MTFCA Forum

Help needed for wiring diagram for the rectangular, dash mounted, ignition switch that has a 3 wire setup in place of the ammeter. I am told this was for the non starter cars 1919-1925.

https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/8 ... 1542043557

This should help!

Bob & Tad,

Thank you for the speedy reply.

Have a great day,

Don

Why did Ford provide a BAT terminal on the early cars with magneto only ignition? I see nothing connected to it but there must have been a reason it was installed.

Paul

Paul.

I am not sure why. A possible explanation may be that the ignition switch suppliers, such as Briggs and Stratton, Clum Mfg. , only offered a few types of switch because a change like this was not cost effective for so few a number of vehicles. These switch manufacturers provided components to many different car companies. As a retired member of law enforcement, I know that in the early 1970's it would have cost more to delete air conditioning on police cars than for an agency to take the cars as produced.

Don

There was a set of four A Type batteries (AKA Telephone Batteries) to start the T and slow cranking did not provide enough current from the Magneto in all cases.

Some Magnetos were hot enough to provide a spark to get the engine running.

Those non-electric cars also had a ring gear on the starter, so you could buy the electric components later when you had more money or got tired of cranking or broke your arm.

J1MGOLDEN wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 19, 2024 6:54 pm

Those non-electric cars also had a ring gear on the starter, so you could buy the electric components later when you had more money or got tired of cranking or broke your arm.

WHAAAAAT?????

I believe having a battery on board to assist with starting was popular on cars without electric start. You would crank it on BAT then flip it to MAG for driving. Later charging your battery or dry cells while the car wasn’t in use. I assume you charged old dry cells? I can’t pretend to know much about them.

It is likely that all flywheels came with ring gears once the starters were introduced. Having two distinct parts for the same job is not something That would be appreciated on an assembly line would. Ditto for the hogsheads, they were likely all the same, with factory blanking plates for non starter cars.
Many TT's were thus equipped, as a cost saver for commercial users.

Allan from down under.