***1915-1916 Firewall Assembly, Engine Side***
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2025 4:16 pm
Okay, next installment, the 1915-1916 Wood Firewall Assembly, Engine Side.
This is the side I usually put a wiring diagram on, but with the 15-16, there isn't much to connect one too. Since everything is connected to the Magneto Terminal on the Coil Box and from there went to the various connections on the engine and headlights.
There is only one loom and it contains 5 wires. Four for the Timer and 1 for the Headlight (which aren't on this drawing), so in the interest of keeping the drawing less cluttered with things that can't be connected to the various components that don't appear in this drawing, I thought I just put in a diagram that shows where those wires would connect to the Coil Box.
I've come to find out that Ford didn't supply a battery with 15-16 cars, they were an option and he did provide for the cables supports (some sort of bent nail in 4 places). But the Switch on the front of the Coil Box, has a position for "BAT" and (of course) one for "MAG". We know it has a magneto, so that "MAG" position is a given, but since it also has the "BAT" position, that means if the owner did indeed want to install a battery they'd hook it to the Battery Terminal on the firewall side of the Coil Box. In these modern times the battery probably runs the tail lights and of course if you've got turn signals, you'd run those off the battery also. You should probably hook up a magneto charging circuit for the to charge the battery with though, but I didn't include one on this drawing because I don't believe that Ford bothered with putting one in the original car since he didn't even bother supplying a battery for them either.
As always, if you see something that is missing and or on the drawing that shouldn't be, let me know so I can correct it....I try to be as accurate as possible, because these drawings are only of worth to the hobby if they're correct. And by correct I mean as Henry Ford built them, not as you or I have altered them, which is why I depend upon you folks to help me with that, if anybody knows anything about any of these cars it's you folks, not me! I'm just the guy pushing around a bunch of electrons. 
Ya know, we can "new and improve" anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a better choice. I for years ran a distributor on my 22 Touring, thinking that it made the car run better (and I argued that point a lot on the old forum too, lol) But whilst rebuilding my transmission I decided to rebuild the magneto too (and charged every magnet to pick up a 4 lb crescent wrench). And I've got to admit (now...after eating large quantities of crow), that my car runs a lot better on Her mag than She did on that old distributor my dad designed and built out of old VW parts. I'm not trying to disparage anybody using a distributor because the car runs good on those (especially with a vacuum advance), but my car seems to just run better than it ever did with that distributor. And since I don't have any spare coils, I keep a Stoltz distributor under the rear seat just in case I need it someday...hopefully I won't, but it never hurts to be prepared now does it?
This is the side I usually put a wiring diagram on, but with the 15-16, there isn't much to connect one too. Since everything is connected to the Magneto Terminal on the Coil Box and from there went to the various connections on the engine and headlights.
There is only one loom and it contains 5 wires. Four for the Timer and 1 for the Headlight (which aren't on this drawing), so in the interest of keeping the drawing less cluttered with things that can't be connected to the various components that don't appear in this drawing, I thought I just put in a diagram that shows where those wires would connect to the Coil Box.
I've come to find out that Ford didn't supply a battery with 15-16 cars, they were an option and he did provide for the cables supports (some sort of bent nail in 4 places). But the Switch on the front of the Coil Box, has a position for "BAT" and (of course) one for "MAG". We know it has a magneto, so that "MAG" position is a given, but since it also has the "BAT" position, that means if the owner did indeed want to install a battery they'd hook it to the Battery Terminal on the firewall side of the Coil Box. In these modern times the battery probably runs the tail lights and of course if you've got turn signals, you'd run those off the battery also. You should probably hook up a magneto charging circuit for the to charge the battery with though, but I didn't include one on this drawing because I don't believe that Ford bothered with putting one in the original car since he didn't even bother supplying a battery for them either.
Ya know, we can "new and improve" anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a better choice. I for years ran a distributor on my 22 Touring, thinking that it made the car run better (and I argued that point a lot on the old forum too, lol) But whilst rebuilding my transmission I decided to rebuild the magneto too (and charged every magnet to pick up a 4 lb crescent wrench). And I've got to admit (now...after eating large quantities of crow), that my car runs a lot better on Her mag than She did on that old distributor my dad designed and built out of old VW parts. I'm not trying to disparage anybody using a distributor because the car runs good on those (especially with a vacuum advance), but my car seems to just run better than it ever did with that distributor. And since I don't have any spare coils, I keep a Stoltz distributor under the rear seat just in case I need it someday...hopefully I won't, but it never hurts to be prepared now does it?