Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldgearz
These folks are amazing. I never would have thought to cut a cap like this to see inside a running car. This is an A+++ shade-tree idea. Thanks.
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Man, I remember seeing on of those cut down around 1970 on a Model-A Texas Tour on a Coupe owned by Jake Westmoreland. He and his brother Pete were some fantastic mechanics.
The thing that made me remember this was he could make his Coupe start on compression. In other words, just turn the key and without pressing the starter switch the ignition spark would start the engine igniting the fuel on top of the TDC piston.
I was too naïve to understand all about it then but in retrospect some 40-50 years later, I am guessing he had a multiple spark discharge box hidden up behind the firewall which allowed him to get those "free-starts". That is probably why he had the distributor cap cut like that so he could show off the multiple sparks onto the distributor body terminals. Very little today on a Model-A that is 'new' news, ...as many good mechanics have thought-up most of this in years past.
FWIW, back 50 years ago at a Model-A event (tour, club meeting, swap meet, etc.) the amount of great craftsmen that would sit down together and share information makes Fordbarn seem pale by comparison. Most all of us today would love to be a part of one of those 'meetings' back then.