust travels the maximum distance back and forth inside the muffler, thus having a quieting effect by the time the exhaust gases reach the outlet.