The 14 Model T Re-Furbish

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
During the winter my T club has "work" meetings and today we learned how to straighten a "T" frame.

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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Was able to get up north this past weekend and get a little farther with the transmission. Most of the parts are here and we were able to at least start the assemble of the magneto.

New (Rebuilt) Coil Vs. old one

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Switching from the steel on steel clutches to a newer style with material and more internal fingers to hold on tighter to the inner drum.

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The clutch spring, guess which one is the new one.

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This is the shaft that is bolted to the fly wheel. All the drums rotate around this. The old one would have worked but the small key way in the shaft was a bit worn and with all the money i'm putting into new drums it would be silly to cheap out on this. The transmission should hold up for another 100 years with all these shinny parts.

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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Here are the drums next to each other old Vs. new.

The new inner drum Vs. the old one (Notice the multiple grooves for the added finger on the new clutches.)
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Here is the drum that the inner drum spins inside. This is the drum that the steel clutches grab onto do transfer power to the wheels
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You can see the groves on the tabs of the drums caused by the steel clutches rocking back and forth inside the drum. Typically the stack is compressed or relaxed so this isn't a huge concern but when transfer to another gear the clutchs hook on to the grooves causing the transmission to "stutter" into the next gear.

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So we are replacing it with this new one. it looks different because they guy who makes them make the low speed drum for all 1908-1928 Model T's. So he makes one (with slight modification) that can be used in all model years.
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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
All the bushing will be replaced through out the transmission. No sense in reusing any of them.

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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Here are the other two drums that are being replaced. We still have to drill the rivets out and transfer the gears over to the new drums and install those new bushings. After the gear is installed it has to make a quick trip to the lath to cut the heads down flush.

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This picture is of the outer surface of the drum, it has a band around it that holds it from spinning for different gear selections. The bands are whats being activated when the pedals are being pushed, causing the bands to squeeze the drum and lock it into one or another gear.

There is some pitting going on but the surface is still in good shape. When people don't change the bands when needed the rivets in the bands will cut deep grooves in the drums just like a brake rotor and a bad pad will do.

But since the inside is still chewed up we are not reusing these.

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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Since the magnets are recharged I reassembled the flywheel.

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Have to use new brass screws since they are a one time use hardware.
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Assembling the magnets with N pole next to N poles and the same with the S poles.
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All of them are moved as far outward as the inner bolt's let them travel, since centripetal force will put them there anyway. Then we torqued them down to 30 ft/lbs. After the torquing we use this tool to gauge the height of each magnet.

According to old man spec, they have to all be with in .0006 of each other. Remember this is spinning next to those pretty coils at a very short distance. This "Fly Wheel" assemble will be sent to the machine shop to be balanced and he will also put it on the lath to take the .0006 clearance down to a tolerance of +/- .0001. The closer the magnets are to the coils the better the spark generation.

Stainless steel safety wire (.032 thick) will be added to the circle of bolts before it leaves the shop to be machined/balanced. The old stuff looks like it used to be a coat hanger wire.
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One final thing before it's sent off, we mushroom over the other side of those brass screws (The non re-useable ones I talked about above) in order to lock them in place.
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Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
That's all the progress for now, talked to the machine shop and they said they haven't started on my block yet.
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Got a call from the machine shop today , he told my my crank shaft is cracked and unserviceable. But good news is everything else looks good or easily repairable. Also my oil pan and other large parts have been hot tanked and he is boring out the block right now.

Got plans to finish the transmission up here in two weeks. So far on schedule and over budget. :D
 

tixer

Lincoln Evangelist
Got plans to finish the transmission up here in two weeks. So far on schedule and over budget. :D
Typical.. :) Still glad to see this coming together though. Thanks for the great build thread, and all of these updates. Is anyone making new crankshafts? or do you have to source a used one?
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Eventually I will make one of them fancy photo books my sister likes to do with this half restoration.

All the crank shaft's that were produced were non-counter weighted crank-shafts. So today, the only reproduction are the counter weighted ones, but unfortunately there around $1200. But as a bright spot in 1927 they have a different manufacture for the CS and they ended up being a stronger piece.

luckily I have a line on a 27 crank that is at the Machine shop being Manga-fluxed for cracks. If all checks out, I should be good to go.

Mine on the right.
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The counter weighted one.
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Meister

New member
Thanks for the update! This is a cool project to follow.

Any indication that the engine/transmission had been gone through before, or are you servicing all of the original parts?

Doug
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
From what we can tell the engine/transmission have been opened up and a few parts have been replaced. But as far as an actual full rebuild this is the first (hopefully the last in my lifetime). Trying to re-use and machine much of the original parts as we can but I also do want to use parts that are good but known to fail. So with a few upgrades, like the transmission drums and various other things it will be allot more reliable then when it first came out of Dear Born 100 years ago.

We will be using new technology inside but when it's all together it will look 100% original, just more dependable.
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Was able to find another crank for $100 that is not cracked. Just talked to the machine shop, block is being honed and the babbet will be poured this week.
 

SCTBIRD1173

Mark my Bird!
Wow Eric this is an awesome thread! I never imagined how automotive technology was 100 years ago... this is amazing stuff! Thanks for sharing!
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Small update:


Babbet is poured, head is decked, block is line bored and the valves are being done today. Crank is also cleaned up and balancing of that and the rods/pistons will happen next week.

Still trying to find time to go up and finish the transmission.
 

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
Got a Little more done this weekend, rebuilt the coils and finished up the Magneto to have it sent off to balancing. Pistons are arriving today and the machine shop will be balancing it with the rest of the engine and hopefully we will be taking it home Saturday.




There are 4 coils (one per cylinder) that up the voltage and amperage from the mag before sending it to the plug. Had too carefully disassemble part of the box, clean out the tar from around the old capacitor (Condenser) and solder in a new one. Then I re-assembled the box, filled it back up with roofing tar and installed a new set of points.

Here is whats inside the tar.

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Opened up

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With the capacitor and tar removed

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Filled back up with new tar and a new set of points

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In the coil tester to see if I did the job right.
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