MTFCA Forum

Fordwright

Did you notice his right hand as he extended it to shake hands with the groom? The reason it looks like he is wearing a rubber glove is because he is. It is to cover the fact that he is missing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand that he lost in 1919 when he lit his cigarette with the fuse o...

Fordwright

Apparently, the dimple in the door was no big deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-kR7o34cA

Fordwright

Don't be fooled. Massive fields of RVs used to be more common around here, but most of them have disappeared. The dealers had a deal with the manufacturers to store the RVs on consignment, but customer demand was never anywhere near high enough to justify the massive amount of stock on those lots.

Fordwright

I'm not sure that getting upset is the answer. Recognizing the risks and doing something about them makes more sense.

Fordwright

Caution advised.

Fordwright

Quickm007 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 01, 2020 10:33 am
We saw a big propeller, it may come from the Titanic...

Right, someone went to the bottom of the Atlantic, fetched it and threw it on a scrap pile.

Fordwright

The parts that didn't rust are the Ford parts.
Vanadium steel.

Fordwright

It's a sad loss to the world that P.L. Robertson felt offended by Henry Ford's heavy-handed approach to the manufacture of square-drive screws for the US market. He went home upset and endeavored not to allow his Robertson screws to be made or cheaply licensed in the US. That left the field open for...

Fordwright

https://www.boltscience.com/pages/helicalspringwashers.htm Helical spring lock washers have been in use for well over 100 years. They are still used on many applications in the belief that they will will "lock" the nut/bolt to the joint and prevent loosening. The body of evidence, based upon both ex...

Fordwright

A lot of enthusiasts were experimenting with crystal radios in the early 1920s. If you had only one radio station nearby, the simplest crystal circuits were good enough. If you wanted a bit of tuning between stations, the tuning coil would give you a bit of selectivity. But it wasn't long before var...

Fordwright

Ford was a brilliant man, having become a millionaire after age 50, but he obviously became full of himself, creating his own motion picture department, showing him in a grandiose light, hanging around with the likes of Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. He also felt qualified to tell people how to...

Fordwright

I'll drive my touring in the upper 30's at the end of February/ beginning of March because I'm chomping at the bit and am willing to go through the trouble of jacking up the rear end to get it started. In November I am less motivated. :lol: I've found that as long as I have my upper body covered we...

Fordwright

My mother talked about riding in the Model T with a number of hot water bottles, just as they did before on the sleigh.

Fordwright

As far as charging a battery goes, before rural areas got electricity, there were windmill or gas engine powered generators that could charge batteries. How else could you listen to the battery powered radio! ;) No lights in the house but we got a telephone! Farmers were resourceful, and would have...

Fordwright

I believe if a little research is in order, one would discover that a Bosch Magneto, retail was $30.00 (in 1916) new. A manufacture would have paid less order in bulk. See Automobile Dealer and Repairer I believe that my source, the Ford Museum archive, was referring to 1908, when the first Model T...

Fordwright

I'll drive my open touring in the mid-40's if it isn't too windy. What I won't do is drive it after they start salting the roads. I used to sell ammonium sulfate years ago. One day a man from the highways department came and told me that they used it on the roads because it melted ice a lot better ...

Fordwright

Sounds like a loose connection in the drivetrain. Mild acceleration keeps things tight, but when you back off the power, things start vibrating.

Fordwright

Back in the cold old days, farmers used to light a wood fire under the tractor to warm it up. No wires to burn, nothing to damage.

Fordwright

It's my understanding that in the early days of the Model T, a standard magneto cost $150. Completely out of range for a car that sold for a few hundred dollars.

Fordwright

By the same token, I'm irritated to see a "vintage" car with features from many decades later, like alternators, power steering, disc brakes and custom floor mats. In my view that makes it a hot rod, and not really an authentic antique.

Fordwright

Old trick from the great white north, used by bush pilots and Model T drivers alike: In cold weather, drain the crankcase oil while it's still hot. Bring it into the shack, and when you want to go out again, but the pot of engine oil on the stove until it's good and hot. Pour the hot oil back into t...

Fordwright

Our research may differ, but I have to question the assertion that both ignition systems could be used at the same time. The flywheel magneto is an alternating current (AC) generator, and the battery is a direct current (DC) source. Both will operate the trembler coils, creating ignition spark, but ...

Fordwright

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object Personally, I think as long as it's understood that the vehicle was once original, and there is a provenance of replacement parts in...

Fordwright

It seems a bit questionable from an engineering standpoint that Ford kept the flywheel magneto after he installed a generator and battery on the Model T in 1919. As previously mentioned, a magneto is handy for crank starting when your battery is dead, but the Model T was not like an aircraft, where ...

Fordwright

i hope this isn't too far off-topic, but there seems to be little written about Ford's aviation contributions. He basically kickstarted commercial aviation with his Ford Trimotor airliner, but after a blockbuster success in the mid-1920s, he wrapped it all up in 1932. By that time McDonnel Douglas h...

Fordwright

Originally, the flywheel magneto was only for a source of power for the ignition coils. It replaced dry cells on earlier Ford cars before the Model T, and dry cells were still used in some Model Ts to make starting easier, but they didn't last a long time and cost money to replace. In those days "ma...

Fordwright

Few have driven a Tesla to the point at which the vehicle really starts to show its age. But Tesloop, a shuttle service in Southern California comprised solely of Teslas, was ticking the odometers of its cars well past 300,000 miles with no signs of slowing. The company’s fleet of seven vehicles—a ...

Fordwright

If it hasn't been mentioned already, a possible point of failure is in the ignition timer, which some people also call a "distributor." If the main power lead to the timer is cutting out, it could cause all four ignition coils to stop working. [/size] A timer and a distributor are two different cri...

Fordwright

I was thinking the coil box may be out of adjustment, but since there are four of them, they would never cut out all at the same time, so that's not it. I'm not sure what he means by "magneto cutting out," because on the '23 model it had a crude electrical system separate from the flywheel magneto. ...

Fordwright

Bob McDaniel wrote: ↑
Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:24 am
But if you replace the wine in the bottle is it still the same wine?

Good enough to decorate the mantle, as long as you don't lie about it.

If your Model T is destroyed in a fire, and you repair it with all new parts, it's not much different,
as long as you don't lie about it.

Fordwright

So if you put tires on the Rip Van Winkle car its no longer an original car? I don't buy that train of thought, some parts are wear items whose replacement have no effect on originality. By that way of thinking there are no original cars. Andy I've never heard of anyone being such a purist that the...

Fordwright

They are both consumables if you want to get technical, but the wine gets used up in hours, while the car can take decades to consume. By "consume" I mean eventually disappear. Vintage aircraft are a better example perhaps. While there may have been thousands of planes of a particular type during th...

Fordwright

Andyclary wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:41 pm
Awesome thread drift

Andy

Well, we're back from the dead end and on track again.

Fordwright

#5 ^ :lol: What good is old wine besides enjoying and remembering the taste. If it's still even good to drink! You drink the wine, it's gone 12 hours later. You use the car, and it's still in the garage tomorrow. Not a great example. I think it's a great analogy... but 12 hours...I want to drink wi...

Fordwright

Mark Gregush wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:18 pm
#5 ^ What good is old wine besides enjoying and remembering the taste. If it's still even good to drink!

You drink the wine, it's gone 12 hours later. You use the car, and it's still in the garage tomorrow.
Not a great example.

Fordwright

Good point,. I didn't think about it until now. After doing a Google search, it turns out it's not good for the environment. There was an incident where it was accidentally dropped on a section of river and it killed around 20,000 fish. Since it is made of fertilizer and water, it really changes th...

Fordwright

How is hauling a T around on or in a trailer authentic? If it prevents you from installing modern brakes, lighting, engines, etc, you can keep the car more authentic because it doesn't have to be as road-worthy. It doesn't because it requires adding all of those. The fact that the additions are rea...

Fordwright

My Dad talked about all the valve grinding they had to do in the old days. They used a type of tool that looked like an old crank drill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJoJC2gkjFE

Fordwright

Each person has preferences. We don't have to agree. I get frustrated looking for a T on ebay and finding a Hot Rod without a single ford component. And even more frustrated to see someone paying multiple times as much as my car is worth... I thought that was illegal since Boyd Coddington was convi...

Fordwright

The trend toward "conservation" and an appreciation of "patina" are evidence of a mature approach to "old cars", and that's a good thing. I couldn't agree more. Fortunately, there seem to be a good number of Model T's that are being preserved. When I was heavy into Model A's, I noticed that a much ...

Fordwright

fliverfan wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:41 am
How is hauling a T around on or in a trailer authentic?

If it prevents you from installing modern brakes, lighting, engines, etc, you can keep the car more authentic because it doesn't have to be as road-worthy.

Fordwright

ewdysar wrote: ↑
Tue Nov 05, 2019 10:55 pm

Fordwright wrote: ↑
Tue Nov 05, 2019 10:08 pm
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... crash.html
I think that you meant this for another thread....

Perhaps, but we were discussing road safety.

Fordwright

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... crash.html

Fordwright

I think we're lucky they still let us Drive Model T's on the roads. I doubt the same could be said for all earlier cars.
Does anyone know if the curved-dash Olds is road-legal?

Fordwright

I can't tell people how to spend their money, but if you don't feel safe on public roads without good lighting, you might consider adding it temporarily.

Another option is to trailer it whenever possible.

Fordwright

I'm no expert on the steel that went into those valves, but some of the steel in those days could be quite brittle due to the way it was manufactured.

Fordwright

Certainly, every Model T owner has a right to modify their cars any way they like, but it makes me a little sad to see a Model T with all sorts of visible compromises to modernity, such as an alternator. customized floor mats, modern gauges, etc. I have nothing against a modified class where the mod...

Fordwright

Both pumped storage and batteries have their advantages and disadvantages. One particular advantage claimed for batteries is that they can be installed in months, vs. years for pumped storage. This need not be counted as an advantage unless authorities have been lax in anticipating the need for ener...

Fordwright

The style of some coaches prior to those days didn't have doors, because the sideboards were often low enough for the driver to step over. Doors were sometimes installed for passengers who were generally of a higher class than the driver and/or ladies who might find it undignified to step over the s...

Fordwright

As far as the car not having a drivers door, it was probably considered unnecessary due to the brake lever, pedals, and steering wheel interference. There was drivers side access on earlier cars without doors, and there was a left rear door on later touring bodies too. Also as mentioned, if driving...

Fordwright

When it was introduced, the flywheel magneto in combination with the trembler coils was a brilliant solution. The magneto produced unregulated AC current that varied considerably from 4 volts to over 30 volts at higher engine RPM. The trembler coils acted somewhat as a ballast against too much curre...

Fordwright

Bud, glad you are making good with your windmills. Out west, there are once pristine vistas now blighted with windmills. A good example is the valley northeast of Great Basin National Park some of which can be seen from within the park. With regards to wind and solar, some seem to forget that the w...

Fordwright

And regarding the trembler coils - why change something that worked? And there may be patent issues as well. The flywheel magneto which was actually an alternator, was originally a brilliant solution for driving the trembler coils, but by 1919, after a generator, a battery and starter were added, i...

Fordwright

So after 4 years of the model A with a oil pump Ford did not start with them in the V-8?? Bud. :D Many engines had combination of splash and pumps into the 50's. That's what the sources say. At least we know that the V8 was tried with splash-only lubrication, but failed to make it past the dynamome...

Fordwright

The earliest keys (1914-1919 were not much more than a flat piece of metal, and a small, flat screwdriver would turn it. They got a little more sophisticated after that with a few tumblers and eventually grooved keys, but nothing like the locks of today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoCLY354FZk

Fordwright

Thanks, yes since I received the reproduction key switch unit, the key easily falls out of the switch so I have to turn it then put it in my pocket while under way or else it will fall out. Is that normal? -- IV It needs to be repaired or replaced. In the meantime, try some of that non-hardening gl...

Fordwright

Another example of Henry Ford's stubbornness in his later years was his insistence that engines not have oil pumps, only splash lubrication. When the V8s were being developed, they all burned out on the test stands until oil pumps were added. As mentioned, he opposed hydraulic brakes, forbidding the...

Fordwright

On the right-hand side of the Model T, the exhaust pipes were very near the floorboards, and tended to make things very warm after a few miles of driving.

Fordwright

But in all fairness, the high-tension magneto had been used in production cars since 1899, and by 1919, nearly every car on the market was driven by magneto ignition. Remember we are discussing the Low price Ford ;) A car made for the masses, easy to repair at low cost, there wasn’t desire for Henr...

Fordwright

Our 1950 LA Case tractor had a crank on the front and magneto ignition, but it also had electric start. It had quite a large engine for the times which was over 400 cubic inch. I can't remember anyone starting it with the crank, but it must have been possible. Booster cables were always the best opt...

Fordwright

The Edison model was to build a power plant in every neighborhood and sell them DC power. Westinghouse, using Tesla's AC power technology allowed him to out-compete Edison by building much larger power plants which could distribute power over much longer distances. Over time, economics-of-scale grad...

Fordwright

Considering the slower speeds, the limited amount of driving and the comparative lack of traffic congestion in the days of the Model T, the number of car accidents and related injuries was shockingly high.

http://www.observationsblog.com/odds-n- ... -the-1920s

Fordwright

I don't think ignition systems were in Henry Ford's skill set IMO, just the opposite. Henry first gas engine, the kitchen sink one, began his knowledge of igniting gas engines, he made lots of contributions, the most famous in directing Huff to perfect his idea of a low tension magneto that would n...

Fordwright

I've seen plenty of larger trucks and tractors that had provision to attach a hand crank, but I can't imagine some of those engines being hand started. I assumed it was for turning the engine for some types of engine maintenance work like setting the timing.

Fordwright

Safety is being aware of the risks and dealing with them safely.
Safety has little to do with piling on endless rules, and expecting everyone to respect them all.

Fordwright

I am so glad to be moving out away from people. Whenparts stores are offering batteries with 10-15 year warranties then that will be my sign that maybe batteries are better. I bought an AGM battery for about double the cost of a regular battery, and it worked fine for 10 years. I lost it when someo...

Fordwright

Bob Likely Henry stayed with the flywheel and trembler coils after the starter and battery lights era for the fact of his T being a ‘non-pre- obsolescence’ vehicle. i.e. he strived to keep changes to the T minimal, for factory benefit, customer, and dealer parts supply repair chain, if a part had t...

Fordwright

Henry Ford was already entering middle age when he began to experience his astounding success with the automobile, but I'm unclear if some things were myth or reality. Did he forbid a driver's door on the Model T because he believed it was unsafe for the driver to stand on the left side of the car i...

Fordwright

I think antique cars are exempt from most safety regulations in most places, which constitutes a special privilege to those allowed to drive them on public roads. It also entails a responsibility to keep yourself and your passengers as safe as possible. Remaining on back roads and streets, and limit...

Fordwright

This Shawinigan calcium carbide was made originally in Shawinigan City, Quebec province, Canada in 1909. Here a little story about that company. I'm leaving an 1 hour from my there. The Shawinigan Carbide Company, forerunner of Shawinigan Chemicals Limited, was established in 1901 by Thomas Leopold...

Fordwright

Although it pains me when they do this, the safest way to preserve the look and function of a carbide lamp might be to install a bright LED headlight inside the lamp. I wouldn't doubt that someone has already developed a conversion.

Fordwright

There's good potential for an electric pickup truck that's actually used for running around locally and "picking up" stuff, but having worked in several resource industries, particularly in Canada, fuel range is a problem, even for conventional diesel pickups. Some revolutionary changes will need to...

Fordwright

Kaiser wrote: ↑
Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:34 am
How would those smug Tesla owners feel now huh?

Not a Tesla, but a Prius owner modified his car to supply power to his house during a power failure. Quite a lot of capacity as I recall.
I also saw something on Shark Tank where you could modify your car to run as a standby generator.

Fordwright

Sarikatime wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 29, 2019 9:17 pm
That may not be a puller but a thread chaser, in case you bugger up the threads and want to fix them. Frank

If its a thread-chaser, it won't chase very far before the point contacts the shaft.

Fordwright

No need to panic about throwing out everything in the freezer as soon as the power fails. Piling blankets around the freezer can slow down the thawing. As long as the temperature inside remains around the freezing mark, most things won't spoil right away. A small generator running it once a day can ...

Fordwright

Dropacent wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 29, 2019 9:33 pm
Thanks for your concern, Greg, but this is calcium carbide. Calcium carbonate is a dietary supplement, or a stomach remedy. What I have is for producing acetylene gas, not relieving gas in your stomach.

Sorry, I meant calcium carbide. Thanks for the friendly correction.

Fordwright

Even in a sealed container, calcium carbonate tends to break down over time. If it's light colored and breaks up easily into finer grains, it's probably not usable anymore.

Fordwright

It might be overkill, but it's fairly easy to measure the output with an oscilloscope.
That might be able to show you that one of the pickup coils is bad, or how much voltage is being generated at various speeds.

Fordwright

So what was the way to adjust the pressure to the lights. Just using the off/on valve on the tank to regulate it? Is that the way Ford recommended to owners how to do it? Just wondering since I have black era T’s and not brass. No acetylene tank at all. A needle valve regulated how much water dripp...

Fordwright

I remember the old timers talking about running their Model Ts through the cold northern winters. A trick they borrowed from the bush pilots was to keep the engine oil drained and heating on the stove. When it was time to go driving, you poured in the hot oil, and "instant warm engine." The antifree...

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