Ford use of cotter pin fasteners

[49willard]

I am currently painting the chassis on my 1912 Foredoor. The chassis fasteners have cotter pinned nuts. I assume that this was done due to the poor and lumpy roads of the time. Did Ford stay with this practice all the way through Model T production? Having restored an A many years ago I do not remember there being so numerous cotter pinned fasteners. What is the history?

[Mike Silbert]

Ford used cotter pins heavily through 1926.
For the 1927 model year cotter pins were being replaced with lock washers.
Exact transition dates are nominal just like everything Ford.
Critical fasteners stayed with them through the end and beyond.
I assume it was a cost cutting measure since a lock washer is faster, cheaper, easier to install then a cotter pin.
Nothing is more secure than a cotter pin or safety wire, except maybe 100 years of rust.

[Humblej]

My unrestored 23 T has cotter pins made with equal length legs which would make installation more difficult. The assembly line solution in 1923 appears to be to not separate the legs but push them over as if a single pin. The cotter pin shown in the picture is on the right spindle arm. All the cotter pins I can see have been installed this way.

[RecklessKelly]

That cotter pin looks a little new- electroplated, it could have been replaced and the guy did a cheese job on it. The original ones I find on mine have a dull look to them.
I can never find the exact pin in the hardware store, they are either too small and head could almost go thru the pin hole or I can barely push the next size up into the hole. Could be that they arent made to the old sizing standard or not sold in size incerments that fit the T. They dont have the offset end like they used to. I usually cut down one end if its possible with my snips.

[Humblej]

John,
The cotter pin shown in the picture, as well as all the others on my car, are unplated, unpainted, even leged pins that have been in the car for 100 years.

[Mike Silbert]

Here is an article written back in the day describing the 6 sizes of the 95 cotter pins and where they go.
They are 3 different diameters and available from many places.
I usually get a assortment kit and loose most of them when the case pops open
I would give credit if I knew who originally wrote it.

[RecklessKelly]

Maybe the shine of the flash made it look newish.

[Drobnock]

Of course, the use of baling wire and small finishing nails work too.

[RecklessKelly]

Sure, whatever you can find in the barn.

[Steve Jelf]

Elizabeth's Hairpins

is from Murray Fahnestock. If remember correctly it's pretty accurate, with one or two minor errors.

[John Codman]

I wasn't dressed to crawl under my '27, but it uses cotter pins on the spring shackles and on the bottom steering column support. The weather is crappy outside today, so maybe I will find the time to get under it and see if there are others.

[Oldav8tor]

Fasteners will loosen on anything that moves. There isn't a single structural fastener on an airplane that doesn't have a self-locking nut, cotter pin or safety wire securing it. Henry used what was available and cheap back in the day.

[DanTreace]

Did Ford stay with this practice all the way through Model T production? Having restored an A many years ago I do not remember there being so numerous cotter pinned fasteners. What is the history?

Here is some of the history, excerpt from a letter to Mr Henry Ford, from a F.H.Briggs, dated Sept 19, 1906. Mr Briggs wrote about some quality issues of his new Ford Model N. One can assume that Henry read this letter, and found ways to fix loose fasteners.....Cotter Pins!

[J1MGOLDEN]

My uncle was born about 1900 and has his first car, and that was a Ford about 1920.

He bought a new Ford in 1950, and the first thing he did was jack it up, and spend about half a day tightening or try to tighten every nut or bolt he could find.

He seemed a little off his good sense at the time, but now I know why he did it.

He also got his first truck driver's license about 1915 in New York City.

Not long after that, he got his first speeding ticket with that truck for doing 18 MPH in a 14 MPH truck loading area.

What really made him mad was the police officer caught him while riding a bicycle and he did not think the speedometer was that accurate on a bike.

The $8.00 ticket had to be paid by him, and that was almost a full week's pay then.

[Mark Gregush]

Bet you are talking about all the cotter pins in the bolts holding the pan to block/hogs head?
None of the cars I work on are points cars, so those locations get lock washers which is what Ford went to later. Besides, I have yet to assemble those parts and have not needed to come back later and give a little snug down after the car had been driven a while.

[Original Smith]

Don't forget the special cotter pins designed to fit the top irons in 1921-22.