The Model T Ford enthusiast's best source for Model T history and technical information
Cobb X Shinn was an artist who specialized in greeting cards. About 1914 Ford Motor Company hired him to pen a series of humorous cards that portrayed the Model T as iconic, inexpensive, yet superior to other cars of the day.
Shinn was a young man of 27 at the time. He went on to serve in the US Armed Forces in WWI, and lived in the Midwest until 1951 having a long career in illustrating mostly post cards and greeting cards.
The weakest part of the Model T Ford design is the rear axle. OK, sure, it was well designed for its time, and perfectly adequate when the car was new. The fact is, if any part of it fails, the car won’t go forward, and it won’t stop either. People have been killed or injured because their rear axle failed in a Model T.
This article is about the drive shaft assembly. We are going to rebuild it as a Ford mechanic would have done back in the day. First let’s take it apart and see what we have to work with.
1909 advertisement for Firestone Non Skid tires
Clincher tires can be tough to mount sometimes. One thing that can cause trouble is when the tire sits unused in new condition for a few years. The tire “shrinks” somewhat, and it also gets hard. One enterprising Model T mechanic developed a solution years ago. We don’t know who he is, but thank you who ever you are or were! Continue reading “How to: Stretch an old clincher tire”
From about serial number 900 until the end of Model T production in 1927 (1928 for the TT Truck) the transmission and clutch remained largely unchanged. Earlier Model T’s built in the 1909 model year prior to about serial number 900 had a different operating system that requires some different techniques. For the sake of clarity we will not address the earlier so called “two lever / two pedal” cars in this article.
The Model T uses three pedals and one lever to operate the parking brake, clutch, reverse speed, low speed, high speed, so – called “neutral” (more on this later) and foot operated brake.
Let’s look at a step – by – step procedure to adjust the brakes, bands, and clutch, while we explain the operation of each control. In order to achieve proper adjustment of each component it is important to first of all understand that they are inter – related. You must verify the adjustments in order if you want to have success. Adjusting components out of order will result in poor operation.
Continue reading “Adjusting The Model T Ford Transmission and Clutch”
In my quest to find out the proper way to restore my 1910 touring there is only one place to find out all the answers. That place is the Benson Ford Archive at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Continue reading “The Parking Brake Lever”