'26 and '21 getting ready for spring

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I've got the flywheel and drums as close as I could get them. I think we got the flywheel as close as possible. The drums were a little rough to do anything with. I didn't want to take a lot of material off and end up weakening them. But at any rate it's as good as I was going to get em. I really appreciated the help I got from my friend "Walter". He's got a really nice machine shop and it was a joy working in it. To be honest it's the shop I've always wanted since I finished my machinist training 35 years ago and started working as a machinist. But now Walter has poisoned my mind with the idea I need to put in a turbo 400 clutch set-up. But presently I'm only considering it. I've still got some financial restraints with doing it. At any rate I'm back working on the '21.

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Some days your the car tire and some days your the dog. Today was a little rough for me. I went out to work on the transmission today and nearly had it completely together. I was tightening the clutch driving plate down on the clutch push ring. Everything was going well until I heard one click and then a couple more. I looked things over and realized the transmission brake drum had cracked nearly 2/3 of the way around it's perimeter. So I ended up tearing the transmission completely apart to see if I could figure out what went wrong. As it turned out the clutch push ring was sitting so one of the pins was sitting properly aligned to the holes in the driving plate and pushing on the clutch arms. But the other 2 weren't properly lined up and were actually sitting just to the side of the holes far enough to keep them from sliding in. Though it didn't seem I was putting much pressure on the bolts, the pressure of tightening 6 fine thread bolts one after the other was enough to make marks where the pins were hitting. And it broke the brake drum. So I'm going to have to break down and put the money into a new one. The hell of it is to send my core in and get a rebuilt back is going to cost over $300.00 and to buy a brand new part is over $600.00. And that's money I just don't have. So unless anyone has a transmission brake drum in decent shape that they're willing to sell at a decent price I'm sitting idle until I can get the money together to buy a replacement. I don't know for sure when that will be and I'm really becoming discouraged with this damn job.

[yachtsmanbill]

You gotta be shikking me! Altho its probably no consolation, Ill bet there was some kind of crack started a long long time ago, AND tightening the six fine thread bolts in succession finally did the dirty. What a whizzer!
Im keeping an eyeball peeled for you for a spare now... Thats the 21 narrow brake band correct??? Last year I bought a trans drum set for $30 because I needed the low speed drum. It was cracked as well and I traded the 3 drums for a good LS drum. The guy that gottem drills the rivets out and uses the hubs on new drums.
If you can get Oso to order you a drum, you can do the same job. After riveting, youll need to spin the rivets flat on a lathe. Id also try Model T Haven Mark... ws





Picked up this 21 motor for trading parts for $100. Probably made $200 cash plus some trades. Search craigslist... lots of T stuff up your way

http://modelthaven.com/index.html

Send Mark an email. He gets back FAST!!

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Wee Hawwwww. Our good friend farmallcub49 of Oso Handy Restorations just called me as I was finishing up my last post and said he had already found me a replacement brake drum and that he'd bring it to our Great Northern Model T Club meeting tomorrow. I can't begin to say how great that makes me feel.

It's this type of thing that becomes a testament for the benefits of belonging to a local club. I've already become aware that Model T owners are a special type of person. They travel at a little more comfortable pace and I think that eliminates a lot of the anxiety that other people feel and display on a daily basis. And it's that ability to make sure cooler heads prevail in moments of anxiety that makes them nicer people in the long run. Though I've always been anxious and a lot of times I become too emotionally involved when things don't go according to plans, I only need to bring up what's going on to one of my model t friends and it seems the issues iron themselves out in a matter of seconds.

And I'd also like to speak to the fact that there are a lot of other benefits to belonging to a local club. First and foremost is the friendships that are forged between people who have a common interest. Second is the amount of knowledge and resources that become available through the club. Third is the social activities that give me, a single person, the opportunities to go once a month and be with other club members. The meetings are fun and the food is always excellent. Fourth are the opportunities to take our model ts out as a group and see the world at that slower pace that seems so welcome when everything else in life moves so fast and can be so hectic. A person sees a lot of country at 65 mph but gets to see the details much better at 30 mph. And 5th is the acceptance and interest that is shown by non-model t owners. There's nothing in the world like talking to people about our hobby and explaining how we drive something with 3 pedals, 2 levers on the steering column, 1 lever that comes through the floor, a knob that comes through the dash that adjusts the carburetor and a piece of wire that sticks through the firewall that we choke the engine with when were starting the vehicle. Couple all that with a crank, a fuel cutoff valve and a choke that also comes out of the front of the hood by the side of the radiator and you've got a vehicle that obviously takes talent and skill to operate and requires dedication to the model t hobby. Thank you Henry Ford.

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Taking a shower in a couple minutes and headed for meeting for Great Northern Model T Club. Today I'll watch a demonstration that shows how to apply babbit to a model t engine.

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Pretty good demonstration at the GNMTC meeting today. We ate some really good food too. Picked up the brake drum from Andy, and when I got home I went straight for the shop. Had to do some work to get the drum in shape but with a little bead blasting, pushing the bushings in from the broken drum into the new one and then cleaning the bushings up with a little flap sander and things started to come together. Then I hit a little snag. I just couldn't seem to get everything to work like I needed it too. When I put the thrust washers in and pressed the clutch hub on the whole works would lock up. A little investigatin' and I figured I didn't push the bushings in far enough. After pushing them down past the radius in the one end of the brake drum it all loosened up and I was on my way. Of course I still had to make a couple calls to Andy and ask my fair share of questions but he's patient and provided me with some good answers and a couple of hints and I got it finished up. So the next step is to get the magneto coils bolted on, bolt the transmission, oil pan and hogs head on. Then I get to start playing with the bands. At least this time when I put them in I'll have a clean tranny and no oil to mess with. Then it's a matter of a little work everyday until the cars put back together. The next couple weeks are going to be fun.

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Took the day off from wrenching today. That transmission is together and I had no desire to do any work in the shop. I didn't even take the '26 out for a ride, and the weather is really nice here this afternoon. So the warning is out for Andy. Within the next day or so I'm going to get ahold of you to determine a time when I can come down to the shop and put the magneto coils on. I really don't want to have to drive my sedan on our first tour unless it's raining.

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Well I took the generator apart and found a broken brush holder so now I'm waiting until I get over to Oso's to get some replacement parts. After I did that I had to run into town and get some dog food for Lacey and Poncho. While I was coming back Andy called and brought up the need for a lifting device to hand the flywheel and transmission. So I stopped at the hardware store and bought, well, a bunch of hardware. And put together a device for hanging the transmission from. Check out the photos.
The first photo shows my hanging device.
The second show it on the cherry picker
The third shows the broken brush holder from the generator
The last photo I'm showing off my engine lift my engine stand and my 2 1/2 ton air jack and my tool boxes.

[Farmallcub49]

Mike,

That is no Model T Generator brush holder like I have ever seen.

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Originally Posted by Farmallcub49

Mike,

That is no Model T Generator brush holder like I have ever seen.

Thats odd. Because the generator came off my model t. And the front plate has the right 3 holes on it and it's gear driven and while it was on my T it put out 10.5 to 11 volts but it was intermittent because of this broke, adjustable brush holder. That almost makes it seem like a model t generator to me.

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With the transmission on and the engine sitting level I've got .042 on the top and .028 on the bottom and both sides even at .035. So I'm going to finish this can of coke, choke down some Oreo's go back out and lift the transmission again and take .005 shim out of the top 2 bolts. That will get me closer. I just hope it's enough. It's a beautiful day in the shop. Both doors are open and the sun is shining, it's about 48 degrees outside but I've got a heavy sweatshirt on and to me it feels perfect. I have to admit though. There's one thing that always has to be done when working on old fords. I've had to do it in the past all the way back to when I was about 10 years old and the old man would make me go under that old '45 Ford truck. I always had the job of wiring the damn bolts together. He always said my fingers were smaller and I could get it in there better. Well now I'm 62 years old and my hands are bigger than his ever were and I'm still putting that damn wire in the bolts. I think he just stuck me under that truck so him and mom could, well let's just say there were times when they sure seemed to get along a lot better. So by the end of today my goal is to have the trans permanently mounted for the last time and the gap will be correct on the magneto. And I'm gonna be looking for a gasket set. Now I gotta go rip the transmission back off that engine again. -Mike

[yachtsmanbill]

Are you talking about hibbity-jibbity OR humpity-bumpity?? ws

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Originally Posted by yachtsmanbill

Are you talking about hibbity-jibbity OR humpity-bumpity?? ws

Yes and bibbity bobbity boo. And every once in awhile Pa'd come out the house laughing like Popeye. Ukyukyukyukyuk and then skeet bop beelieop be bum de bo!!!! That's when I'd kind of throw up in my mouth just a little bit. To think what that creepy old bustard had just done made me sick.

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I had the transmission at .030" on the top and .028" on the bottom. So I figured the difference was exactly where I wanted it but thought I could straighten it just a little more so I put a .001" shim in the top. And now for some reason I've lost everything. It changed to .016 on the top and .032 on the bottom. I have no idea what the hell happened but I tired from a whole day of it and have quit for the night. I'll go back out in the morning and start over again. Now it's 11:30 at night and I'm hungry. So I'm going to fix myself some supper and watch a little "Swamp People" on the history channel and then take my meds and go to bed. The only thing I can think of that could have happened with the magneto is I got something under the coils somewhere and it's got something tilted. It's a good thing this is a hobby and I enjoy what I'm doing because I could easily start to dislike it. But when the going gets tough, smart people hire someone who knows what the hell they're doing. But stupid people just keep beating their head against the wall and my forehead is getting pretty scarred up.

[yachtsmanbill]

Youre gonna find that the ring is a cast piece and not very true on the mounting face. I dikked with mine for 2 days before I settled for what I got! I think thats why they give you that .025 - .040 fudge factor... Ford mustve been from Mackinac Island LOL...

Fork gunman and his $400 seats... must have used gold thread on the seams. Id still get some sheepskin covers and be cool! Maybe even some zebra skin seat covers. My coupe had the trasditional Indian blankey for a cover. ws

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320805349446

SHOP TILL YA DROP !!!!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Seat-Covers-/33702/i.html

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Took everything apart again this morning and started over. Not really having much fun. Gotta head back out in a minute. I cannot believe that it's impossible to even predict how much change a person can expect when adding or subtracting shims under the magneto coils. It seems like I really had things going my way last night and then I added two .001" shims and lost the whole damn thing. When I took it apart this morning I found out one of the bolts wasn't torqued as tight as the other. It was tight but felt a little lighter. So now I'm starting over.

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Well praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. I'm done with the magneto. The transmission is on and everything is tight. I've got .030" clearance on the bottom and .033" on the top. I'm happier than a pig in an acre of cracked corn and watermelon rinds. Now of course the next step is the oil pan and what the book refers to as the 4th main bearing. Then I guess the hogshead the bands and the pedals and then start putting it in the car. Yippety Skippety.

[yachtsmanbill]

So now, when you putthe pan on you should turn the motor on end on the stand and put the pan on. It should go on kinda loose until you get the 4th main put on and positioned, then snug the pan bolts down, The 4th main should slide on and off and rest on the lip just behind the flange. Thats where all the sag stuff comes into play... ws

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Turn it on end Like I did to take the transmission on and off. I mean so the nose or front of the engine is toward the floor. Right? I'll tell you I'm honestly wore out from that damn thing. I used to set parts up on machine to mill and grind and I had to set those parts up so they were perpendicular and parallel to the axis of the machine. I also set them up on computer aided coordinate measuring machines and I learned then how to do what I did with this magneto. But I must of forgot everything I learned over the last 40 years because there really wasn't anything tough about this job but until I got my head out of my butt and realized what I was doing to myself I was pretty much screwed. Now I think I could do it in about 3 or 4 moves. And the theory behind it is to get the coil "plate" sitting level and square to the crank and the crank flange first at about .030" clearance and the rest is just moving the top and bottom in and out until you get it. The other thing to remember is that adding shims moves the two plates closer together. I'll bet half the moves I ended up having to do were because I put shims in when I should have been putting them in. But now it's done and I'll be really surprised if it doesn't work out ok. I still have to wire the flywheel plate bolts together and the bolts for the rear main. Then I'll start on the oil pan. Tonight I had to buy myself a beer. It's the first one I've had at home for a couple months. It was delicious. Now my son and granddaughters and worthless skanky girlfriend are just about here and I have to take my shower. Later, Mike

[yachtsmanbill]

CORRECT! You want no sag on the fourth main so it stays on the same line as the other three. I did mine on the blocks as well and used my chain hoist to lift half the total weight and set #4. Its always worked for me, but with a rotating stand its a breeze... Now about that skanky girlfreind... pictures!! ws