Adding a starter to a non-starter equipped T

[oldmotorsguy]

Just about done with this "little" project. Bought a 1917 Touring, no starter. Thought to self, 'how hard could it be to put a starter in this baby??" Just slap a starter ring on the flywheel, add a starter and battery, there you go.

Not so fast, there, Kimosabe. As I proceeded, lots of little things to keep in mind:
1. I had a spare hogshead with a starter mount. Check.
2. I began swapping out the pedals from the non-starter hogshead to the starter hogshead, and Bob B. of Bob's Antique Auto mentioned that the low speed pedal needed to be changed since the old one would interfere with the bendix cover. OK, got that swapped out.
3. Rather than monkey around with putting a ring gear on a non-starter flywheel, I just used a 1920-something tranny with complete flywheel and ring gear. Check.
4. Early T blocks do not accomodate a generator mount. Considered altering the generator mount to switch it to the driver side of the engine and power it with the fan belt. Jury is still out on that one, Bob. B is not optimistic this will work out very well.
5. I now notice that the low speed pedal linkage arm (the one I just swapped out) is now quite a bit out of alignment with the lower transmission linkage (the one that moves the brass fork in and out).

I am considering heating this arm up with my oxy=acetylene unit and bending it into alignment. Then again, this piece seems to be cast iron, and that may not work out all that well. Or, I have another linkage part from a 1926-7 that looks a bit better aligned, I could just pop the pin off of that one, pop the pin off of the current one and swap them out.

ANY OTHER SURPRISES IN STORE FOR ME AS I PROGRESS IN THIS PROJECT? They seem never ending for a simple task that began "just put a ring gear and starter on it."

[jkeesey]

If it were my car I would have added a chain driven starter off the front of the crank like many other teens and twenties cars did. One of my customers has a 19 with the factory starter. His generator has not worked in the 20 years hes been driving it. He puts a trickle charger on it over the winter and drives several thousand miles the following year without charging it til the next winter.

[Jack Innes]

Perhaps a little late in the process but my 1914 has a later starter ready hog's head with the early pedal pads welded in place. Everything works as it should. I too do not run a generator of any kind & run all day without trouble. The odd overnight trickle charge keeps the battery up. If the battery did fail you still have the crank that started the car for the first 97 years. I also have other earlier cars with added starters & no generator - battery problems are rare if you start out with a good battery.

[tmodelman]

Don't heat the clutch lever arm, its not cast but made of Ford Vanadium steel, if heated it will lose temper and strength. Just bend it cold to align with the pedal clevis tab.

Good thing you got that advise on the difference in the early and later low pedals, that's a bummer to find out after you button up the hogs head

[oldmotorsguy]

Tmodelman: I believe I will give that cold bend a try on the clutch lever arm. Doing this never occured to me as it sure looks cast, and bending a cast iron piece is like trying to bend the rules at the DMV: can't be done, no matter who you know.

Jack and Jkeesey: I am completely OK with leaving the generator off, as the magneto works great, and a fully charged battery will probably start the car 50 times or more without a charge. And that should last a season, at least. Then again, a Model T generator powered up by the fan belt on a pre-1919 car sure would be something to see during 'show and tell' on tours. Assuming it worked worth a darn, that is.

[redmodelt]

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The clutch lever arm is a forging not a cast piece as are the pedals.