MTFCA Forum

Luke

DHort wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 18, 2025 1:08 am
Luke, in New Zealand.

Do not ask Dallas what brand of pickup truck is he driving. It starts with a C.

: ohno.jpeg (11.32 KiB) Viewed 17907 times

Luke

Dallas, for a Ford guy you have the wrong colour tractor!

However, given your kindness to Steve, I'll just put my sunglasses on whenever I look at this thread

Luke.

Luke

I am not familiar with FACT for coil testing. Can someone explain this. Art, The main thread regarding the 'FACT' is here: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=9072 It's a fairly long thread but given it's winter over your way you could pull up a chair and, armed with your favourite drink, ...

Luke

To me, it looks like 1916 or 1918. I've used some advanced imaging techniques on the original scan, in my view the number is most likely 1916, but there's a fair bit of speculation involved in that. If we didn't know it was meant to be a year in the 20th century the output looks more like 1 2 16! O...

Luke

I'm sure there's quite a story behind some of these photos, I expect attribution could help somewhat in finding out more...?

Anyway, just to add a little colour in lieu of the real background, here's another view

Luke

For anyone interested, Grace Wagner was the second oldest of four children, born in 1912 so was around 15 when the photo was taken that Eric showed. She graduated from Central High in 1930 and went on to obtain a Master's from George Washington University. Grace became an elementary school teacher a...

Luke

Jerry VanOoteghem wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 19, 2024 1:57 pm

jiminbartow wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 19, 2024 1:26 pm
Does the fact that it is a LHD have any bearing? I thought that the RHD was established long before this.
It's a RHD.

You sure about that?

Luke

frontyboy wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 05, 2024 11:09 pm
You guys all missed the most important part of the photo., the very cute young girl driving!!!!! the Ford is ok but she is a real beautiful young lady.

Just for you then, since it's Christmas....

: ac2.jpg (38.17 KiB) Viewed 6331 times

Luke

Remember that the Ford generator is a current-based charging device, it will charge at a constant current up to a reasonably high voltage. You also need to be aware that I*E=W, and that there is a power limit for the generator beyond which you shouldn't go. Thus while it may charge at say 10A/6V (60...

Luke

Tim,

Very cool, especially to have the original .. in case it's of any interest here's the scan mildly cleaned up, then a small amount of colour added:

Luke.

Luke

Maybe if you started your posts with GREETINGS FROM SWITZERLAND, posters would see you do not live Dave, I guess Switzerland is close to Austria, where Rainer lives :mrgreen: Rainer, It seems you've got a good idea of what to do; in my view it'd be good to tighten things up soon before the movement...

Luke

This was my father's approach. This ran for nearly 50 years and was not removed because it wore out. A bronze wear surface, soldered to the existing babbitt, then screwed in place and everything machined to size. Jerry, That's a very neatly done improvement. That you've got evidence of it's longevi...

Luke

Tim,

Appreciate the comments, thank you, and good to see you've got your unit operational so quickly, I expect Matt would be pleased to read that.

Jolly decent of you to make the offer of boards to others in your country too.

Luke.

Luke

Bruce, I sometimes do analyses on various subjects in this forum, including those surrounding timers. From that I can say that the responses above are typical, ie. almost everyone is delighted with these electronic timers and few have any issues. From that I think you could expect similar results. O...

Luke

Are LED's available for pre-1919 Fords? ... charging a battery via magneto power using something like the Fun Project's kit would send excessive voltage to the LEDs. Some rearranging of the wiring to separate the lighting circuit from running off magneto & having the headlights wiring in parallel v...

Luke

George House wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:17 pm
Heres my ‘14 runabout in front of a beautiful and Huge 19th century house in Mason TX.

George,

Apropos the thread title and your name I thought we were going to be treated with a pic of you standing by your car in a field somewhere!

I'll get my coat + hat and leave ...

Luke.

Luke

I’d like to see one of an Australian house in the outback. When I was stationed there, I stayed in one on a farm near Adelaide with a metal roof and big cistern for catching rainwater channeled off the roof. Best water ever. Jim, if you've lived in Oz you'll understand why the pic below is quintess...

Luke

That's fantastic Richard! I don't suppose you can change the front doors on the house and remove the chain link fence in my picture? John, Sorry to horn in on Richard's job, but in case it's of interest here's my rough 'n ready version of what I think you were looking for. I've not completely remov...

Luke

Hahah, I thought if I referenced your name it was probably a bit too obvious, but you've got it ok ;) They're a wonderful machine which I consider myself privileged to have been able to fly and work on. Expensive to maintain, but still able to get parts which is a plus, bit like the T in that respec...

Luke

Seems no-one else is going to respond ... if you have a look at page 2 of this thread you'll see various images showing different coil responses as they appear on a 'scope and/or OLED display. Hopefully you'll find something useful there wrt to what you're seeing? Will be interested to see your inte...

Luke

Edwin, I don't want to contribute too much to thread drift, but suffice to say it's another good product of your country which, like the T, has a strong place in transport history. If I said it was a 'plane of many firsts (incl first flight just a few years after T production ended), had a couple of...

Luke

Excellent

Luke

Shane,

Good to see some life still in this project, it will be interesting to follow your build.

Are you planning on making the boards and/or design available to all?

Luke.

Luke

great airplane!....A little smaller than the 737..... I flew a Pipere Navajo with a panther conversion, and a Seneca II in my corporate days. Interesting the number of pilots on this forum, the wingspan of my favourite steed wasn't all that different to a 73: DSCF2333.JPG I had a windows laptop tha...

Luke

William, Before you get too carried away with removing the motor or re-magnetising could I suggest you first measure if there is any DC charge current (NOT voltage)? Now that you've cleaned up the mag connection you may find in fact that the battery is being charged in use, although be aware that wi...

Luke

Update and more questions. I set the third brush so that the car was producing about 6-8 amps at a high idle ... I believe that with a charged battery the amps will reduce, but not to nothing,right? Joshua, Well done on setting the current. Your present system will charge at a constant current, unl...

Luke

Wayne Sheldon wrote: ↑
Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:41 pm
.....But, then, I was a "nerd" before it became popular. I was probably the only kid in my high school that preferred Bach to the Beach Boys.

Did Bach drive a Ford?!

(Ok, I know it's a Model A, but...)

Luke

If the photo is taken from where I think it is, then the image is likely flipped horizontally. The numbers (top right/left depending) tend to confirm this.

Cool photo either way, you can spend quite a lot of time looking at it and notice all sorts of different things...

Luke

... Should I try it out again or just order a new one? Get a new one, but FWIW I reiterate that, in my view, a voltage regulator would be a better purchase than another cutout. I also heartily agree with what both Ron and John have just said around protecting your generator while dealing with the i...

Luke

Joshua, You didn't say, but if the generator is back in the car, it's a -ve earth vehicle, it's 6V, you have the throttle up a little, and you're simply measuring between earth and each side of the cutout, then most likely Ron is correct and the cutout is faulty. It's also vaguely possible that poor...

Luke

We all have our opinions & I had posted one from the Battery Plus website that seems to have been ignored. Just to reinforce what Jeff has said here it is Battery Plus again... Frank, You are right that we all have opinions. Mine is based on extensive research and direct experience of LiFePO4 over ...

Luke

...Time for me to get to reading.... Just to add a little more detail that could be useful. In vehicles, and with my house battery, I use individual prismatic cells of around 3.2V each. They are available in 40, 60, 100A/h and larger and can be series up in a battery to whatever voltage you need (o...

Luke

...Lithium ion batteries seem wonderful right up until you see how many of them catch fire and can't be extinguished... Not all lithium-based batteries are the same and should not be confused for each other. I suggest that, when looking for replacement lithium vehicle batteries, you consider LiFePO...

Luke

Bert, Looking at some of well-meaning posts above I was thinking that the year of manufacture may be confusing. Given it's likely a 1926 Model Year , and if it interests you, we can probably do better than just the year. On the top of the RHS chassis rail close to the passengers footwell there may b...

Luke

Sam, Current is separate from voltage, your issue will not be anything to do with voltage per se, but it may be related to the alternator and/or its regulator. Initially I'd suggest using another test meter (perhaps a current clamp) to determine if your system actually is charging at a high current,...

Luke

Originally 143 or 147 East PItt St (Courtesy Library of Congress):

And a view from 1928 (Courtesy Discovering Pennsylvania):

Luke

I thought I had this déjà vu feeling when I saw your post Jay

https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37791

Luke

Tim,

I followed the link you posted. It did not offer any explanation of componentry used in those lamps that might prevent the flickering Noel has identified. It may be that I've missed something, so I wonder if you could post that detail here?

Thanks, Luke.

Luke

Noel, There are a couple of likely explanations for the phenomenon you're experiencing. (1) LED's are a diode, and diodes will rectify. Consider that when you apply an aerial to a 'crystal set' you typically use a diode to 'convert' a nearby radio signal (RF) into an audio output (AF) that you can l...

Luke

Michael, These are great photos and really do contribute to the history record. There are a limited number of 'known' images around original parts + assembly, so it's really great to see something new - and also to get an idea of how things were done in another country. Thank you for taking the time...

Luke

...another brick house we lived in is still standing although our neighbor said it was going to collapse in an earthquake!... Not wanting to derail this thread, but having been very closely involved with buildings and earthquakes I'd be very cautious about an older brick house. Unreinforced brick/m...

Luke

Brent,

Thanks for clarifying the specific lamps you were commenting on.

I suggest it would be useful for people to do this as not all LED's are equal, and as Austin's original post didn't say whose lamps he was considering I think things have become a little confused

Luke.

Luke

.... When you study the shape of the LED bulbs we are using, the chips are aimed forward and outward but are generally shielded from around the axis area where the bulb base is located. No need to focus an LED retrofitted bulb. Brent, That may be the case for some LED's, maybe even those you use, b...

Luke

Commented on someone's post, who then removed their content and asked me to delete my post.

Was happy to do that, however the system won't allow me to...

Luke

Frank, Allan may have initially mentioned David's lamps, but he went on - as I read it - to condemn all LED lamps. I enquired as to whether that's what he actually meant, and commented appropriately. My view is that in order to be critical of David's beam pattern I suggest that: (1) the headlamps sh...

Luke

Allan, You seem to be damning all LED lamps? If that's the case I have to disagree. I have LED lamps that do not 'throw light forward', do not have banks of LED's, do not 'emit loads of ill directed bright blue/white light', and can be nicely focused. I have written about these before, and a lot abo...

Luke

A while ago I read an early 'detective' novel by an author named Josephine Tey (a pen name for Elizabeth MacKintosh). The book is entitled Man in the Queue and it was first published in1929. In the book various vehicles appear, but of particular interest are several sections in which a 'Ford' car is...

Luke

Just playin' around, would need to fix the colours properly, but you get the idea....:

Luke

Hi Luke! What is the brand name of the tractor attachment in your first photo? Chico newspaper? It looks like an "L.A." Glenn Glenn, I had a look back at the advertisement again but it doesn't name the attachment - it was all about the Tracford. FWIW 'Mission Garage' were agents for Ford (and it wo...

Luke

A little more history for you .. they cost $155 in California (March), and $125 in Illinois (February) 1917: tracford1.jpg tracford2.jpg Excerpts from Prairie Farmer , 24 February 1917 and Chico Record , Number 68, 23 March 1917 with thanks to Illinois digital newspaper collections and California di...

Luke

I don't know about Cpanel but you should be able to FTP to your site and do a directory listing in order to see if the file is still there (and what date it reports). That said I'm still suspicious the problem didn't occur shortly after Nov 2016, given the crawler was getting a 301 error for the lin...

Luke

Mitch, I had a quick look at this going back. I have an idea there wouldn't have been any actual entries after about Nov '16, would that be possible? Not sure how you were/are storing the data, but if you're certain there were guestbook entries, and they were in a standard database, I wonder if you'...

Luke

I have some MARX trains from the 1950s 60s.... Who still dabbles in the hobby that could analyze and repair a shorted out or just dead circuit board? Tom, I don't often frequent this forum, so have only just come across your request. As you probably realise I'm a fair distance from you, but it may ...

Luke

John, Hopefully you'll be able to get it sorted via advice from the forum .. however I wonder if it's a good opportunity to call on local assistance? I've found it can be a good way to learn from and meet similar-minded people. From the forum membership list I see several people who aren't a million...

Luke

Great photo, I think Rob has a better system of doing this, but in the meantime here's a slightly cleaned up and colourised version:

Luke

Absolutely what John said. Attempting to use a bendix spring as some sort of low-ohm resistor is not a good idea. Steve, I don't doubt you may have had a good run since but coincidences do happen. Much better to use a little solder and a short length of wire to series all the field coils (or replace...

Luke

Mikhail, As Jeff has said 12V will be no good for an unmodified starter. However you can fix that without much expenditure - just take the starter out, dismantle it and rewire the field coils all in series (rather than series-parallel as they will be now). This will allow it to operate on 12V withou...

Luke

I have the exact same problem. New rebuilt generator from Langs, new VR from Jeff, new wiring and repro ammeter. Going down the road I get +5 but when I turn the headlights on it shows -10. Do I dare advance the 3rd brush any more? Assuming your meter to be accurate then you could increase the avai...

Luke

Here's a little colour on the original image, with thanks to www.img2go.com: IMG_0351b.png For anyone interested in colourising old photographs you'd find that colorize.cc also does quite a good job on this image, but it comes at a cost (along with the terribly miss-spelt website name :mrgreen: And,...

Luke

Mark Osterman wrote: ↑
Sat Oct 07, 2023 7:19 am
.... Have had three batteries and luckily the last two were under warranty. Seems they don’t make them like they used to....

Mark,

Are you using a regulator, or just a cutout?

Luke.

Luke

... I remember seeing instructions about how to rewire an old 6 volt starter to work on 12 volts and thought there were a couple people willing to do it for others for a nominal fee but I can’t find either. I have two working starters and would prefer to have someone do the starter rewire but am wi...

Luke

An 8 volt battery will typicaly have smaller cells than a comparable size and quality 6 volt battery. That could limit cold cranking amps when used with a 6 volt starter. Actual current available to crank the starter might be less than with a 6 volt battery under some conditions. Current does the w...

Luke

Shawn, I've never used one of Matt's boards so hopefully he'll turn up shortly to give some advice, however if you're able to read capacitance it suggests that at least part of the coil-tester connection is likely to be ok. While we're waiting for Matt; it may be that the tester isn't switching prop...

Luke

Philip, just to check you've got the right links: Classifieds for parts - https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=5 Classifieds for vehicles - https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=4 I suggest you make sure you're looking at page 1 (see the bottom RHS of the page you're on for all the pa...

Luke

I'm not quite sure what the purpose of that chart is. John, Call me cynical but I'm reminded of Benjamin Disraeli, as attributed by Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". While that graph/chart probably doesn't actually lie per se I suggest it could be easil...

Luke

Do you think the units you are showing have a greater lumen output than the new units that I posted a link to? Brent, There are several different units available with the same base configuration. They appear to range between 250 - 900 lumens, and 3W - 10W. I have two types here, one was rated at 3W...

Luke

Luke, below is a link to what they are. I may reach out to Don and see if he has any feedback on failures with these. My guess is that for $60.00, the quality is likely not the best anyway. That was very useful, thanks. I was able to swing around in my chair and closely inspect the almost identical...

Luke

Brent, Without a photo it's hard to give much in the way of useful advice, however earlier lamps would often series individual LEDs to approximate the right 'voltage' but could also sometimes overdrive them in order achieve a higher output. What occasionally happened is that one of the individual LE...

Luke

...I do not know what modern headlight regulations are, but 100 years ago they must have been way more restrictive. Jeff, If you'd like some early history this thread may provide: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25440 Chad, Good that you've got it sorted now, hopefully Frank's diag...

Luke

Chad,

It can be difficult to fault-find these things at a distance, and we may have reached an impass, but I'm just checking you did read the thread I referenced earlier in which Matt describes a similar problem and eventual solution? https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34485

Luke.

Luke

Chad, If you have directly run two wires from -ve and +ve of the battery to the h/lamp socket and the LED doesn't light then there can only be two possible causes: (1) The LED is polarity-sensitive and the supply voltage is incorrectly polarised (2) There is an issue with the h/lamp socket (most lik...

Luke

Luke- Touching a ground from negative battery post to outside of lamp and a second from the positive to the terminal at the back and no light, that eliminates the car completely. Voltage is present and correct in the socket and as expected no light as it is more complicated but still the same circu...

Luke

Perhaps it is the flow of electricity rather than the potential difference? This doesn't really make sense to me but trying the bulbs directly to a battery there is nothing. DC doesn't pulse like AC so perhaps there isn't enough resistance in the LED to complete the circuit. As a result an incandes...

Luke

I don't think they even use the cp designation any more? Larry, That's quite correct, the UK candlepower became candelas (a SI unit) in the 1940's I think. There is an approximate conversion between the two with one candlepower being about 98% of a candela, and they originated as a measure of the i...

Luke

Frank, Candlepower (CP) isn't the same as Watts, Ohms law isn't applicable to calculate current draw directly from CP. It may be that Larry's bulbs draw 3.5A, but not necessarily. Also, with regard to a typical Pb battery, if you want to get maximum life out of them you shouldn't discharge beyond ab...

Luke

Going through the wiring on this Buick I have a puzzling situation regarding the headlights which are the same as a double contact T. The LED bulbs don't work unless I put an incandescent in one socket. 2 LED nothing, either socket either LED nothing until I put a plain bulb in then the single LED ...

Luke

$50 each. I will pass Dave, The LEDs I use were circa $3 or thereabouts direct from the manufacturer, they focus well and have lasted. That said the LEDs often advised by others appear to have a good track record and I guess you would have local support - perhaps worth the price? Otherwise, if you'...

Luke

Myxr6turbo wrote: ↑
Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:53 am
Just uploaded the files. Going to be $128 delivered to Australia for 5.

Is that for the PCB loaded? I'm surprised they were unable to source the simple components you referenced earlier...

Luke.

Luke

I have just gone to buy one but they are missing 3 of the components and have no eta when they will be in. Does anyone have one made they would be willing to sell and ship to Australia? Shawn, What 'one' is this, and what are these components? As far as I'm aware all the requisite modules for a mod...

Luke

1) Is it possible to make this with only an arduino and LCD? Shawn, The last of the code examples before Matt added the Oled screen should work fine with a bog-standard Arduino and i2C 1602 LCD, after all that's what I used to develop the device originally. I guess at some point Matt may put up the...

Luke

Didn’t know there was such a thing as a magneto charger, did a search and see you can build your own with a light and diode thing but what is a magneto trickle charger? It's the same thing, 'trickle' simply refers to the fact that it's not a high-current charger and would take a while to charge a b...

Luke

Bruce, Fortunately it's easy and inexpensive to do this today. You simply need a current and voltage adjustable dc boost converter that can be powered from the 6V battery+generator and will charge a 12V battery at a constant current 'till it reaches a certain voltage and will then maintain that (or ...

Luke

Art, Without a part number it's not possible to say definitively but it's likely to be capable of handling the current draw, whether it'd cope with the reverse voltage over time is perhaps less certain. Like JIm's component most of these diodes are designed for high-current but low-voltage use, wher...

Luke

The Diode is a 1N1183A and the one that Snyders was selling as a kit with directions and may still sell. Thanks Jim, That diode has vastly more capacity current-wise than is needed, however it's potentially close to spec from a (reverse) voltage perspective. While it'd probably work ok it isn't wha...

Luke

Some of us have been pushing him on this project since no one else has got off the dime for a year... John, I just wanted to gently mention the following in order to counter any view that nothing was being done on the community regulator project: You may be aware that Tony Bowker was quite involved...

Luke

I am about to find out and do not see any reason why it should not work. Jim, I see some lettering on that diode - any chance you could let us know what it is? FYI the ideal 'cutout' diode would be a mid to high-current schottky type, which is not the right thing for your half-wave magneto rectifie...

Luke

Just to avoid any confusion from my posts: I wasn't aware from Clay's original question that he solely wanted to check secondaries? I took the question to mean how to quickly/easily test that a coil (fully) operated, away from one's workshop. This is the reason I was talking about using AA cells etc...

Luke

Scott, We may be talking at cross-purposes here. Originally I was simply mentioning the fact that electronic testers can be easily powered from a portable supply - then expanded that a little following your previous post. I doubt our random second-hand coils are any better than yours, but if you've ...

Luke

Scott, Each to their own, and a basic continuity test is indeed better than nothing at all, but it won't tell you much about the 'coil' as a complete system (what's the capacitor like? Do the points work? Does it 'transform'?). No doubt one could devise a simple tester that'd tell you a bit more tha...

Luke

FWIW I've run a 'FACT' (https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9072) happily on five AA cells, it'd probably work on four if they were dry cells and not rechargeable. You can make them into quite a small unit. No doubt you could do similarly with Mike's ECCT (you may need a few more cells,...

Luke

Great photos Jay,

In case anyone else has the same idea I initially wondered if this one was from one of the Gypsy Co-eds trips, but a quick look at their website (https://gypsycoeds.com/) suggests it's not...

Luke

michaelb2296 wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 29, 2023 10:19 am
... websites that require cookies be placed on your phone so they can track you (ahem.... "provide you with a better experience"... )

well said!

Luke

Finally, just to show I wasn't entirely one-eyed about these things, and that I occasionally embraced more 'sporting' vehicles: I bought this as a basket case. Did a complete body-off restoration while flatting and attending University .. had to completely clean up and put away all the parts by the ...

Luke

As for me, I have had somewhat north of a thousand vehicles, and have many photographs. I won't bore you with all of them but here's a small selection: My first Jaguar, at 18 years old the epitome of everything I dreamed about as a kid. Cost then $450 NZD (rescued from the literal barn covered in ha...

Luke

Jim,

Not sure if that's the best photo you have of your Mustang, but just in case it is I've done a very quick cleanup for you. With a higher resolution scan it could be better improved:

[attachment=0]DSCN0359.JPG[/attachment

Luke.

Luke

I use GIMP to correct my photographic mistakes or just to improve a picture. It's so versatile that I don't use most of what it can do, but it's great for the few things I regularly do with it. Steve, This is good to hear! It means I now know you'll be able to fix your photo I 'accidentally' ripped...

Luke

Nicely done Luke, haven’t figured out how to colorize yet. How did you remove the circled area? John, What's 'colorize'? :D There are various techniques you can use to remove things like those circles, in part depending upon the software you use. For that job I'd typically use the GNU Image Manipul...

Luke

If anyone had a little spare time when you're there it'd be good to know more about 773 Bellevue as discussed here: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34100 https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31175#p240642 I believe David was going to take a look but nothing heard back si...

Luke

Should anyone want to purchase the card and do a good quality scan it's entirely possible to enhance as John has done, and additionally remove the pen circles (plus colour it if you'd like). Here's a rough idea of what it'd look like:

Luke

So much fun, despite the water pump and >6V battery

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