Confessions of a Model A Modifier – Model A Upgrades?

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Louis

Tom,
Do you use carb. air filter's on your A's? what do you think about them, are they any help to an A model? i've heard arug. on both sides. it seem's like it would be a good idea, but Henry must not have thought so.... Appreciate your thought's.....Louis.

I don't use an air filter, and I also try to never drive on dirt roads. If I have to drive on dirt roads I drive slow and never follow anyone close enough to eat his dust.

[Purdy Swoft]

allen, with the use of float A motor mounts you lose the solid crossmember between the frame and the flywheel housing. The drive train loses stability and bad clutch chatter can result. The frame is weakened and frame sag will eventually creep in. In some cases a wide gap will be evident at the rear lower hood corners. You won't be able to use engine pans that makes the model A run 15% cooler plus you will lose the ground between the frame and engine.

[Preacher]

LED tail lights
EVR for inside the generator
GOOD non paper air filter

[PC/SR]

I have a speedster with lots of mods, but my three for general use by anyone are
1. Battery wire direct to the transmission or bell housing with an additional wire to the frame. Cheap, easy, effective.
2. Internal regulating single wire alternator. Install and forget about it.
3. Leakless water pump. See #2.

[Mike/Nebraska]

What guage wire do you use and do you just wire it from the positive post to the frame and the bellhousing? I have to run a ground wiire form my overdrive to the frame as well.

[Kevin - Illinois]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

1. LED tail lights & center stop light
2. Halogen headlights
3. Seat belts

[PC/SR]

Mike/Nebraska: Use the existing battery wire and run it from the positive terminal to any handy bolt on the trans or bell housing. The wire to the frame can be smaller because it does not carry much current, even with the overdrive. The part houses have a wire braid that moderns use for the same purpose. Attach it to the battery positive post and run it to the frame. You can probably use the hole in the frame where the exisiting wire attached. Make sure the connections are clean, sand through the rust, crud and paint to bare metal. You have to find someone who knows their parts inventory because when the kid at the counter asks for the appliation and looks in the parts book, its a kinda funny reaction when you tell them its for a 1930 Model A Ford. They will tell you they dont have it, but it should be in inventory. Sorry I cannot give you an application to ask for.

[Chris in WNC]

as threatened, here are my thoughts on the original laundry list of modifications above:

float-a-motors: take them off. I ran a set for 10 years after a friend recommended them. after consideration of the arguments on Ahooga.com, I replaced them with stock mounts, guess what? I felt NO increase in vibration at any speed.

oil filter: unnecessary. use detergent oil and change it frequently (<2000 miles)

air filter: your carburetor typically does not like it. tried a paper filter in an air-maze, it ran & drove much better WITHOUT. have not tried the low-restriction foam motorcycle filters that many recommend. if you must use a filter, make an adapter out of some ABS street-Ls so the filter is above the carb and will not soak up leaking gas & ignite.

modern bendix: if the original bendix is in good condition and the shaft is straight, it is unnecessary. our Coupe starter hangs up occasionally with such ferocity that we cannot loosen it by rocking; I must loosen the starter to free it. this is due to excessive ring gear wear, not the bendix. it has happened with 2 different starters.

LED brake & center stop lights: never saw them on a car until we went to French Lick. I'm SOLD. we will soon be upgrading both cars.

cast iron drums: our Town Sedan has them. our Coupe has original drums with very minimal wear. guess which one stops better? the Coupe. we bought the TS recently & I have not opened the brakes up to see why. if you do not have excellent original drums, cast iron is the only way to go.

brake floaters: I tried to install some of the older style (pre-Ted's) floating front wedges once, they did not fit well enough to leave on the car. as many have said before: if your brakes are not worn or poorly adjusted there's nothing wrong with the original setup.

high compression head: love them. had a Lion 6.0 on my old Tudor it ran GREAT. the Town Sedan has a Brumfield 5.9, it runs GREAT. Brumfield seems to require less monkeying around with the spark advance on the highway than the Lion did.

B cam: no experience here, but plan to put one in the Coupe when the engine gets freshened up.

Aires muffler: is this a modification? I think not. if you install the plain steel version, it is simply a good quality replacement part! the old cheapie Midas muffler was arguably a modification, because it did not look or perform as original. the stainless mufflers that I run are modifications, I guess, but at those prices I don't ever want to buy more than one per car.

alternator: in 24 years of Model As, I never had one until we bought the TS last November. no complaints about the performance, just not crazy about the appearance.
solid state regulator is a must if you run a generator.

Mitchell overdrive: GREAT! I've had 3 cars with Mitchells and heartily endorse them without reservation.

aluminum timing gear: never had one. never had any problems with fibre gears.

four blade fan: NOT an improvement. tests by Model A Times showed no cooling improvement with four blades and neglible improvement with six blade plastic. Four blade makes water pump harder to change. I use and recommend two blade aluminum and would never run an original steel one. most overheating problems come from clogged radiators- fix that and you'll forget about the fan.

radiator overflow tank: unnecessary ugliness. we drove 2239 miles on the French Lick trip. 5 days on highway were over 100 degrees. total water used = 3 quarts. keep a gallon jug in your back seat. pardon my redundancy, but "most overheating problems come from clogged radiators"

short pitman arm: I like them, some people do not. DONT' TRY THIS AT HOME! use only the new arms from Snyder's or modified arms from someone like Wiley Higgins who makes them correctly.

modern water pump seal: I use the Extreme Duty Leakless. I can rebuild them, but not as good as James does. http://www.leaklessapumps.com/ no grease to clog up your radiator! expensive, but worth it. guaranteed 5 years, I had one start to drip slightly after 6 years service, James rebuilt it for $50 + shipping.

downsizing carburetor jets: never heard of such a proposition, but if it works, why not. better gas mileage is always desirable if it comes with no loss of performance! how 'bout doing a tech article for Model A News or Restorer magazine on this process?

bowl fuel filter: I like the appearance of the cast iron sediment bowl better. we judge the quality of a swap meet based on how many cast iron sediment bowls are seen.

turn signal lamps/buzzer: never had turn signals on a Model A until we bought the Town Sedan. I removed them when I had the steering column out (the wiring was marginally installed) and may not replace. not a bad idea in heavy traffic, just a low priority for me. LED brake lights are more important.

additional ground cable: every Model A should have one installed.

babbit vs. inserts: nothing wrong with correct babbit material poured & bored correctly.
plenty wrong if it's done wrong. would I buy a car with an insert engine correctly done? certainly. would I pay extra for inserts? nope.

modern points: you weren't sure on this one, but I am. "modern" (1970's) points are a royal pain to adjust, stock Model A points are easy as pie. today's stock condensers seem to be pretty sturdy, I've driven a lot of hot weather miles without having one fail. wireless lower plate? totally unnecessary, but you want have the correct type wire soldered to the plate. many repro original type upper & lower plates are inferior to originals.

modern ignition switch: pop-outs can and have caused me trouble, but I like them enough to forgive them. I do keep a distributor jumper wire in my small parts box to get me home in a pinch.

#8 stud clamp- put a couple flat washers on that stud in place of the cable clamp and all is well.

trunk on the sedan: like the convenience, dislike the appearance.

premium gasoline: you've got to be kidding! we run the cheapest gasoline we can find in our 2 modern cars and 2 Model As. occasionally the Coupe will idle poorly on a specific tank of gas, never any other problems.

stone guard: that was my radiator you saw pictured, but I consider the stone guards too ugly for our cars. maybe if we lived on a gravel road out in the boonies, but that is not the case.

step plates: no thanks. just don't care for how they look.


"that's all I have to say about that"
-Forrest Gump

[gilitos]

Chris: I want to frame your response and hang it on my garage wall. A voice of reason. Thanks for taking the time to compose that note.

[30Tudor]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies - I hope this is informative reading for everybody. I sure could have used these comments before I made some of my my less-informed investments.

I just remembered that I forgot two items.

Thermostat - quicker warm up of the engine - I presumed engines perform best when they are warmed up and the faster they warm up the better. Other reasons have been given that they reduce coolant flow to stop radiator overflow but this sounds like a cure for the symptoms that result from a missing radiator baffle?

Bronze rear main bearing thrust seal - I put one in and hope I never have to find out if it is working or not.

I think I'm adding the Pertronix flamethrower coil to my post 2014 wish list. If nothing else the name makes you believe the engine will either run better or just blow up. What version works on a 6V system the 1.5 or 3.0 Ohm primary resistance?

Any thoughts on the above?

[Chris in WNC]

thermostat get a big YES vote here. I run 180 degree in both cars.

our Coupe only runs about 150 degrees without the 'stat. too cold.

[30Tudor]

Chris - I was just thinking about your comment on the radiator overflow tank. No problem if 3 qts of water hits the road. Of course you guys are lucky down in Florida that you don't even need antifreeze, however, up in these northern climates including the northern US, we sometimes need antifreeze in July and August. Some people even drink it to stay warm (:-) Anyway, the whole point of the overflow tank is to not carry the gallon jug in your back seat and be continuously topping off your radiator.

Anyway, just a thought and thanks for your excellent comments.

[ford31]

electric temp gauge
electric volt meter
12 volt starter and alternator
rear floatamotor
cast iron drums
nothing I would change back

[HoarseWhisperer]

Cast Iron Drums, because I had a new set of Plasmeter's in inventory.

Clear distributor cap. Nice to see the spark.

Modern Points. Going back to original points.

30,000 miles on everything else original.

[Peyton]

Downsizing carburetor jets sounds interesting. Where can you get smaller jet sizes?

Thanks in advance.

Peyton

[30Tudor]

Here is an excerpt from of an article on carburetors I did for our club magazine. This article was written to discuss some of the things I learned by trial and error and through fellow club members that weren’t mentioned in the reference materials.

Jets

I had been warned that sometimes the jets supplied from the part’s suppliers are not the same as the originals, particularly the jet orifice sizes. The jets I received from Bratton’s were the same dimensions as the originals, however, the orifice sizes were outside the drill size references that Les Andrews recommends in his book (Main Jet: #63 or #64, Cap Jet: #62 or #63, Idle Jet: #75, Compensator Jet #65) – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_bit_sizes for conversion to thousands. My first stop was to Princess Auto (a store up here in Canada) where I picked up a set of micro drill bits for about $3.00. I soldered the oversized jet orifices shut with 50/50 solder and re-drilled the orifices to the above specifications using a pin vice. When soldering, use an electric soldering iron or small torch and be careful not to use two much solder as it will easily flow down into the jet creating a lot more work. You also may have to use a larger drill bit and a small file to recreate the dimple at the top of each jet.

Despite the orifice re-sizing my engine was still running rich which I confirmed by having a look at the spark plugs after a test drive. Ultimately I ended up sizing the main, cap and compensator jet orifices two sizes less than recommended in Andrew’s book to get the best results. Make sure the compensator jet is sized larger than the cap jet. With these smaller orifice sizes, I now can use the GAV to optimize the mixture. My recommendation would be to start with the cap, compensator and main jet orifices 2 sizes smaller than Les Andrew’s recommendations as you can always easily remove them and drill them out to optimize performance. You only have to remove the lower carburetor casting to access these jets so they are easy to remove and change. Make sure both your cap and main jet heights are even and set at a point which coincides with the narrowest point in the venturi. This may require playing around with the jet gaskets to achieve this. Make sure that any old jet gaskets are removed from the casting particularly with the main jet. A little thread sealer on the gaskets is also recommended.

[Peyton]

Thanks 30 tudor.

Peyton

[roccaas]

Cup/Bottle Holder. See "Model A Times" for Ad.

[Jordan]

1. Inserted Engine
2. overdrive
3. FS Petronic Ignition
4. LED tail lights
5. 12 volts.

Couldn't stop at 3

[Karl]

Its interesting how your understanding and appreciation for things changes as you gain experience When I brought my first Model A it was fitted with Float-o motor mounts and modern upper plate distributor. I was told that both had huge benfits in terms of reliability and drivability . This I slaveishly believed. However the more I listen the more I learn and I suspect I'm going to start reverse engineering some of those modifications and I also supsect I'm not going to be disappointed with the results . In short Henry did a pretty good job originally -Karl