Projects Uh Oh, here comes trouble with a capital T

Good going having the books make all right.
"Joy to the world" Delving into your first Model T is a gas.
Most Everything is managed differently than we are used to.
The Wheel(s) could be farmed out to some where in Pa. Though I do like wires ( any style )
There are shops that do wood spoke for the Amish.
The bands must and will always drag some. If compression is weak the motor will turn.
Getting band s adjusted just so is trial and error. Not much leeway between gripping and pedal travel to the boards.
Many prefer the Kevlar bands. they of course handle heat better, and give less trouble adjusting.
I once bought a set but never got around to it.
Used cotton the first time and then changed the brake band once ( driver error )
Congrats on the ahoogah. I got the old Hohhnkr.

 

I'd imagine that this will require a lot of sympathetic fiddling to get it happy. Embrace that thought and go in and clean, lube and adjust. See if you can find a local group and listen more than talk.
You got this, and you have an ooogah horn!

 

Good news.
It's got gas to the carburetor.
I want to get the back wheels up today just in case something is sticking, and the brake does not hold. It would really suck to start it and roll out of the garage.

I'm going to change the oil and add antifreeze.
Below is a fellow spoking a steel felloe wheel with a spoke press.


It's just amazing..... rebuilding a wheel and it's good for another 99 years.

 

Thank you.

 

Well
Popity-Popity....
3 and one half seconds of 20 horses.
Then my arm got tired.

 

Above is the Model T Planetary transmission. For those of you that do not know how these work, it’s a 2 speed transmission with brake and reverse.
Ok.....
There are three drums, starting from bottom to top,
Brake band.....(it’s big on ‘26 and 27’s.
Drive band Hi-Lo
Reverse band
When the pedal is mashed those bands lined with either cotton, kevlar or wood, grip the drums giving, hi gear, low gear, braking or reverse.
The linings look OK to me.
My drive drum does have a deep groove and is damaged probably by being run with no fabric ( metal to metal). This is not unlike running the rivets into the brake drum.

It might be ok. We’ll see.

Oh this drum set up connects to the flywheel through a set of planetary gears.

Oh, I had that open to change the oil.
It’s a good idea to saturate the transmission bands with oil at oil change. I poured in 3 quarts here and 1 quart in engine cap.
I’ll have to open the top pet cock to confirm oil level.
Mode Ts do not have dip-sticks.


Here I have my brush cleaning connections.
I started at the plugs and worked my way to commutator. (Timer)
In a way, the Model T engine is not unlike the Ford Modular engines with a coil per cylinder.

Things do come back around.

I’m not happy with some of the connections here.
It’s not tightening up, I’ll have to look into that.

Wow!

After cleaning the plugs and coil box up, I was able to run the car for about 4 seconds, then nothing.

Next I went to the commutator or timer. The connections there were horrendous. I spent quite a while cleaning posts, and filing nuts.
After I was done cleaning up the commutator connections, I expected it to run.

No go.

I’ll have to get back into it today.

I’m not real happy with the commutator wiring. It looks to small, about 14-16.....
I would prefer 12 or even 10.
When too small a gauge wire is used, there’s no margin of error.
I may have to order or make up a new timing harness.

Fuel stuff is coming but I’m on electrical right now.

 

I did have a first changing the oil.
It's the first time I have ever seen freaking rocks come out of the oil pan.

 

Might want to run a little something (diesel, kerosene?) thru to rinse things out!
Like I said, sympathetic fiddling.

Those are probably carriage bolts and the wood is soft around the square hole.

 

If you see rocks in the oil you may want to drop that inspection cover in the pan.

 

I had an old time hot rodder friend in the 70's that told me they use to get out of the car and Pee on the wood spokes to expand the spokes. I suggest to spray them with water with soluable oil in it and see what happens.

 

I’m going to see if they’ll come loose. I do have some penetrating oil on the nuts.
If they don’t come loose or they wallow wood I’ll have to pull the box and rebuild it with some new wood pieces.
Sympathetic Fiddling!!!

 

Great Idea......
This is turning into a way deeper dive. That’s why I said trouble with a capital T.

If I have to pull the coil box and rebuild it, I’m going to pull the plugs and get some kerosene or diesel and turn than crank, pull the inspection cover and clean.

I guess I’m trying to say this is going from “getting it to run” to “sympathetic fiddling”.

 

I had to make a precision gauge to check that the commutator (timer) was correct with the timing advance rod.


Yep....
It’s good. Right on the money.

 

Call up Lang's and get the gaskets so that pan removal/inspection/replace project only takes a few hours. Fairly sure every piece of the coil box is also in their catalog. Bob

 

i once questioned how many people today could master the controls of a model T, and one fella said it's a lot like driving a lawn tractor. he was right, i have a troybuilt that operates a lot like a "T"!

 

I've been driving T's for over 50 years, couldn't drive a new electric if your life depended on it, same thing about calling 911 on your smartphone. Oldest daughter drove the '12 up the street to visit Grandma when she was 6 years old.

 

I’m going to pull the coil box and rebuild it. It looks like the commutator harness and plug wires is going have to come with it.
I’ll put on the bench and see what can be saved.
Since my oil was so dirty full of debris I’m going to drop the pan clean it out.

It’s just part of the process.

I did oil the Klaxon!!!!
It works marvelous now!
It was a little hoarse.

 

Waterproof coil box wood replacement kit


Item Number: 5000-5001RKB
Per Car: 1
Year: Late 1925-1927
Condition: New
Price: $69.95 set

Quantity:


Additional Information
This kit contains parts to "re-wood" the late 1925-1927 Model T Ford coil box that mounts on the engine.

Uses a tough new waterproof material that will put an end to misfiring of coils caused by dampness or water soaking of the usual stock wooden coil box BACK and BOTTOM. Now you can tour, rain or shine. The kit contains rivets and washers needed along with clear instructions.

• Made exactly per Ford drawings
• Finely detailed with all "factory" slots, edge radius and corner bevels
  
  
• Includes center brace slot
  
  
• More than 75,000 Volt insulation even when wet
  
  
• Slick surface aids in easy coil insertion/extraction
  
  
• No lost show points - invisible with lid installed
  
  
• Instructions included.

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To ask a question about this item please press and fill out the form.
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All that stuff is out there, a Lang's catalog should be under the seat of every T, it is on line too. Bob

 

I don’t know much about Model T’s but I am loving reading about what you are doing. Thank you for sharing all the details of your journey. Hope to see a video of it going down your driveway sometime soon.

 

My stuff came in from Lang’s.
It’s an original starter blank off plate, a bendix blank off with all new screws and gaskets.
Now I can properly remove the starter for a future rebuild.

Upon further inspection all 4 wheels are history.

They are done.

On the back as I had the rear wheels up, I could rock the back drivers wheel 1/4 turn. I thought the brakes were not holding. Then I noticed the hub was stationary. Yep..... there’s 1/4 turn of slack in loose spokes.
On one of the “good wheels” on the front I noticed some flaky paint on one of the spokes at the hub.
So, I started picking at it. I could have bore my index finger through it. It’s rotten.
They’re done. It’s a wonder the car made it on and off the trailer.

These are demountables with the steel felloe. That’s a good thing. Although I could build a spoke press and install new spokes, the truth is I’m not a wheelwright!!!!

We’re talking about the same money. For the same money, maybe even cheaper, I can send the wheels off and have them spoked by a professional.

It’s $ 185 to 200 bucks a wheel. That’s not bad.
That’s what I ‘m going to do. It may take 6 months but I’ll have new wheels that can actually go down the road.

There have been ModelT fatalities due to collapsing wheels. Many more wrecks due to the same issue.
This is something you do not mess around with.

The option of wire wheels.....
Converting a T to wires from wood is prohibitively expensive for me right now. This means new hubs adapters and all that. It’s probably a wise upgrade but I do like the wood spoke wheels.

 

New wood wheels sound like a great safety upgrade!

 

I've read that it was commen practice to 'wet the wheels' in a creek to keep the spokes from drying out, apparently it was often done in a quiet spot, so as to not disturb anybody & done by a young fella accompanied by a lady friend.
When I was growing up it was called parking, but there wasn't any excuse to cover tracks.

 

Congrats on your new project! I really enjoy Uncle Buck - my ‘26 Roadster Pickup. Keep studying up on the T’s technical aspects. I changed every wire - good grounds are critical. I ditched the aftermarket water pump - thermosyphon works fine. Best of luck!

 

I have experienced the fun of bringing a '27 touring back to life... it was fun! After I got it running and serviced, I had to teach the owner how to drive it. "Don't over think it, just become one with it".
The beauty is in the simplicity of these centurion machines... they'll take you back to a simpler time and they are a hoot to drive!

 

heres mine

 

When I was a kid there were still "fords" or more specifically a ford where Goodwin Road "forded" turkey creek.
Sometimes daddy would take Goodwin Road on our way to visit my grandparents. It was always fun to ford the creek. For years people would bring soap and rags and wash their cars there in the summer.
It was a sad day for me when the county built a bridge on Goodwin Road over Turkey Creek.

Get it? Ford the creek.

 

Wow!!!
That's an awesome truck.
I'm thinking about ditching the water pump as well. It just looks like it's something that will cause trouble.
I've got to go through the wiring. Most of it looks really good. The previous owners made an effort to use the right stuff. The only thing is they were a little lazy about trimming to the correct length. Some of the wiring is too long and they simply made loops to make up the difference. I have to straighten all that out.
It does need a new commutator (timer) harness. That's going to be one of the first things done.

 

What a beautiful truck!!!!
Thank you for sharing it.

 

It's going to be awhile. Really a lot longer than I thought. I was a little naive. Not bad, I had a feeling it was going to need a good bit of TLC to run and drive.
It was advertised as a runner and a lot of things are in good shape. There were videos of the car running but I'm convinced now that those were probably several years old.
Thanks I will keep everyone posted.

 

Oh.....
I had the goo goo eyes when I went and looked at it. I had a plan when my girlfriend and I went to see it.
I had really decided to pass on it before we went to see it. She said, "let's take a trip and go look at it." So, we did. Like I said I had a plan, but I went goofy, not bad but....I did go goofy and forgot all the stuff I was going to ask and bargain with.
We are not little people. I do kind of feel like Kermit the frog on a lilly pad in the driver's seat. My girlfriend said, this is surprisingly comfortable...... Sold!!!!!

When my brother and I went to get it, we talked a good bit. That was a trip in itself. We lost our Mom to cancer this past April. I have had vision problems, cataracts. I lost the rest of the hearing in my left ear from an injury in 2003. Poof be gone, all of a sudden last month. I'm taking treatment to restore that hearing but I think it's gone.

On the way back with it, I told my brother...." You know, I'm just tired of stuff sucking. It's been a rough couple of years."

Make no mistake, I am so, so blessed and am unworthy of the blessings I have.

Four days after the T was in the garage my sister called. She has cancer. It's very very early and everything is 99 percent positive.
It's just tough hearing that same terminology again after mom but now it's my baby sister.
Maybe car guys will get this, there's no way I would have got this old car knowing my sister is sick. It's just not seemly. I would have called the guy and backed out.

It's almost as if, it was meant to be....a little blessing.

Sorry for the mushy drama......

Think about drama that that 99 year old car has been around. Literally lifetimes of stories some heartbreaking, some thrilling, most mundane that that old car has been around. Nobody knows. They are all gone but it is still here.