Selfcharging magnets

[dykker5502]

Yesterday I revived a 1925 Model Ts magnets and together with 4 rebuild coils, a cleaned timer and 4 new plugs enden up running perfect. Test was done with 4 big guys in the car and a backroad with many hills. No problem! Now the car could go uphill in high! Nice when your effort gives full bonus.
And now we have another Model T back on the roads.
Afterwards we discussed in the garage - yes I know - that's how myths and folklore are started
The owner bought the car a month ago and then the magnets was 100% dead. After he had driven it a little it turned out there was a little life in the magnets, but not enough.
The discussion was whether the magnets strength are maintained when actually used? There is a lot of things going on around that flywheel. The reason we started the discusion was the observation that after the car was driven a little, the magnets apparently gained some strength.
And typically - when recharge are need are typically after years of storage.

Or is this just garage folklore?

[AndreFordT]

Michael,
I never heard about recharging magnets during a run after having stand for several years.
For me what could have happened is that there was a short by debrit in the coil loop or there was a bad contact at the magnetopost that was washed away during the ride by the oil.
Just do the John Reagan test and see if the magneto is working well, if not, try to recharge the magnets in the car.
Do the recharge with the transmision insection cover off the hoghead. If there is a short you probably will see smoke comming out.

Good luck
Andre
Belgium

[JohnM]

My first T had been sitting a long time before I bought it. At first it hardly ran and wouldn't idle on mag. After some time without doing any work to it, the performance increased greatly just from driving it to where it would idle so slow on mag you could count the cylinders firing.

[Rich Bingham]

Anecdotal evidence from the ancient past:
When I cobbled together my first Model T at the age of 14 (I was 14, the T was 43 ) there was no one to tell me magnets could lose their strength. Armed with the official Ford Model T shop manual, I had made sure the field coil was "OK". When it ran, (started on battery) I was over the moon. I switched to "mag" and she died. Unsure of the reason but undeterred, I was soon enough putting down the local byways in the company of friends, always running on "bat". Shortly after the maiden voyage and only a few hundred miles later, a buddy suggested we try "mag" again and switched over - now she continued to run ! The only explanation I have is that the magnets did indeed gain strength through running. I would be obliged to learn of a scientific principle that either supports the notion, or proves I was hallucinating ! Eventually she'd start on mag too, but I had to spin the crank like a hurdy-gurdy.

[JohnM]

I am curious too, Rich. No doubt there is an electrical engineer on this forum. If you only run on the battery, and your magnets are weak, are they not still producing a charge in the mag ring? And if so, where does it dissipate? Could it "back up" into the magnets?

[J1MGOLDEN]

When I got my first Model T in 1980, a friend had worked at the Ford plant near Boston building them, so he had to have one

His folks had just got electricity added to their home, with two 15 amp circuits. One covered the garage and kitchen.

He told me he had not learned much about electricity yet, but his Mag quit working.

So he connected a 115 AC Volt circuit to the Mag Post and hit the switch for a charge.

He claimed the T made a noise like a bull bellowing and leaped forward a little.

He soon also heard his mother yelling about the lights going out while she was trying to iron clothes in the kitchen.

He didn't know how the charge fixed his Magneto, but it worked after that.

He kind of thought the car had feeling and did not want to be electrocuted again.

[TonyB]

From my personal experience and all the technical information I have found, magnets tend to deteriorate with age and usage. So sorry guys, I don’t think the Model T magneto improves with age.
This was a typical opinion I found in Wikipedia.

John Eaden, Manchester, UK
A horseshoe magnet is made by heating a ferromagnetic alloy above a certain temperature, placing it inside a magnetising coil and allowing it to cool. The coil’s strong magnetic field makes microscopic regions inside the metal crystal, called magnetic domains, line up their magnetism with each other. This results in a powerful new magnet.
During everyday use, the magnet will be dropped and banged about. This jostles the magnetic domains and means that they gradually become jumbled up. The more often this happens, the weaker the magnet becomes.
A radioactive element has atoms with an unstable nucleus. This leads it to emit radiation and become more stable. The amount of radiation emitted depends on the number of unstable atoms that are left. Over time, there are fewer unstable atoms and so the sample becomes less radioactive as a result.
Both the weakening of the horseshoe magnet and radioactive decay involve a system inevitably moving from a higher energy state towards a lower one
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/m ... z6tobMWeu9

[TXGOAT2]

Old-style "permanent" magnets slowly weaken over time. If they are handled roughly they will lose magnetism much more quickly. Vibration, heat cycling, etc will weaken magnets more quickly. All that said, Model T flywheel magnets will last a long time, in or out of service, if properly "charged", handled, and installed. I have a gas engine magneto that is decades older than I am. It spent many decades in 24/7 service. I'm certain that it has never been charged or otherwise serviced in my lifetime, and probably not for decades before I was born. (High tension Wico) It still works, though I'm sure it would benfit from recharging the magnets and a general servicing.