MTFCA Forum

I have the light mounting parts and repro hardware. The license plate bracket that came on my car is rust-pitted, cracked and bent. I have no apprehension about cutting it down. My new light is an original Ford item and in much better condition. The plate or badge idea is interesting. I could have a...

I want to add a second tail light to my '26 Runabout. My car's tail light housing didn't have a socket for a bulb when I got it. I installed a 2-pin socket in the housing and a brake light switch. I now have a working light. Then one day, George (aka UPRR) hand-delivered another improved-car tail li...

It could be for drainage but not what you're thinking. Imagine if the shelves are painted while hung from one of the holes on the other end. The first process of painting is cleaning the parts. They would be run through a cleaning bath and the fluids would need to drain and dry before paint is appli...

Maybe you have an antifreeze artesian well that's bubbling up through the floor.

Scott_Conger wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:22 am

I've pretty much slowed down or stopped posting...

Hey Scott, don't be a stranger.

At least there was one '13 Touring still on the road and looking good in 1947.

I have been perusing a local online photo archive with photos tagged with the search term "auto". I viewed the photos in ascending dates. I noticed that by 1936, Model T's were absent from street scenes.

The ball on mine was worn .040" side-to-side and .060" top-to-bottom. I took the advice of a forum member and built up the ball with weld and ground it to shape. The process was described with words like "easy" and "fast". It was neither. My problem was that I don't have my welder set up with shield...

Don't forget to fully open the throttle during the tests. You can't compress air that can't get in.

Mike, your E-timer has been on my short list of must-get's for a long time. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet since I’ve been concentrating on all of the drivetrain and safety issues first. I’m hoping to get ready to buy early next year. I’ve read the information on your website many times so I think...

Thank you for the links Rich. I was wondering what the steering wheel attached to.

I saw this photo of a Roadster pickup with a sign on its apron. A google search turned up the ad from E.H. Sprague Manufacturing. Has anyone seen one of these?

I'm not sure what those of you in California will do when new internal combustion engine vehicles can no longer be sold. California can't seem to keep the power on as it is.

I found the same issue with my '26. I've only driven it about 30 miles so far but it hits the plateau at 31 mph (according to my phone's GPS). My car doesn't have a magneto and it runs on 6 volts. Changes in throttle and timing offer no improvements. This discussion made me think of a test that I co...

I like Erik's packing method too. I carry a spare coil wrapped in cloth and standing upright to protect the adjustment. I think I'll wrap it in corrugate like Erik does for better protection.

She's a beauty, Scott.

The Renze Company is a few blocks from where I work. Back in 1934, they did this. Why? I don't know. There are crowns on the hubcaps. I suspect that this was made for the Knights of Aksarben.

It took me a few cycles last week to remove the yoke on my '26. The seam in the rod was twisted near the end about 15 degrees from a previous adjustment. That told me that I was in for a battle. I used a MAPP gas torch followed by a generous flood of WD-40. And, repeat. I don't use the aerosol WD-40...

Thanks for the ride Scott. You've made a lot of progress getting back on the road.

I was told by the traffic department where I work that this year has been the worst for shipping damage and delays in our 70 year history. We ship millions of dollars of produce each day so losses are not insignificant. This summer I had a shipment sent to me from France that FedEx "lost". It arrive...

Here are more photos from Badger Body. The building was across the street from Omaha's Ford plant They apparently sold Ruckstells. badger outside 1.jpg Here is a TT body. badger outside 2.jpg Fordson's on display. Note the one on the right of the photo. badger inside 1.jpg Another showing Fordsons. ...

I found more photos if the inside of the building with Fordsons and bodies on Model TT's. I'll post them later. I can't post from my IPad.

James, Badger Body and Truck Equipment is still in business in Omaha, Nebraska. I don't know their early history. The building in the background of the photos was their plant.

I found this photo taken in 1927.

I wonder what the hitch is attached to.

Norman Kling - The grease requirements you mentioned are basically the reasons for which I buy grease from marine or boating supply stores. Marine supply stores sell grease that is designed for use on boat trailer wheel bearings, and I just figure that whatever "waterproof" qualities are present in...

I was, finally, able to remove the adjustable yoke from my tie rod. It appears to have been stuck for many decades and took many heat and soak cycles. Now I need to get the pitman arm off to replace it. I'm running out of bigger hammers. I might try to make a puller if I can't find one the right size.

The nut is castlated so I wedged a screwdriver into one of the slots of the nut and used that to position it. For the vertical bolt, I fed a thin wire down from the top of the frame and hooked the dental floss I had earlier tied to its cotter pin hole. Pulling the wire and, subsequently, the floss p...

This was my old stomping grounds. I found this May 1922 photo of downtown Benson Nebraska. post block 1922.jpg Two things caught my attention. First, on the right are several Model T's. Parked next to the Roadster pickup is a touring car with the old-style billed fenders. It's probably the oldest ca...

I saw this on my local craigslist and had to share. I have no connection to the ad but the builder is my kind of guy.

https://omaha.craigslist.org/pts/d/benn ... 52962.html

There are many photos in the ad.

: 00s0s_aaJIRkjUpHr_0CI0t2_600x450.jpg (61.81 KiB) Viewed 1057 times

This photo of a wrecked '09-'10 was taken in 1913. Timing suggests that nothing was changed from original. This correlates with Jem's photo. It also shows a screw behind the lamp. See the arrow.

Common to see 26-27 brake drum shoes out of round. I've been fortunate to find a few for my purposes that at are true. I suppose they can be trued but never tried it. I suspect you'd have to remove the liing and use heat. I didn't use heat to make my shoes round and I did it with the linings on. Ma...

Check that the shoe is round with no high or low spots. The low spot will typically be 180 degrees from the cam. Remove the shoe and lay it in your drum. High and low spots will be apparent. I had to adjust my shoes to stop brake drag. To fine tune my new linings I rubbed soapstone on the inside of ...

One of our local residents celebrated her birthday Oct. 1 too. She is 114 years old and the 6th oldest person in the world. I thought about this yesterday. She was born in 1906 and could be the original owner of a new Model T. I don't know her personally to find out if that was true.

big2bird wrote: ↑
Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:09 pm
Were the Offy, Miller, Drake heads close enough to fit a T? Anyone know?

I believe those were mono block engines. They didn't have removable heads.

Me Landers, could you send me a pic of your dip stick next to a ruler please? I have a 26 touring the measurements might work for. There is a drawing of the '26-'27 gas tank fuel level at the bottom of this thread. That should help you make a gauge. http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/24615...

Mark, the box looks like it was a wagon with "...TRUCK CO" on it. It has a bunch of cast iron window sash weights in it.

I found this photo that was taken on May 12, 1913 after an Easter Sunday tornado. 4-12-1913.jpg It has a 6-rivet rear axle housing, which puts it earlier than July 1911. 4-12-1913 clamshell.jpg The other photos show interesting details. There is a cutout pedal on the left. 4-12-1913 cutout.jpg I tri...

I removed my front axle to do a total rebuild. Everything is worn out. Front axle removed.gif It looks like the car lost a front wheel at one time and the perch and spindle bolts on that side were ground down to the nuts. My car spent most of its life as a heavily loaded truck. I imagine that is why...

The first thing that caught my attention was the different front fenders. It looks like '13-'14 on the one side and earlier billed fender on the other.

I ran across this photo today of a brass era Model T truck conversion and had to share it. It was taken in Omaha Nebraska in 1920.

Robert, what paint did you use on your engine? My engine came to me painted the same color. I have a new head for it and I'm looking for a close match to the block.

ChrisB, I have NEVER been able to post jpg photos from my phone or from my computer. That is regardless of file size. I get an error message which states that it is not possible to determine the dimensions of the image. I have to open the jpg in Paint and save it as a gif file. The gif error message...

Mark, I need a right side perch, 3818B for my '26. You state "left" and "passenger side" in the description. I don't know which perch you have. Are these for RH drive?

Can't you remove the pinion housing bolts and the two radius rod nuts? Would that let you slide the torque tube off far enough to drill the bushing? The pinion housing would not be removed since it's captured.

Not Model T but... My niece is 16 years old and has always loved old cars. I gave her my 22 year-old pickup but that wasn't old enough. Last weekend she got her first old car, a '51 Packard. She loves driving it. There is no question that this is only the beginning of another old car hobbyist.

I have no connection to this ad in Omaha, NE Craigslist. The car is in Bennington which is a few miles NW of Omaha. The car looks good and, to me, is reasonably priced at $7,800.

https://omaha.craigslist.org/cto/d/benn ... 62140.html

This is topic-drift. The ribs that seal to hoses on my inlet and outlet were also pitted. I filled the rib pits with JB weld and smoothed them before assembly. There are no leaks and I expect that hoses will come off easily when needed.

Before I clicked "submit" I thought to myself, "Dan has an ad for this." You didn't disappoint, sir.

I ran across this photo taken in 1920. Besides being a great period photo, I noticed that this car has an unusual steering wheel. It looks like it might have a lock and key in the front. Does anyone know for sure?

Rich, shipping weights are listed in the encyclopedia. I took a peek at the 1924 numbers, for example, and found the Runabout at 1540 lbs, Touring at 1650 and Fordor at 1950.

I installed a new set of red hoses last spring. I have no complaints whatsoever about their quality.

One problem with electroplating that hot dipped does not have is the Farraday effect. Electric currents in the electroplate process can leave bare areas inside of bends. The beads of rims may not receive a zinc coating on the inside. Molten zinc in a hot dip tank will flow into those areas.

The windshield post on the right side is from early 1926.

I removed my sleeve by grinding a groove along the length of the sleeve to loosen it. I used a cutoff wheel to cut the groove. As I was grinding I was watching the color of the sleeve. When I was close to the shaft surface the sleeve turned blue because the material was so thin. I stopped there and ...

Factory-installed wire wheels were black. Dealers would exchange them for wheels of other colors to suit customer preferences. You have a the opportunity to paint your car any color combination that you like since there was no standard combination.

The company I work for uses Gatto Industrial Platers in Chicago for zinc electroplating. The quality is quite good and consistent. I don't know if they do hot dip. There are two other companies we use for hot dipping and the quality of the coating varies from week to week.

I'm preparing to remove and rebuild my front axle. I decided to loosen a few fasteners before raising the car to use its mass against stuck fasteners. I loosened the nut at the bottom of a spindle bolt, which took a long wrench for leverage. When it finally started to turn freely I noticed a gap bet...

There they are, Joseph. I was looking for those two photos of Farrington Garage trucks on the University of Utah archive. I posted those on the old forum. Both were taken in front of the Utah state Capitol building. I lost those photos when I got a new PC. I've always loved the pickup.

Steve, the original photo is right side up in David's post. Windows vs. Mac, I guess.

I was looking for something else in a photo archive and I found these photos of a head made by Economy Motor Head CO. It has "For Ford Model T Motor" cast into the head. The patent date is October 1925. Is anyone familiar with this head? It has a curious combustion chamber shape. I would imagine tha...

The photo archive at University of Utah is massive and searchable. I put in a date range of 1917-1932 (random dates) and entered "truck" in the search category. It produced 342 high-quality photos of trucks, most with signage on them. This is a link. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/search?facet_set...

Is anyone who is soaking bows adding a little Downey fabric softener to the water? I read about that trick in Fine Woodworking Magazine about 20-25 years ago. Downey makes the fibers softer without affecting strength after drying. I still have the magazines but finding the article will take time. I'...

Tom, in case you are not familiar with converting mm to inches...

Inches = mm/25.4

For example, the 250mm dimension in Luke's drawing would be 9 27/32 inches.

Dan, a 4:1 case can be converted to 5:1 (and vice versa) by changing the gears and shaft. You are correct that you can't mix internal parts. The gear cases have the same diameter and number of teeth. I took a 4:1 case like the one on the right in your photo and milled the slot to match the 5:1. I us...

When you installed the Z head, did you test the head by putting it on without a gasket and with loose bolts to check for interference between the pistons and head? Hand cranking would reveal interference by lifting the head slightly. There could be interference especially if your engine block has be...

What is the part number of the trailer converter in the above diagram and will it work on 6 volts? Thanks Jerry I don't have a part number since I bought a kit from one of the vendors. But, go to etrailer.com and search for a universal converter, not a model-specific converter. They have the 4-in, ...

I noticed that the truck has disc brakes too.

https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6p5607v

The winner. Sorry, I'm on vacation and can't post photos from my phone.

I saw this photo a few years ago. There is a follow up photo with a sign saying that this car won the hill climb.

Martynn's drawing in the gallery may help if you have not already seen it.

app.php/gallery/image/1126

Brendon, that is a beautiful Model T. There is no better place than here to ask any questions about Model T''s . Ask away and you'll receive more answers than you need. That's a good thing.

Allan, must the angle be 45 degrees exactly? Eric's method works if the angle is increased by a few degrees.

Steve —on your tank stick I’m assuming that the square tank reading would be for the 26-27 cowl tanks? The earlier square tanks in the early Coupes had a square tank. Just wondering. I have a tank stick but it has oval and round tank markings only. The square markings are not for the cowl tank. The...

I replaced my magneto post today, which is funny since my car doesn't even have a magneto. I bought the new post two years ago, before I knew that my car doesn't have a field coil. After I confirmed the missing magneto I decided not to replace the post. I figured that someone could use it some day. ...

Our first drive ever was a few weeks ago and I discovered a bad rod knock. I adjusted the rods and went for our second drive yesterday, about 20 miles. The knock is gone but we experienced a death wobble at 12 mph in our driveway. My wife asked what that was, but not in a lady-like way. The rest of ...

I have caller ID and I get a lot of spoofed calls with numbers that are supposedly from my town. I recently looked at the caller ID to discover that the call was from me! Someone spoofed my phone number and called me. I regret not answering that one.

The head on my car has a small crack in the top of the water jacket. I recently obtained a good replacement and will have it surfaced before installing it. I intend to use a silicone head gasket since I have two in the shop. I won't have the block's deck ground flat since the engine is in the car. W...

You installed cotter pins in engine pan bolts. There is no harm in doing that. The cotter pins were eliminated at some point but the castle nuts remained.

Is that picky enough for you?

I have not compared wishbones in person but this thread has a lot of measurements of wishbones and describes the different angles of the lugs that attach to perches. Early lugs are bent 13 degrees and '26-'27 are 11 degrees.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/17 ... 1318687549

I noticed that the timer was fully retarded while the engine was idling and when the owner drove away. I suspect that he made non-standard adjustments to timer settings too.

What measurement will you use to set the caster? I find the published caster measurements confusing. In the MTFCA axle book the drawing shows placing a framing square against the axle, not the spindle bushings, and it shows a gap at the top of 1/8". But the text says 3/8". This book and the Ford Ser...

I cut 2 two-foot lengths of angle iron ( 1x1x1/8") and clamped them onto the axle with hose clamps. I protected the axles from scratches with duct tape. The angle iron doubled the critical buckling strength of the axle from 14,000 pounds to 28,000. I did that to keep them from buckling in the press....

This is from about 20 years ago with my uncle at the wheel.

That's the oil distribution tube. Oil splashed by the magnets into the funnel flows to the front of the engine.

30 degrees and a 10" run has a rise of close to 5 3/4".

Is any portion of the bolt sticking above the head surface? If it is, weld a large nut to it and try turning the nut. See a photo of the process in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13292

I replaced the worn-beyond-use front shackles on my Runabout. I was hoping that properly aligned perches and springs would bring the caster back to nominal. That did not work. I still have way too much caster and I need to study why before making a 4-ft bending iron.

Scott, when I made new floorboards for my '26 Runabout I measured the angle of the floorboard supports in the body. It measured exactly 30 degrees. I don't know for certain but I suspect that TT floorboards would have the same angle since pedal geometry is the same.

I have the site bookmarked and it worked this morning.

Ignacio, I bought the same bushing driver that you bought. It worked perfectly to replace my brake bushings.

Not a toolbox, but one year I opened my tackle box for the first time of the season and discovered that I forgot to toss the unused catfish bait. I haven't made that mistake since.

July 1926 build date makes it a '26 model, not '27. I know, my 'September '26 Runabout is a '27 but titled as a '26 to satisfy the state records.

I have a similar tool from my uncle's stash. It is in al "L" shape rather than "T" and was made with a sparkplug base. The L-bar is solid steel and was forged into shape rather than bent.

Here is mine.

I "borrowed" this photo that was posted by Duane from another thread . It shows the exhaust pipe with a dent to clear the hogshead. Duanes hogshead.JPG My pipe does not have a dent but it is really close to the hogshead. It is about 1/4" away and I'm concerned about what the heat would do to the hog...

Thanks so the replacement brass bushings are 1926-27 but the outer diameter seems big for the hole am I supposed to sand it down? I replaced my brake bushings a few months ago using a bushing driver and a big hammer. I did nothing to the outside diameter of the bushing. It was an easy job. This was...

I missed the threads in the nut on Martynn's drawing. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm working on the RH side and I'm aware of the thread direction.

One of my wheels has a little bit of in-out movement. This suggests that the nut is not on far enough to hold the outer bearing in place. My problem is that I cannot get the hub off the spindle because I can’t get the outer bearing off. First, I tried to tighten the nut to adjust the bearing. But I ...

I removed mine out of the car but I believe you can remove the bracket with the steering column in place. Remove the pin and timing lever below the bracket. If you find that you need to move the steering shaft up and out of the way, unscrew the steering gearbox cover and remove it and the steering w...

The rubber bumper looks like a turtle deck bumper for '26 & '27. They are 9486B on Lang's website.

I have a caliper accessory kit to extend the reach of my calipers. It extends the jaw's reach to 2 1/2".

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