August 2019 – Model T Ford Fix

August 26, 2019

Rebuilding the Zenith 04 Carburetor for your Model T Ford

The great thing about having a speedster; you pick the parts that you want on it. An aftermarket carburetor and intake are just the ticket – even the dog approves.

The Zenith carburetor company was large even in the earliest days. It was a very popular carburetor in both France and England for aircraft use in the earliest years. French inventor and tinkerer Francois Bavery “perfected” the Zenith design from his experiments in 1906 – 1908. His contribution was a dual jet design, with one main jet supplying the primary mixture to the throttle bore, and the other “compensator” jet being open to the atmosphere as a “compensator”, thereby offsetting the mixture as throttle position and engine speed changes. The theory is quite novel. A “cap jet” surrounds the throttle main jet, modifying both the vacuum signal and the fuel flow at various engine demands.

Francis (or Francois) Bavery’s design became the standard for many years at Zenith.

Zenith was never an OEM carburetor supplier for the Model T Ford. However Zenith made several accessory carburetors and carburetor / intake manifold combinations for the Model T Ford. We had a chance to rebuild one. Follow along and see how it went.

August 17, 2019August 18, 2019

Installing and Tuning the Stromberg B No 3 Carburetor on your Model T Ford

This is one of those times the short cut didn’t save any time………

The original steel rings were used with a new set of copper glands on the Stromberg intake manifold.

When we left off the Stromberg B No 3 carburetor was rebuilt and ready for installation. The installation turned out to be easy. Tuning was another matter! Read on to see what we had to do to get a sweet running Model T again.

August 12, 2019August 13, 2019

Rebuilding the Stromberg B No 3 Carburetor for the Model T Ford

A 1916 Model T runabout has been converted to an early version of semi – tractor / trailer.

Alfred Stromberg made his first fortune manufacturing telephone equipment copied from expired Bell patents. Between 1893 and 1905 the Stromberg Carlson company became dominant in the Rochester and upper New York state area. Stromberg and his partner Carlson sold out, leaving both men extremely wealthy but bored.

Stromberg and his partner moved to Chicago, Illinois and purchased two companies. One eventually became Stromberg Office Products, a company mostly known for making time clocks. The other company was the John Goldberg carburetor company. The name was changed to Stromberg Motor Devices company, building carburetors designed by John Goldberg at first.

Image of a Stromberg B series carburetor from the 1909 book “Automobile Motors and Mechanism” written by Thomas Herbert Russell

This issue we will examine and rebuild one of the earliest aftermarket carburetors built for the Model T Ford, the Stromberg model B No 3 .