MTFCA Forum

Checking clearance just a little bit...over and over.

The lobes of the cam in my car measured .215" of cam lift. I have been watching recent cam discussions and planning when and what to purchase. At last night's local club meeting, one member brought two cams for another member who is also searching. He chose the stock, lightly used cam with good dimensions. That left a regrind which I snatched up in a heartbeat. The seller said it was a .250 grind that he purchased many years ago from Langs but never installed. I was thrilled to get it.

I measured the cam this morning and discovered that it was a .280 regrind. Intakes were .283" and exhaust were .287". The little devil on my shoulder said "Use it and keep your mouth shut." But these are my friends, and the seller has been very willing to share his parts stash when I needed it. So, the buyer of the used cam is going to let his engine builder decide which to use. I will get whatever is left and will be a happy buyer.

Either way you are very fortunate.

Art Mirtes

I May have time to wake them up.

Going to open up my 1912 Roadster engine to thoroughly inspect the innards, particularly the magneto setup. I can't get the car to run on magneto and I suspect this phillips screw I found lodged in the magneto post on the hogshead has something to do with it. Wish me luck....heaven only knows what that screw did while rattling around in the crankcase. I have no idea where it came from but am certain Henry didn't use that screw anywhere on the car. I measure half-decent voltage at the mag post, but when I switch to magneto the car dies. Coils rebuilt by RV Anderson, coil box and switch gone through by Brent Mize. You gotta love a mystery or why would you have a Model T?

When I had laminated glass installed in my windshield, I discovered that the frame was rusted most of the way through from the inside. The frame cracked.

A friend had this spare frame that was crusty on the outside.
When removing the old seal, I found that inside the channel was clean, shiny metal. It took a lot of work to make the frame look like new. Now it is ready for the glass and new seal.

So far, just put a few miles on her. In doing that, I added a bit of oil and cleaned out the timer, but that's just maintenance stuff.

Took Betty the '25 TT Can Crusher out for breakfast.

Working on my speedster. I was just about to drill 3 holes for the 22-25 steering column bracket I had clamped to the dash for the T steering column that I already had modified to fit when I thought, I wonder if I could make the Overland column work? So I tried it, then I took it apart, shortened and fitted it. I still have to finish the bottom parts of the spark and gas rods that I extended and make a bracket for the spark rod at the bottom. I welded 1/2 of a Model A brake drum to the firewall so it would look neater. I need to figure out the upper floorboards next.

Finally got some paint on the body! I’ve been working on and off on this 23 for twenty years.

Good job Don !! I know what it’s like to be in restoration mode on one antique for nearly two decades. Enjoy this completed chapter

Mark Nunn wrote: ↑

Wed May 03, 2023 1:08 pm

The lobes of the cam in my car measured .215" of cam lift. I have been watching recent cam discussions and planning when and what to purchase. At last night's local club meeting, one member brought two cams to choose from for another member who is also searching. He chose the stock, lightly used cam with good dimensions. That left a regrind which I snatched up in a heartbeat. The seller said it was a .250 grind that he purchased many years ago from Langs but never installed. I was thrilled to get it.

I measured the cam this morning and discovered that it was a .280 regrind. Intakes were .283" and exhaust were .287". The little devil on my shoulder said "Use it and keep your mouth shut." But these are my friends, and the seller has been very willing to share his parts stash when I needed it. So I gave the .280 cam to Mike, the buyer of the used cam. He is going to let his engine builder decide which to use. I will get whatever is left and will be a happy buyer.

Mike and his engine builder considered the two cam options and they decided to use the stock, lightly used cam. I really wanted the stock cam but now I'm stuck with a .280 regrind. Oh well, I suppose it will be ok.

Moved the Shaw out of the garage under it's own power for the first time in many many years.[image][/image]

The Coupe acceleration had dwindled to 2 speeds over the Winter. A fast speed and idle with a long swing of the lever in between. Yesterday it was warm enough to investigate the problem. I found 5/8" of linear travel in the carburetor pull rod. The lever pin had worn quite a slot in the throttle rod. I have never seen one this bad. Only one pin was evident, so I drilled a hole for the second one to do the work. A finishing nail had been in place, head and all, showing evidence of a previous fix. As it had worked pretty well when I first started using this steering column, I assume rust had held the lever more solidly until the recent problem. "Good Old Rust". That took most of the play out of the assembly. In working on the rod arm, I found I could pull up on the throttle arm past the stop on the quadrant and get better access to the other side. I would not have seen the big hole otherwise as the hole's first side was not big at all. There was also some play in the control rod ends in their arm holes. I decided to take the play out with .010 brass shim stock. The throttle works nicely now, but lacks an inch of travel to the quadrant stop. I could bend the rod more, but it hits the intake manifold. I will make a shorter rod when I get some 7/32" stock.
The nicer weather lately made this work much more pleasant.
Rich

kevinf wrote: ↑

Mon May 15, 2023 8:37 pm

Moved the Shaw out of the garage under it's own power for the first time in many many years.[image][/image]

Kevin, pictures, pictures, pictures... there is too much to love than what's shown in one photo. Maybe start a new thread?

Mark, I still have a ways to go. The plan is to have the bugs worked out by the middle of July. I will get some better shot and start a thread then.
Thanks Kevin

Today I put in new seals and greased the rear bearings.

Husband and wife worked on this together. Wife finished sewing up the ends of the seat yesterday.
It sure was difficult on a regular sewing machine. We bought a new bed (mattress and box springs), using the old materials to reupholster the springs. All new wood on both pieces. Took a little while to sew green lines every inch.

Beginning to reassemble my 1912 roadster as parts are being returned from the painter.

Last Winter the hand brake stuck. The only way I could get into high gear was to force the hand lever forward and hold it there with my foot. This made driving in traffic a bit tricky. A little penetrating oil at the rear brake shafts, and some fiddling temporarily solved the problem, but I knew I needed to do more when the weather got warm. Neglect, snow and road salt had washed away and oil or grease on the brake cam shaft and the clevis pins. More penetrating oil and force got these to move. I put a spacer between the brake shoe ends and oiled the heck out of things. Eventually with some wiggling, there proved to be lots of clearance. Flowing some heavier oil to both ends, I moved the assembly back and forth enough to assure plenty of oil was in between everything. There is no provision for oiling on the early ones and disassembly isn't an easy potion. This will suffice for several seasons.
Rich

After spending a day cleaning, prepping, and giving a coat of Slip Plate to a nice set of clipped leaf rear springs, I learned about the differences between Model T rear springs and Model A rear springs. Model A springs have a mellower bend profile and they’re 2 1/4” wide versus 2”. Anyone out there need a nice Model A eight leaf rear spring?

I installed two mufflers on a 1914 runabout recently purchased…..consecutively. When I bought this gorgeous T it didn’t have a muffler. But I have a ‘17-‘21 muffler with cast ends that I wanted to install until I found the correct one. This was very difficult as it requires one hand to hold a heavy muffler to the frame rail so 2 bolts extend thru 2 cast muffler holes while threading 2 nuts w/ lock washers. With a great deal of angst and difficulty I achieved success. As luck would have it I quickly located the ‘bones’ of a correct 3 bolt w/ tail pipe muffler thanks to Ross Lilleker. Restored it and enlisted the help of a young friend to help install it very quickly.

I've been busy with non-T chores, but today I got back to the 1915 runabout with a magnet charge. I've always charged magnets one at a time, out of the car, so today was my first in-car charge.



There seem to be two camps on this. One says use the Fahnestock method for best results. The other says using the compass is a waste of time that makes no difference. There are advocates for both sides who have much more Model T knowledge and experience than I have, so the question for me was: Will it hurt anything to use the compass? My answer was no, so I used the Fahnestock method,

Being me, I have a compass but have no idea where it is. That's one of the many common items not available in local stores, so I made my own. It's not very strong, but for this job it doesn't have to be. Using 36 volts DC I flashed the coil ring with the flywheel in four positions, eight times in each position. The results were good. I started the car on MAG a couple of times. The magneto headlamps were perfectly bright, which means they were almost adequate. This evening Shorty and I went out for the first after-dinner cruise of the season, and the car ran great. I am pleased.

Got my radiator recored at a local shop in Rochester. The old honeycomb core was shot. The shop disassembled the rad, ordered a new V-cell core from a company out west, did other repair work, and reassembled it. Got it installed Thursday and took it for a run. All good! Barring possible damage due to stones and bugs, this thing should be as close to “bulletproof” as it can get.

Installed the original Ford accessory front bumpers on my 1926 coupe. What a great product, something that fits "right out of the box", no drilling, no fiting, no adjusting, no cuts, no bruises, no swearing. I did find it necessary to remove the top nut on the radiator mounting stud to get the lower stud bar-nut lower to access the fender brace bolt. That wasn't mentioned in the Ford Service Bulletins.

Nothing but I did help a friend with his. Does that count?

My wife and I went for a drive on Saturday. After pulling onto the road the ignition cut out and back on a few times before running normally. The rest of the drive was fine. I drove my Runabout to a local car show on Sunday just to spectate. On the drive home I was running about 25 mph when the ignition cut out completely. I let the engine spin while I jiggled the key and it came back to life when I pushed the key forward. I made the trip home after finding a sweet spot with the switch. On Monday I disassembled the switch to clean all contacts. I had to do some bending here and there of the brass ignition contact spring. I tested everything with a multimeter.

The result is that there is no contact if I turn the key until it stops turning. But, I can now feel the detents when I turn the key, which was not the case initially. Hopefully, the higher spring tension in the detents will keep the ignition on. I have a club outing on Saturday and I will get a nice long drive to test the switch.

This morning I fired up my 26 touring and drove to the cemetery to collect the flowers off of the graves of my family then I went to my local farmers CO-OP to drink coffee and I went home. She ran real good and it was nice driving her around before it rains again.

Today I made reinforcement patches for the corners of the radiator which have separated on many radiators. The separation has been there for half a dozen years with no problem, but it sometimes concerns me. I believe I sweated enough solder in there to hold it. If not, there will be more to do later. A lot of clean-up was required. I was careful not to loosen any of the existing seams.
Rich

I cleaned a set of rear axle housings for my project car. Liquid wrench didn’t loosen the rusty spring perches nor the other nuts and bolts so I soaked the ends in a bucket of Acetone and ATF mix. I was surprised how easily everything came apart after an overnight soak. Even the outer bearing races came out with little effort. I also got to use the 13/32” - 16 TPI tap I recently got from Dan Hatch through the classifieds.

These came my way today from a friend of a son of another friend. They were reasonable and look solid. I will check them out and use them on my '14. It has 3 1/2" fronts right now, and these are 3"