MTFCA Forum

Thought I'd share these unusual parts.
Pulled the Sept. 1922 engine out of my 1915 cut down touring today. This car is nice and cobbled together, a real farmer's special.

Two interesting items or accessories of note on the car are the two different 'Crank case repair arms' used in place of the riveted rear engine mounts. The original engine mounts are crudely hacked off, and in their place, these accessory brackets do the duty of mounting the engine to the frame. Pretty cool brackets. I will be cleaning up the jagged edges of the old mounts and reusing these accessory pieces when we put it back together.

I would love to know why the old mounts busted off. If only these cars could talk! Thought you all would enjoy.

Andy B.

Andrew

I used to maintain a T for a friend until his passing. His widow sold the car. New owner called me and told me he had hot-rodded it and did I want the drive train (?)

The car is now 2000 miles from me, but only a few miles from my dad...so I said "sure, I'll buy it, why not? (as in what could possibly go wrong)".

A year later, I'm visiting my dad and discover that the moron who rodded it, had sawed off the ears because he couldn't figure out how to take the engine out unless he dropped it out. I know that was the case, as I called him to see why that minor point had been overlooked! He was as disgusted with me as I was with him as he said "hell, I GAVE your dad the cut off pieces, what's YOUR problem?"

There is no telling what stupid stuff stupid people have done to a car during it's life.

In your case, the stupid stuff came with some neat-o patches. I just bought two of the same in order to save this engine pan (which is attached to a pretty darn good engine)

best wishes for lots of fun and learning

I agree Scott! Might have been a frustrated mechanic at some point.

The whole engine is painted an industrial looking orange. We can't help but wonder if the engine was a power unit at some point in its life.

Andy B.

Andrew,
You and Scott introduced something I’ve never heard of - cut off rear engine/tranny mounts. I’ve seen several pans with jagged broken off engine mounts and I have many pairs of aftermarket of the era replacement bolt-on brackets like your picture. All I can say is I’ve furnished all my Model T s with the accessory “belly pans” adjusted to take some of the load off the pan. I’ve even cut a ‘doughnut’ of thick rubber(dually flaps) to fit under the crankcase and above the “belly pan” to, hopefully, extend the life of the intact original 2 engine/tranny mounting ears.

Ref. your first picture Andrew; reconsider the routing of that fuel line. Think ‘under the motor mount and in the frame rail’.

Thank you George.

Yes, line will be re-routed. We actually pulled this engine out right after the photo was taken. As I got it, the car is cobbled together and there are many small changes needed to make it right, and safe!

Andrew,

Those are some nice castings. I only have ever seen the bent plate steel versions (which I have two sets of).


Scott,

I know what your saying, and I have been on both sides of the fence with the ignorance of the moment, ripping and tearing stuff out, and as the buyer asking "why the hell did you wreck that part" Not everyone has the same vision for the end result, and unfortunately it happens. Owning Model T's has helped curb alot of my aggressiveness on destroying perfectly good parts so others might be able to use them in the future. I save EVERYTHING now...Model T's have made me a hoarder, LOL!


I actually bought a motor (that knowing my luck will probably turn out to be a POS once i get it unstuck), and never noticed the broken pan ear. Kinda stinks as it's a 4 dip pan and I wanted to use it in the speedster. I either have to find a bad pan to get a ear cut off of, or cut the other one off and use two bolt ones, because my OCD will definitely kick in if the two ears don't match, LOL.

Chad

You made me laugh out loud!

Let me tell you something: In nearly all cases, OCD is cured via old age. When I was a young man, If I made somehting, everything had to line up and the silouette of one part had better mask the evidence of the next 20 parts behind it...and brother, they had better last for 50-60 years. I am now not so old (but not so young, either), but when I look at a something like a bad roof on my house, I am still having to remind myself that the new roof need not be perfect, because I will not likely have to deal with fixing any damage any deficinecy in the new roof causes!!

Oh, and BTW Chad, they made repair ears for just your situation...see above post of OP...