MTFCA Forum

Oil is not very expensive today in real dollars. Remember that refined products, such as gasoline, are heavily taxed in many jurisdictions.

Some types of paint can have a low electrical resistance. Most any metallic paint, including gold or silver colors, and some black or dark colored paint can cause issues. For the coil box top piece, cleaning off all old paint, soot, etc and re-sealing the wood with something like Krylon Ignition Sea...

Automatic transmissions can consume significant power, too. Taking advantage of modern lubricants can cut parasitic power losses in Model Ts. Radial tires, if available, might further reduce power loss.

Many old rims are rusted and otherwise damaged, which might be expected to affect the tire to rim fit. It would be a good idea to keep the casing and rim contact area free of any lubricant, so far as is possible. I would inflate a newly-installed clincher tire to 60 PSI for a few days to assure that...

Ford owner's manual, 1926 HIGH PRESSURE TIRES: Cars: Roadster & touring, Front, 55 PSI Rear 55 PSI. Trucks: Front 55 PSI, Rear 80 PSI. BALLOON TIRES: Roadster & touring: Front, 27 PSI, Rear 27 PSI Closed cars & Roadster P/U, 27 PSI Front, 30 PSI rear Changes in tire construction over the years appar...

The body mods may have been done to increase cargo space.

A T tourer or closed car carrying 5 persons and/or luggage, etc, would carry more load on the rear than the front, thus requiring higher inflation to support the load, besides resisting drive and braking forces.

The table I referred to mentioned "straight side" tires. The range of lower pressures (Well below 50 PSI) Ford specified were for tires designed for drop center rims. It appears to me that clincher type tires require a minimum of 50 to 55 PSI, cold, and that vehicle characteristics and loading often...

Ford was looking for "live agents" in the early days.

Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2018: Clincher tire pressure I have "balloon tires" on my late roadster. Ford was all over the map with pressure recommendations. I run 25 to 27 PSI, cold, and get very good results. It seems that Ford, at some point, recommended 55 PSI for clincher type tires. Some have in...

You must have a very good tire gauge....

I'd have to guess, and my guess would be 55 PSI, cold for a lightweight car with one or two passengers. I don't know if there is any period information available that gives specific pressure/load figures. I came across an early table of load/psi recommendations, but they were for 4.40 up to 7.30 tir...

Not bad. The Ford driveline is fairly efficient, it seems.

Excess clearance can allow the valve face to scrub on the seat as it closes, which can shorten valve life. Oil consumption and carbon deposition on the back side of the intake valve heads will likely be increased. Noise may be increased. An engine run at higher speeds with sloppy clearances would pr...

Rear wheel horsepower?

A safe minimum pressure must be maintained. That said, the wear pattern shown indicates that some reduction in pressure would give better results. A tire that is undersized for the load it is carrying will typically show excess wear at the outer edges. According to Ford, the original equipment tires...

If I had the Wards tires, I'd try running a little lower inflation pressure. It's possible to wear the center tread of a tire to the cord while leaving close to half the tread on the outer edges by carrying too much air pressure for the load the tire is carrying. That's a waste of tire life. The Blo...

High ambient temperatures cause more rapid tire wear.

That sounds low to me. Conditions of use, and of the vehicle, and vehicle characteristics, all have a substantial impact on tread wear rates. Some drivers can destroy a set of tires very quickly, while others can keep tires in good condition for extended miles of service. Some road surfaces are a lo...

Going for 103F today, per NWS. Tomorrow, 70F.

A colored lens is a narrow pass filter. A clear lens passes a wide range of frequencies.

I have a 2018 motorcycle that has an LED headlight and auxiliary lights, but the tail light, brake lights, and turn signals are all regular filament bulbs with colored lenses.

LED lights generally attract very few insects due to emitting a narrower bandwidth of light that most other light sources. If they emit less red and orange frequencies, it would probably affect how much of their light would pass a red lens.

The Blockleys may have a harder tread compound, which will extend wear at some expense in traction. A softer compound will give excellent traction , especially on pavement, but will wear faster, all else being equal. The Blockley tread appears to put a good deal of rubber on the road, which ought to...

I don't think those nasty pits would cause trouble, so long as no teeth chipped or broke or shed flakes. But if the wear on the old gear is different from the other two, it might cause trouble, since they all work together when engaged and all share the load equally when they're in good condition.

As far as I know, there is no LED specific lens for use on bulb-type lights. Some lenses can darken with age, or become yellow, but that will affect any type of bulb you use, not just LED bulbs.

A straight frame will avoid handling issues, needless strain on engine pan arms, and a number of other problems.

Cars with sagged frames look tired. Cars with distorted frames never handle quite right. It may be difficult to get a top to fit really well on an open car with a mis-aligned frame.

I'd straighten it. It shouldn't be difficult. If it's skewed, the car will dog track, since both axles will be at a slight angle to the car's center line. It may make fitting body parts more difficult, and it can set up strains in motor mounts and springs that can affect ride handling, and more. Pul...

Is the frame "diamonded" , or is one side shorter than the other? Measuring diagonally, it should be fairly easy to straighten the frame if the side rails are not bowed or sagged. The straighter, the better. Check for loose rivets or any other fasteners and correct as needed. A straight frame makes ...

The bridges with goats on them are the ones to avoid.

The one on the left in the first picture looks good. The one on the right looks damaged.

The first picture appears to show damage to teeth on the gears to the right of the cracked one. If something got between those gear teeth, it could have overloaded the gear that cracked.

Mixing new and used transmission parts can lead to trouble due to many of the parts being too hard to "wear in" to a good running fit.

It may be that the gear was defective, or it could be that a problem in the u-joint, driveshaft or rear axle put a shock load on it, causing a fracture. I'd do some checking on the driveline downstream of the new transmission.

You might want to block up the rear end and run the car in high at about 15 MPH for ten minutes or so, then shut it off and pull a sample of the rear axle lube. A suction gun works well for this. You will probably find excess metal debris in the lube. Rotating the wheels by hand, and running it in l...

I assumed they were made from "box wood" with perhaps a hardwood top piece.

You may have a Scat, or other counterbalanced crankshaft. One indication would be much less vibration than a stock T. A sure way to tell would be to remove the access plate on the crankcase and look. It would be very good to have receipts, notes, previous owner or other information on what has been ...

Mine showed up today, 3-18, in 76481

It's a beautiful car for sure. I wouldn't worry about the overdrive other than to be sure it is properly lubed. My inclination would be to go with a stock ignition system, if the car has a functioning magneto, but for now I'd run the distributor and tune the car up if it needs it, lube it up, and dr...

Thermocure?

Tires deteriorate at different rates for a variety of reasons related to the tire itself and the environment around it.

Century-old insulation of any type is liable to give problems in high voltage applications. Some types of paint can cause high voltage leaks.

Tires decay with age, even if they've never been unwrapped.

The wood terminal boards are a prolific source of problems due to high voltage leaks that can cause missing, hard starting, and bucking and jerking, especially when humidity is elevated.

Glazed porcelain insulators would be better than un-glazed ones. At some point, Ford made provision to divert rainwater from the firewall area to prevent high voltage leaks. That may have negated the need for glazed insulators. The glazed ones would be the best choice, if they fit. They will resist ...

If you are going to haul or tow, you may need to use a different rear spring. The roadster came with the lightest duty spring, and the pickup used a different, stouter one.

The oilers will need to be fully seated. When the weight of the car is on the spring, I think the oilers will have a little more clearance. Many new springs are on the stiff side. A few hundred loaded road miles will usually limber them up and they will usually settle a little. Tightening the spring...

You'll need to repair or replace the worn parts. The forward ends of the wishbone and what they attach to have to be tight and properly shaped to establish and keep the correct wheel alignment and steering angles, particularly the caster angle. It's also important that the wheels be balanced and tha...

Looks like a lot of retirement age people.... and not many in the child-rearing, career-building years. Figures... People never grow chronologically younger, but all people age. Children grow up, mortgages get paid off, and people tend to acquire more free time and garage space. Some are wealthy eno...

Under most circumstances, the best way to refurbish a coil box is to buy the plastic replacement for the wood that is available from vendors.

Early 6 cylinder designs tended to have issues with crankshaft flexibility, twist, and torsional vibration. 7 main bearing designs only party dealt with these issues. Hudson made a huge step forward with crankshaft counterbalancing, and Lanchester made another leap forward with the harmonic damper. ...

Ford has been accused of "hating" everything under the sun, from horses to Jews to 6 cylinder engines to foreigners to other-than-black paint, and more. From what I've seen and read, Ford despised waste and inefficiency, and little else. Ford Motor Co. built a great many 6 cylinder engines during hi...

I don't know, but my guess is any of several common hardwoods would be suitable. It would need to be free from flaws and be kiln-dried and sealed to prevent it from absorbing moisture.

What is the wood contaminated with? Many wood coil box parts have internal faults that cannot be easily seen or remedied. (Carbon tracking). If the wood has paint on it, especially any paint with metallic or carbon pigment, you'd need to sand all of the paint off and then seal the wood with somethin...

MADE IN (Anywhere but HERE)

I used to be 26... about 49 years ago.

"Not doing it for money or fame. If the value drops great I can afford more." Indeed! As for people not being able to afford a hobby, there seem to be thousands of people around here that can afford to drive $70,000+ dollar vehicles down the roads at 80 MPH all day long, often dragging a huge traile...

Fan hubs run at much higher speeds than do wheel bearings. The best arrangement is a sealed ball bearing hub. Short of that, the original late style hub that's in good condition will work fine using motor oil. I would not fill it full of oil. I'd fill it a little less than half full, which can be do...

Autolite may be dissolved, or it may be bought by someone else who knows nothing about what Autolite manufactures. Or maybe it can come into the hands of good management...in an improving USA business climate.

I believe some of the late improved advertising mentioned added louvers for better air circulation, or something to that effect.

Thick or dirty oil will make starting a Model T difficult. Ford recommended what amounted to high quality 20W motor oil. Much better oil is available today, and 10W30 is a good choice for general use. In cold weather, 5W30 or 5W20 is a good choice. I use 10W30 full synthetic oil in my T with very go...

The seller of the Howe TT kept the brass bell and a couple of other items... I'd have wanted the whole enchilada at 17 K....

The '26-'27 T battery horn is not the best. On a TT, having both the standard horn and an accessory would be nice. On a TT, you'd have plenty of options on where to mount an accessory horn, such as one for a Model A.

Far less roadable than the one currently for sale.

New batteries may need a charge. Is your generator working? You may have a starter issue, as noted above. Did the starter work well last fall? If so, oil may have seeped onto the commutator, in which case cleaning it will probably cure the problem unless the starter is loaded with oil. All battery c...

Many people don't have room for a truck. License and insurance may be an issue for some. TT tires are expensive, and a TT is even less suited for modern road conditions in most localities than is a T. I think that high insurance rates have reduced the number of local parades, too. A nice late TT fir...

Ford did not make and install the engine pans just to give the hired help something to do. Both pans and hood louvers serve to manage air flow, and as late as 1926, Ford improved the T cooling system by raising the fan height. A thermosyphon system circulates coolant by taking advantage of the diffe...

Certainly a good guess. Old John Deere tractors were started by using the flywheel rim as a crank. I believe they had finger holds cast into the inner flywheel rim, like a steering wheel... or like that starter.

I don't think either pan was intended to serve as a steering stop. I do think they were intended to limit access for road splash, mud, dust, gravel, manure, etc. getting into the engine compartment, and I believe they improve airflow through the radiator when the car is moving, and in doing so, furt...

I put a Walmart "motorsports" sealed battery under the seat of my car to run a Garmin navigation/speedo/odo/clock/ etc device. That was nearly five years ago, and I remember it being rather expensive. It's showing signs of failure, so I went to get another one.... $98.00, not including TAX. The simi...

Sometimes what you know is right is what is wrong.

Putting an inductor (or resistor) of sufficient capacity to buffer the starter engagement in series with the starter would probably cause too much current drop once the starter was engaged and cranking the engine.

Using a smaller than standard battery can limit total available current to the starter, but that will affect cranking current more than the initial engagement current, and I would expect an undersized battery not to last very long in a car that is started often, since the small battery will be overl...

I'll stick with 6 volts and an Optima battery. Small, inexpensive 6 to 12 volt converters are available to supply a clean 12 volt DC source for modern electronic devices, if you need that stuff. Excellent 6 volt LED lighting is now available if you want it, and an excellent 6 volt voltage regulator ...

You can use E-10 as long as the vehicle is being used often. (Be sure it's fresh) For storage, E-0 is best.

It's good to see the track is still there, and that the background is NOT covered over with "development".

I would not run those valve springs. Even a single small rust pit, nick, or scratch can cause a spring to break in service, possibly leading to a dropped valve.

Where is it located on the frame? Some companies that operated company fleets stamped frames or other major parts with a stock number, company name, or a symbol to identify the car if it was stolen. I used to have a T rear axle that was stamped:
"The Prairie Oil Co.
Glen Pool Oklahoma"

The 5.50 X 21 6 ply tires currently available can be used on Model T s with 21" wheels, like the 1926-27 Ford wire wheels. They have an overall diameter of about 31" or a little more. Some aspects of performance and handling will suffer, and some others will improve. For best ride on typical public ...

I don't see much of any Pinto there..... (?)

You'd need a geared steering box, 15:1 or so, to run really big tires, and they'd probably hit the fenders in off road situations. Another problem is that the frame rail is not strong enough to handle the stress with a steering box suited for large, soft tires, especially in off-road use. The engine...

Low pressure tires cannot be used on rims made for high pressure tires, and high pressure tires cannot be run at low pressures. (Under 50 PSI)

Big tires do not work well on stock Ts driven on the public roads. If you use your T for rock crawling or as a sand buggy or for mud hogging, the sky, or your wallet, is the limit.

The term "Balloon tires" in the T era typically referred to any low pressure tire, including those which look very skinny to us today, such as the 4.40/4.50 X 21 tires. Prior to around 1928, tires were usually 3" to 4" in nominal width, with tread around 3" wide, if any tread was present, and tire p...

Some water-base cleaning solutions will attack babbitt bearings.

It's important to use a UV resistant "outdoor" material such as convertible top material.

A quality convertible top material would make a good top covering. I'd want to have an underlayment like Allen suggested.

A guy near here has a 1926 Lincoln sedan that was converted into a very nice pickup by an oilman back in the 1920s. The rear of the sedan body became the back of a single bench seat cab. It looks like a factory build. The bed and rear fenders look like factory equipment.

The crank case on the passenger side looks to have what may be chalk markings on the cast iron underneath the paint. There's a good chance those are factory markings. It might be interesting to find out what they mean, if anyone knows.

I'd want to replace the two worst looking valves. They're in bad shape and may be in danger of the heads coming off the stems, which could be a disaster. The valves do not have to match one another.

Ford stated that the magneto air gap should be between .025 and .040. Crankshaft end play should be .002 to .004. My end play looks to be more like .010, using the eyeball gauge, so the magneto air gap may be in the borderline range. Since I have an aluminum crankshaft pulley, I don't think I can us...

I don't think gasoline has ever had a fixed definition. I have used thousands of gallons of natural gasoline, condensed from wet natural gas. It had about the same general properties as to BTU content and volatility as commercial gasoline, except that the octane equivalency was very low. You can run...

A tinned block would be ideal. Short of that, the added thrust face would need to be thick enough to resist heating up or cracking from mechanical stress.

There are good reasons to minimize the amount of time that the clutch is disengaged with the engine running, so far as is practical. If you use low gear a lot, or often need to idle the engine in neutral, it might prudent to install the shade tree shim before problems develop. Having additional bear...

An engine with a sprung crankshaft or a misaligned crankshaft flange would tend to wear both thrust faces excessively. A flywheel assembly with lateral imbalance would do the same. To minimize general wear, good balance and true-running parts are essential. When the magneto is producing current, it ...

I would think that a full 360 degree babbitt face on the forward facing thrust surface would be a worthwhile modification to delay wear affecting the magneto air gap. I would also think that it would be prudent to configure the added upper forward thrust face babbitt with an oil groove to assure tha...

I have been under the impression that the rear main bearing cap comprises 50% of the rear main bearing.

In many modern engines, the ECM controls base timing and running timing, fuel mixture, valve timing, and EGR operation.

I think there is a difference in US and European octane calculations. E85 will run in "Flex Fuel" vehicles, but fuel economy will suffer. Ethanol has a high octane equivalency, probably 100 or higher, but very low BTU content compared to typical motor gasoline. Propane has a high octane equivalency ...

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