MTFCA Forum

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".

Jim, with only 1" clearance I would suggest wedging a board between the ground and the open garage door to make sure that it is open as far as it can be and stays that way. You put too much into your truck to risk damage.

I also did a lot of fussing to make sure my brake shoes were round and concentric with the drums. I placed a lined shoe in each drum on the bench and shaped the metal shoes to fit evenly. My car had no linings when I got it so my shoes were out-of-round. When the cam spreads the shoe at its opening,...

I had the same problem with my '26 this spring when I put new linings on. I used soapstone to mark high spots on the linings. I coated the inside of my drums with soapstone, put the drum on and spun it with the brake lever pulled very slightly. Soapstone transferred to the linings to show high spots...

My wishbone looked like this when I got it. I fixed the ugliness but still had a misalignment problem, which I have not resolved yet. I'll get to that next project. Wishbone socket-2.gif I used a ratchet strap attached to the front axle and rear frame to gently pull the wishbone into alignment. Then...

I took a quick bath in LA’s Totally Awesome Cleaner. That’s the end of this story. It started when I removed the inspection cover to adjust connecting rods. It was the first time I’ve done that and wasn’t prepared for the ensuing mess. I made a jig for my floor jack like the one many of you have see...

My 1926 Runabout vibrates a lot over 25 miles per hour. Do you have the wood blocks between your pan ears and frame? I installed the blocks but the new bolts were too short and they are too tight. I bought longer bolts to fix this but I have not installed them yet. Another solution I have read about...

Grainger's website shows 5/8" x 10" bolts in UNF, UNC and various grades.

Is the sole purpose of a belly sling to offer added support and insurance? Or do they help reduce vibration and side-to-side movement? My '26 did not have wood blocks behind the pan ears when I got it. There is evidence that the left pan ear had been pounding against the frame for a long time. I ins...

A skunk got into my barn through a cat door. My dutiful barn cat chased him out but not before said skunk had released his full arsenal. It was nasty in that barn and on the cat. My solution to getting rid of the smell was to boil a quart of vinegar on the wood stove. My stove had a flat cooktop mak...

This has windshield glass. http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/708324/742573.html?1491408220 Edit. Sorry, that link does not have closed car glass. This has door and side window glass. http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/411944/490599.html?1414967608 Here is a better link. http://www.cimorelli.com...

We took our first drive yesterday since bringing Tilley home two and a half years ago. The drive was a short 7 miles and was a combination shakedown cruise and stress test. I was stressed and Tilley was shaking like she was going to fly apart. I enjoyed every short minute. My wife chose the name Til...

Fordors from '26-'27 did not have cowl gas tanks. That can't be from a Fordor.

My understanding of the L4 flapper is it directs air flow through an idle circuit until airflow increases. Increased air flow opens the flapper to allow full air movement.

If push comes to shove, mark the wires and remove the coil box. Good point Mark. Rather than wrestle stuck coils out of the coil box, just swap two wires from the commutator. Mark them first so you know which wire goes where. You will know if it's a bad coil if the problem moves to a different cyli...

George, is the teacup lens in one piece? I recently converted my tail light to include a brake light and I'm considering adding a right side light for future turn signals. I'll send an email.

Ok,so I will need to make that little bolted on peice,Best I can tell the coiumn is just loose in the hole? It appears the curved portion of that hole for the column has a lip turned to the inside for strength best I can tell from the pic. The column in my '26 Runabout passes through the hole and d...

Ok, my car doesn't make the banging sound when stationary, and also doesn't make the sound when in low either, but as soon as you go to direct drive (hi), the banging starts, as you reach cruising speed it goes away, until you decelerate, then it starts up again. My car had the exact symptoms as de...

If you use vinegar, I found concentrated, 30% vs. standard 5%, at Home Depot. It's in their cleaning section.

This has '24 closed body glass dimensions.

Hank is right. Swamp coolers work by heat absorption as the water evaporates. The effectiveness of the cooler depends on relative humidity in the ambient air. In the dry air of Henderson NV, you would get a cooling effect. However, the high-humidity conditions of Florida allows much less evaporation...

There is subtle differences in the '26 and the later '27. Here is the '27 version, easy to spot with the clipped top corner. This one has hole for the upholstery nail socket, for the trim board on the door and the latch tucks into the door panel opening. Dan, maybe you explained this in another thr...

The rubber seal on my windshield post has worked its way out of the groove. It's strange since the car has mostly sat in the barn for months. I'm having a hard time getting it back into the groove and I could use some guidance. The seal is the one shown in the photo (arrow). Windshield seal.gif Shou...

Frames were made thicker for '26 due to the heavier bodies of improved cars. My '26 measures .200" thick.

Where did you get, or how did you make the front wheels?

It is convenient to use a 7/16" drill bit, if you have one. Also, make sure the float is level with the machined surface at that gap. If the float is angled in any way, the setting will be off.

I was shocked by the improvement. The Kingston L4 in my Runabout was leaking due to a sticky float valve. Even when it didn't leak, the engine never ran well. I installed a Ford NH that I rebuilt last year. Right out of the box with startup settings the engine idled smoothly. Really smooth! I made a...

I installed my new radiator this week and restored the shell. I ditched the MotoMeter in favor of a simple cap from my stash. The probe on the MotoMeter didn't go deep enough to touch the coolant. The top of the overflow tube was lower. I don't want to damage the radiator neck with a heavy MotoMeter...

The top panel is not dimpled for the neck. It has a hole that's 1 1/4" diameter. The hole in the bottom of the neck is 1 3/4". This neck would be easy to move.

Mark, I have the same concerns about the hole being dished and whether the front panel is pushed in far enough. I wish I had a bore scope to look inside. I sent photos to Brassworks and will call later to talk to Lee. He had suggested on Friday that I have a local shop move the neck. I have a shop b...

I took better photos today of the critical measurements, which I will share with Brassworks. I told Lee that my shell's hole was 3/8" from the inside surface and he said his was 9/16". I didn't have a photo to share and don't know if he was measuring the same way. I'll send photos tomorrow so he und...

James, my original is a little over 3/8 (13/32"). I can't post photos from my phone. I'll reformat them and post tonight. I recommend checking fit of your shell if possible.

Bob McDaniel wrote: ↑
Sun May 03, 2020 12:42 pm
Mark,

Check your E-mail, I sent you a possible fix for this problem that worked very well for me.

Thank you Bob.

Did the thin radiator use a thin shell? I'll get out to measure my shell after lunch.

Magnificent is an insufficient description. Wow.

RajoRacer wrote: ↑
Sun May 03, 2020 11:51 am
And who's "new" radiator did you purchase ? I have a couple original radiators - I'll measure after breakfast !

Brassworks

These are a few more photos.

I bought a new radiator since my old one was not repairable. Much to my dismay, the radiator shell on my '26 does not fit over the new radiator. The hole in the shell is too far forward or the radiator neck is too far back. These are photos of my new and old rads. The neck on the new one is 1/2" bac...

This is very sad news, indeed. Herm's impact on this community cannot be ignored. Thank you for sharing this with us, Tom.

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