MTFCA Forum

I too received the request to buy some Amazon junk for you Larry ha ha. I also got several separate emails each with a question but the last one with the proposal to buy something from Amazon and forward it to "Larry Smith" made it very obvious it was not the "real" person of Larry S. but the whole ...

Wow Les: 6000 RPM of generator if used with standard Model T rear end gearing of 3.6363... would result in the T going just under 100 MPH. I don't want a test drive to prove that out ha ha. Maybe you are running smaller tires than 3-1/2 x 30. That would be one fast T. I think I would bring spare und...

The MOST "debugged" car on the planet was/is the Model T. Every production problem that they had were well known and documented during the T era. Now most of that info has been ignored since clearly everyone assumes that "today's modernization" of the T would solve all the same problem but in a bett...

The pictured ammeter is a very cheap reproduction that is sold for cheap. It is not exactly the type used during 1926 and 1927 and is generally referred to as the "SMALL METER" but the Ford original meter of the same typical size was a better meter. The off center tilt to the needle is common for th...

Please DO SIT in a 1911 Torpedo Roadster or a 1911 Open Runabout. They have the seat and dash set about 2" back but the frame is the same as used on all T's so you get 2" of extra leg room and your behind is setting further back to start with since the whole body is set back. Find the nearest of the...

Laying spark plugs on the head and watching each of them spark in correct order only checks the firing order and DOES NOT prove that there is enough coil current to fire the plug since the plug in that arrangement is not under compression. You later said you saw a "blue" spark" when the plug was tes...

IF your 1911 Dash does not have a radius on the outer edge then the correct brass trim is not going to come out right so if you do have to take off the dash you can put the correct radius on the outer edge at the same time so that the brass trim fits correctly. Does your dash have the 20 degree chok...

Bill: The 1911 used a 2 pce dash until very late when the 1912 one pce dash began to be used. The dash shield if made by Fun Projects is made exactly per Ford drawings and consists of a "Dash Shield" as the larger part that is totally flat and the "Dash Shield Guide" as the thinner part which has an...

DO NOT ADJUST THE CENTER NUT since it is setup once and no adjustment is ever needed unless someone else screwed with it. In that case you will likely damage the horn before you ever GUESS at the correct setting. When I owned Fun Projects I would let anyone return either version of the horn (6V or 1...

I have a couple of NOS new day timers. The correct dimension from the outer edge of the timer cover to the face of the timer (where the brush rubs against) is exactly 13/16" (.8125) on both of the units I have. Watch out for the "S" models since those timers often have poor materials and bad dimensi...

Oddly enough almost everything that mounts to the wooden firewall on the early cars uses a round head brass #9 wood screw. The horn, stewart speedo mount, mixture adjuster mounting plate... The only thing I can think of that did NOT use a #9 was the firewall to floorboard shield and those where held...

The simple fact REMAINS that if you attempt to remove the starter before you remove the bendix you will NOT succeed since the bendix will hit the magneto winding and you will not be able to pry it or shove it or hammer it to get it out. You MUST remove the bendix cover (4 screws) and then remove the...

Making a clock out of them is about the only thing they would be useful for. If the coil was tested with the usual "beeper" that most of us carry at swap meets then it is telling you that the High Voltage secondary is open and thus the unit is not rebuildable unless you can see the winding damage an...

I share with others the respect they have for New Day timers but I reserve my praise for ORIGINAL timers only because some of the repro versions are really bad and some originals that have been crudely resurfaced with things like sandpaper discs don't realize that it is very important that the face ...

I thought I should post a picture of the tool bit I used. Just make sure it is hard carbide with lots of cutting edges and it is a 90 degree tapered countersink shape like this picture if it posts OK[image]

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I made the dash pces for the T-100 project so I had to make 6 of them to fit 1914 dashes which I also had to make 6 of. If you have a vertical mill that you can use and don't want to have to file the dash to fit the molding which I probably would not do since the 1914 molding wasn't as expensive to ...

Since there is no fuel pump the fuel is not under any big pressure. For the record there is solid proof that ALL Ford model T's used BRASS tubing for fuel line - for all years. Some of the brass tubing was seamed and soldered and that type was pressure tested after being bent to shape. Steel line is...

OK here is my take on it. I have never seen the factory drawing for the "h" rubber but the item I purchased many years ago that was sold to me as the correct item for between my 2 w/s halves of my '23 Touring simply could never work on my car. I checked others and so far as I know I have never seen ...

I have noticed that when people are trying to debug something electrical on their T they haul out their DIGITAL volt meter and try to take readings. Now they may or may not get anything meaningful. I try very hard to convince them to send me what they are reading using an analog meter but they then ...

The windshield frames on 1911 torpedoes here int he USA are 12-3/4 height for both top and bottom panes. There are rubber bumpers added along the sides of the lower windshield frame to keep the upper and lower frames from banging into each other when the top windshield is folded down. Finally there ...

Stephen: The magneto post if measured for resistance to ground will fool you into thinking something is wrong there when you measure a dead short. The total resistance of the magneto coil from the post to ground is typically .25 ohms - yes 1/4th of an ohm which is usually less than the resistance of...

If you now decide to route the timer rod above the water tube you will be putting part of your problem back in. Look at the small lever that is pinned to the driver operated timing advance lever. To get the correct amount of timing advance you need to pass the timer rod under the water tube but NOT ...

There is a library publication on the Fun Projects Inc web site (www.funprojects.com). If you select the library that is in the list of places you can visit you will find a page from the MTFCI magazine that is titled Archifacts and is in the 8th one published by myself some years ago. I was research...

Donnie:

Please put me down for one of them.

The USA dashes starting in 1915 also had that flat spot clearance to allow the horn motor to sit in proper position but rarely if ever do you see that detail on a repro dash for USA cars. The rarest of the horn parts to find is the factory number 6437B which is the offset butterfly horn bracket that...

Susanne: While it might seem logical that the BATTERY HORN would have been offered in 1919 along with the generator and battery powered starter, the truth is that the battery horn is not offered until 1922 . The magneto horn is the only horn Ford used starting in 1915 until about March of 1922 when ...

Don't know if this is any help but the factory drawing for the 1915 straps that go down to the hinge area to be hooked into the hinge loop are called out as #9 oval head slotted screws. Those straps remained as leather into 1917 even though the rear top straps changed for 1915 to the later flat non ...

OK run some tests. Either you have a weak magneto or a misadjusted horn or both. Run the car on BATTERY so that nothing is pulling from the magneto and go for a ride. The pitch of the magneto horn will change with RPM but it will sound uniformly lousy all of the time if you have it setup about right...

I have all of the drawings and tooling to make a 1915 dash. I even had a custom router bit made to put the correct edge on the outer perimeter of the dash but my bigger problem is that I really don't want to ship them since I have had terrible "luck" getting UPS or FEDEX to haul it from St. Charles,...

Most of us do not own Model T built in Canada. I will only offer that the standard format for a lot of parts was a T followed by a very short number. So if I were to guess here and I am - that is a part number or inventory number since by the time of your vehicle the engine numbers were already many...

The "bottom one" appears to be a genuine Ford while the ones above it are not. Unfortunately the man is standing in front of the parts that make it easier to prove its a Ford but sometimes the photo finish is too rough to see enough detail to be totally positive anyway but I would say it matches too...

Scott: I have a very late wood firewall on my 1923 Touring. It is a late February car. It is in my barn about half hour away so can't look at it but wondered if it would help. It is a restored car but I confess I never looked very close at the detail you are talking about. Might that car have the de...

In the ad the man says its a "last brass car" which would be a 1916 of course.

Since cell phones are so common and recharging methods vary so much, the "generic" cell phone's needs with regard to charging are pretty well known and it is in ALL manufacturer's best interest that they all can be recharged in what are nearly "standard" ways. It is almost like plugging things into ...

What a lot of folks don't seem to understand is that the light bulb acts as a current limiter to prevent the charging current from getting large enough to overcharge a small battery or large enough to pull the magneto down so the car won't run on magneto. This device was written up many years ago in...

Well done Bob. Truth is always the ultimate goal. I have watched this problem as it moved around in my own chapter of the T club. I remember a new guy that bought 4 new rims and had them re-spoked right off the bat as part of his 1914 Touring Car restoration. He ended up going back to the wheels he ...

I hate to spoil the party but I see many good years of timer usage cut way short by the methods suggested. What is very important to a smooth running and long wearing timer surface is that the surface MUST be smooth of course but it also must NOT tilt nor have areas that are smooth to the feel but u...

Tom:
Yes they are actually designed for just that purpose. Choice of bulb can increase or decrease charge rate depending on the Amp-hour rating and voltage of the battery you use. Contact me via email for more info.

HSBC2.jpg The bulb and the diode are in series so that part doesn't matter but you MUST make sure the diode is correctly installed since the cathode end (striped "banded" end) must point to the battery positive connection. The anode end of that diode must be pointed at the magneto connection. If yo...

Darin: Model T's are all updraft carburetors and as such you DO have to choke them to get the flow of air/fuel going to get them started. If you know how to post pictures here then that would help us a bunch since mainly at this point I am wondering which coil box you have on your car. Could be the ...

I almost regret ever making the 8V version of the VR. I always tried to talk a customer into sticking with 6V mainly because at the time there were no LED headlights let alone any 8V ones. You get very very short bulb life when you apply 9.1+ volts to a 6 V bulb which should only get about 7.0V when...

My general argument is always in favor of the installation of a 25A fuse BUT it must be located in the location that gives the maximum protection for the car wiring and not for the maximum convenience to replace the fuse. Your house if so protected would not have the fuse panel located in the baseme...

OK I am going to enter MY wild guess. I am basing my guess upon the time it took for this problem to show up from the time the rear end was installed as being REBUILT. The time frame of the rear end rebuild makes me think the rebuild took place BEFORE the now common CORRECTLY MADE and CORRECTLY HARD...

Could you be more specific with regard to " it seems to handle poorly" Is it wandering by itself or do you have excessive play in the steering. If the thing pulls to the right really hard as you pass a place that is selling ice cream - that is normal.

John

I think the 1913 Dash will confuse you more than help you. It is not a copy of the Ford archive drawing for 1913 either. I have all the info that the archives has with regard to wood dashes. Unfortunately the earliest T's are the least well documented at the archives but with some effort you can usu...

Since I made electric horns for Model T's I did some research to see how I was going to do it. During that research I noticed some things. One is that there were several makers of the "Battery" horn through the years but generally speaking they all worked on the same principle namely that DC current...

As Steve and others have said the Judging Guidelines are wrong if they say that the 1915 bulb is a single contact. I think what they might have meant was that it is a single filament bulb but separate ends of that filament are connected to separate contacts at the base and there is nothing electrica...

If that bolt is a copper plated steel bolt I would ditch it in favor of 10-32 Brass Pan head machine screws. The copper plated steel is correct original hardware but modern stuff you buy is about as good as copper colored paint over steel and it begins to rust almost from day one and really no good ...

The original screws were in fact cheese head but in modern times those generally (maybe incorrectly) mean that the head is thick, slotted and FLAT across the top surface while a Fillister head screw is thick, slotted but CURVED across the top a bit. The screws were indeed 10-32 but were rather short...

The data chart presented was used and posted in many places but for all my research there was NO PUBLISHED set of specs on the magneto unit as a whole. NO minimum nor Maximum appeared anywhere. The data was taken and appeared in the service bulletins and was copied by other publications (non ford) b...

To all: Thanks for testing the prototype Dan. It was snowing in Illinois when you took delivery of the prototype and tested it. I very much appreciated that. So a big thank you for all you do for our hobby. This morning my internet has been hit and miss and it has been off since about midnight last ...

I cannot speak the language but since the original question was posted in English I am going to answer in the only language I know. What is VERY IMPORTANT but may or may not be mentioned here is that when setting the toe in or toe out you MUST roll the car forward then back at least one full turn of...

Just a simple warning here. Unlike modern cars the T carburetor is an "updraft" setup. Meaning that the air and gas mixture has to be SUCKED Hard into the intake to get things started. This means you generally have to choke it to start it and sometimes even when it is warm. Make sure to verify that ...

I too like New Day timers or I meant to say I like ORIGINAL New Day Timers. I find decent used ones and resurface them but also work on the brushes a bit. If you have a postage scale (even better if you have a digital one that measures ounces and parts of ounces) you can then place your brush agains...

One interesting tidbit is that the very last of the Ford windshield braces that went from windshield hinge to front of the frame were not the usual steel tubing with the thin brass casing but were in fact just black enameled tubing - no Brass on them at all but still went from windshield brace to fr...

I personally hate it when a vendor tries to compensate ahead of time for worn out parts which I guess are all supposed to be worn out some magic amount. Shims are available for worn hubs if you can't find good ones but there is no "negative shim" that comes in a length of -1/16 so that you can put a...

First off make sure you in fact have magneto type bulbs since at a glance they may not be what you think they are. Magneto type bulbs MUST have 2 connections and NEITHER of those connections at the bulb will show any continuity to the outer part of the lamp base. There should be ONLY 2 filament in t...

Somewhat off subject but not totally - Many years ago when I was designing the Model T Pinion Bearing kit for Fun Projects, Inc I was at what was then the Henry Ford museum archives and the Benson Research Center was not built yet. I was there to obtain all the drawings of the various parts that com...

I have a "T stall" where I work on my T's. I bought a surplus "in the wall" furnace made by Williams which was new but dented on the side where it would never show. It uses natural gas and is a "counterflow" furnace pulling air from above and exhausting it down at the floor. No ducting at all requir...

Please don't be offended by this question. Are you measuring AC volts at the mag post to ground or DC Volts?

I recently changed the headlights on my 1915 Roadster to run them on a 6V battery. I used 6V bulbs which in fact need a better ground than LED's. Try the simple things first like I did since my problem was a bad ground from the bulb case to the frame. Since the car has a starter added the frame grou...

Yes the factory number for the dash used as part of the so-called "2 piece dash" is the 1091B but that drawing is for the larger lower piece. The upper piece has a separate drawing number and is the "windshield spacer board". Earlier during 1909 and 1910 the spacer board was different for use with d...

Has anyone posted the amount of compression (measured in lbs) that the Z head produces or the amount of compression that the Prus head produces.? Just wondering.

Since you mentioned a "starter button" twice I am going to assume you have a starter solenoid involved rather than the usual foot switch. On a stock T the power for the ignition and all other power is taken at the foot switch via a solid yellow wire. If you fiddled with the 2 smaller wires at the so...

The third brush adjustment is something you have to be careful with since if it comes loose then the adjustment will "self-advance" since you get more output from a T generator when you move the third brush ring in the same direction that the generator normally spins. Thus it will advance itself if ...

If you are showing 5 amps of charge with headlights ON then I am going to guess you are using a cutout on your generator and you have your charge rate way too high. Without a voltage regulator then the charge voltage can go very high with that much charge rate. Headlight bulbs have a rather short li...

My '15 roadster is a June 4 1915 car and it has the round brass switch in the firewall but the car was restored 25 years ago or so and the dash is NOT original based upon the wrong size choke hole and wrong angle drilling of that same hole. The good news for me was that the hole was drilled to somet...

OK I understand and that is fine. I am NOT going to post the dimensions here since too many people will read those and assume they are correct for THEIR car too and get into serious problems of fit. The data plate was moving around during the date you gave for your car and the horn was "drilled in p...

Are you referring to the casting date on the motor rather than the Motor Number date taken from McCAlley's list? I really want the motor number if you have it since your car is right in the middle of some changes and you might as well get it right.

I have the factory drawing for the firewall and also a 1915 Roadster. The hole size changed and the thing moved just we bit too but I cannot off the top of my head remember when. Give me the serial number of your car or production date and I will look it up for you and give you the EXACT location wh...

I agree that there is a lot of trial and error in getting everything to fit nice but first I think your initial timing is too far retarded and you may find it hard to start this car. I agree with wanting to be absolutely sure that the engine when hand cranked or even with starter aid should have the...

The 15 and 16 cars with magneto headlights are driving with a known problem that Ford didn't solve until later when he added the "dimmer coil" about the same time he changed the horn button to the "Combo Switch" so that he could have horn button and light switch combined. I personally don't think it...

If you didn't start your radiator installation by measuring the center to center distance between the 2 frame rail holes on top of the frame that the radiator mounting studs pass through then do it when you have the radiator OFF. It is a rare frame that has the correct 21-1/2" wide distance on the m...

Before you start doing anything else you might want to make sure there is nothing that the timer rod is hitting against like perhaps the lower radiator hose and clamp. That rod should travel UNDER the steel radiator tube on its way to the timer. Often that timer rod instead is passing UNDER the lowe...

According to your profile you have a 1920 T which would have used a magneto horn. Is that the one you need help with?

Before dispensing advice I guess I would like to ask a few questions. How long have you owned the T or more specifically have you driven it before on some drives of more than around the block? Sometimes the hand brake will grip tighter going one direction (forward?) than when going the other. To mak...

Hi Harold: Thanks for the kind words. I am keeping busy. I try to chime in if there is something that I can help on. I am working on hopefully putting up an article on my attempt to put a starter on a show quality 1915 Roadster using minimal if any altering of the car. Where I live it is just too da...

Send me an email and lets work on this OFFLINE since committee's formed to help electrical problems have resulted in everybody having a different idea. Do not repeat the flashing thing that you are doing since once is enough. I have some questions and don't like to give advice based upon one questio...

Unfortunately if the dash is not made with the exact correct radius on what is sometimes called the "doghouse" portion of the dash then you can't make it mount totally correctly since the 3 small holes are made to exactly line up with the wood dash pre-drilled pilot holes. I am talking now about fac...

This thread is rather confusing from start to finish. Here is what I mean. A battery that was charged overnight and then measured with the battery charger just disconnected would measure higher than 6.25 - it would measure more like 6.8 or higher. It would then slowly (much later) drift back to 6.35...

15 volts is clearly NOT enough for a good running T. A healthy magneto will idle around 7 or 8 volts and cracking the throttle will quickly and easily put it over 20 volts and usually burn out your 1156 bulb before you finish your testing. The magneto post is not any part of the issue unless the vol...

I suspect a different problem that sometimes happens to the Anderson Timer only. Of the common timers on the market the Anderson is the only one that can have the contacts themselves get out of adjustment due to wear or sometimes due to the mounting nut for one of the contacts getting loose and then...

A common mistake is that many folks assumed that when Ford began using webbing for the last top bow to body strap that Ford also used that webbing for the front top to windshield hinge strap. Not so. That front strap stayed leather into 1917 at which time the front strap DID change then to the webbi...

Just to clarify a bit. Pictured above are 2 different bracket types for use on firewalls. For the record ALL wood firewalls were in fact FLAT but they did vary in size a bit. A better way might be to state the early firewalls that used the "butterfly" brackets were those up to and including 1914 and...

The mounting vertical strip and the lack of a screen on the front if that is a rather large bell make it look to me like a horn used on a 1911 Maxwell Roadster that I owned for awhile. This was a 2 cylinder 1911 Maxwell that is currently owned by a fellow who lives in Huntley IL.

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