What had happened was that when I pushed the starter button, nothing at all happened.  Just a very soft click.  It was as if the starter wasn’t even attached to the car.  As soon as I said that, Devin knew what the problem was.  Sometimes the starter can get stuck.  The gear that it uses to turn over the engine doesn’t retract the way it is supposed to, so when you try to start the engine it can’t do a thing.  The solution is to put the car in second gear, make sure the emergency brake is off, and then start rocking the car back and forth.  When the bendix in the starter disengages, you will hear it.  I had to rock my car with a pretty good amount of force, but it worked! If you do have to remove your starter it should come off easily, unless the bendix is stuck, so try this trick first.

By the way, my mystery, intermittent problem was that I had two loose wires in my dash, the ones that connect to the ammeter.  If you are having an intermittent problem with starting or smooth running of your Model A, be sure to check all the connections under the dash panel.

When I first got the engine running on my 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe I noticed that there was an imperfect seal between the engine block and the exhaust manifold. I could see little puffs of smoke coming out. If you’re not a car person, the exhaust manifold is a cast-iron branching tube that funnels the exhaust out of the engine and into the exhaust pipe. I mentioned the leak to my friend Devin, and he was the one who said the famous last words this time, “It’s easy to replace that gasket. You don’t even have to take the manifold all the way off to do it.”

So I bought a new gasket, loosened the nuts on the manifold, slid out the old gasket, and slid in the new one. Easy. Except that it didn’t fix the problem.

I mentioned it to the guys at one of the meetings of the 3 Rivers Region Model A Ford Restorer’s Club and was told that I might have to have my manifold resurfaced. Apparently this is a common problem with Model A Ford manifolds. After a while the flat surfaces that are supposed to be perfectly flush with the side of the engine block get warped and no longer make a good seal. Fortunately Keith Waltower is in our club, and he is a very experienced mechanic of old cars. He told me of a NAPA shop down in Belle Vernon PA that had a giant belt sander that could do the resurfacing more quickly, easily, and cheaper than taking it to a machine shop. Apparently a lot of the cost of getting a part machined is in the set-up, and with a giant belt sander there would be no set-up.

I was trying to get the car ready to drive for a 4th of July parade in Cannonsburg with the Model A club in a couple of days, so I was in a bit of a hurry to get the job done. The place that Keith mentioned was about a 45 minute drive from my house, so I made a few calls to see if I could get the resurfacing done somewhere a little closer to home. Most places couldn’t do it soon enough, and they wanted about $80. So off I went to Belle Vernon with my exhaust manifold. In hind-sight I now know that this is where I made a critical mistake. You may even know what it is if you’re a Model A person, and we’ll get back to it later.

By the way, you do have to take the manifold off to replace the gasket. I discovered that you can’t really get the surfaces clean if you don’t. When I took my manifold off there were big gobs of the old gasket still on there that would have messed up the seal even if the surfaces had been flat. Both surfaces really have to be clean and free of rust.

The drive to Belle Vernon was easy, and it literally took about two minutes for my exhaust manifold to be finished. I was shocked. But the surprises kept on coming. It only cost $27.83! That’s about a third of the cost of the machine shops. I was feeling pretty smug on my drive home.

I had already ordered a bunch of parts for putting my car back together. I needed new studs (basically a threaded rod) since the nuts on two of the four of them were permanently rusted on. And believe me, I put some serious effort into trying to get them off. I think the intense heat must make the rusting problem worse in this one spot, because most bolts are fine as long as you grease the threads before you put the nut on. Keith gave me a great tip to solve this problem in the future. If you get brass nuts for both the manifold studs and the clamp that connects the exhaust manifold to the exhaust pipe, they can’t rust together. Genius.

I got back to the garage, and started to put everything back together. I was feeling pretty good about it because I was fairly certain that I had all the parts I needed, and that I knew what I was doing. I was going to be able to make it to the parade. That was when I realized my mistake.

This is going to get a little technical, but stick with me; I’ll try to be as clear as possible. On the Model A, the exhaust manifold and the intake manifold are connected to each other by two bolts. The bolts are there to keep the two parts lined up because they share the same studs in order to attach to the engine block. Each part has a half-moon shape that makes up one half of each hole that goes over the stud. When the intake manifold and the exhaust manifold are mated together their respective half-moon shapes come together to make up the entire hole that goes over the stud and gets clamped down by one washer and nut and held in place on the engine block. Because the only place I had a bad seal on the manifold was on the exhaust manifold, I only took that part with me to get resurfaced. So now when I put the intake manifold back onto the exhaust manifold, the half-moons were different thicknesses (since the exhaust manifold had been ground down), and the flat surfaces were at different levels. Therefore, there was no way to get a good seal to the engine block. I should have left the two manifold parts connected so that they would be ground down to the same thickness, and would meet up properly with the engine block. Arg. Double Arg. When I realized what I had done there was much cussing. Also, I learned later that you are better off leaving the two pieces bolted together since if you take the bolts out, the bolt holes tend to strip, and then you have new problems.

I tried to figure out a solution involving stacking up more than one gasket, or grinding things down myself with hand tools. I mentioned these ideas to Keith and as he implored me to just do it the right way I could hear the pain in his voice from having dealt with half-baked repairs in the past. Of course he was right.

I had a gig in New Jersey in a couple of days, and Belle Vernon was sort of on the way, so I took the entire manifold with me. This time I got to go down into the basement machine shop and see the fabled giant belt sander, and let me tell you, it was GIANT. I handed the guy my manifold, which he actually recognized, and it seriously took him 30 seconds to grind everything flush and erase my anguish. Even better, since they had charged me the minimum labor rate of one hour last time, they didn’t charge me anything this time.

I had about three weeks on the road for gigs in the Midwest right after the NJ trip so I wasn’t able to work on the car again until yesterday. It’s just so much better when you do things right. I got the manifold back on the car, it started right up, and doesn’t seem to be leaking exhaust anymore.

Here’s another great tip from Keith Waltower: when attaching the clamp that holds the exhaust pipe to the manifold, put a jack under the muffler and jack it up so that it is held in place against the manifold while you get the clamp in place. I’m not sure that I would have thought of doing it this way, and it makes it really easy. Also, make sure that you have the taller half of the clamp facing down. I used a little high-temp sealant from the auto parts store inside the clamp too.

The last thing I did was put a heat shield on the top of the muffler. It should help keep the cabin a lot cooler. I got it from Snyder’s and it was pretty cheap. It would’ve been a little easier to put on if a) I had done it before reattaching the muffler, and b) I had not tired so hard to put it on backwards first.

I’m off to do a test drive.

My buddy Devin gave me a great tip on getting the head off the block. After draining the water out of the radiator, and disconnecting the water outlet pipe (but before removing the distributor or spark plugs), loosen up all the bolts an 1/8 inch or so, and leave them on the studs. Now start the engine. The pressure from the first cylinder igniting should pop the head loose, and as soon as it’s loose, the engine will die. Now you can remove the spark plugs and the distributor, along with the rest of the nuts. I still had to use some persuasion in the form of a dead-blow mallet to get the head all the way loosened up so I could lift it off.

Also, I don’t have a engine lifting bracket or a winch, so I just put some cloths down (so I wouldn’t scratch the paint), and stood on the frame, straddling the engine. It seemed to work fine, but you have to make sure you have a place to put the head once you get it off. I put down a thick towel in front of the windshield and set the head on it until I could get over to the side of the car and move the head over to my work table for cleaning. It’s pretty heavy, so be careful and don’t hurt your back.

I cleaned off the carbon from the underside of the head and from the tops of the pistons, then used a shop-vac to make sure I had gotten all the funk out of there. One thing you don’t want hanging around in your engine is funk. Make sure that the surface of the head, and the top of the block are perfectly clean and smooth before you put your new gasket on. It is imperative that you do everything you can to get a good seal with the gasket. I used the new premium head gasket from Snyder’s that doesn’t require the spray-on sealant. It looks cool, and I’ve heard good things about it.

Also, be extra careful when tightening the nuts on the water outlet pipe. I’ve been told that they break easily, so I only tightened mine to 45 ft/lbs instead of the recommended 55.

After all my work, I was ready to go out for a drive. I put the key in the ignition… and the car wouldn’t start. You can relieve yourself of the disappointment I felt by setting your timing before you try to start the car. Once I did that, things seemed to work fine. Also, don’t forget to re-torque the head nuts after 500 miles of driving.

There is a special tool that you can buy to remove the ratchet nut, but I figured that I could get it without the tool once the radiator was off. It turns out that I was wrong. The ratchet nut is nestled into the concave center of the pulley, and you can’t reach it with a normal crescent wrench. Besides that, the old nut on my car is actually a different size, so the special tool wouldn’t have worked anyway. My two options as I saw them were to go out and buy an expensive tool that I would probably never use again, or go over to the garage across the street and see if one of their guys might come over and pop the nut off for me.

I went over, talked to Ernie, and told him I was having trouble trying to get a part off of my old car. Initially he wasn’t all that friendly, he told me that they don’t do any mobile service, and it seemed that I might be out of luck. The ratchet nut is a really odd-looking little item, it’s kind of like a regular bolt, but it has four shark-fin shaped teeth in a circle sticking out of the top. I had brought it along on purpose just in case I needed it to help me out in my task. I pulled it out of my pocket and showed Ernie when he asked me what I was trying to take off the car. He looked at it, very puzzled, and said, “What the hell are you working on?”

“A 1930 Model A Ford.”

There was a long pause. “Well… let’s see what I’ve got in here.”

I didn’t actually know what he was getting at since he had already told me that they weren’t going to come over. He started digging through some filthy, grease-covered tool drawers that no longer opened very well, and pulled out some enormous sockets. It took quite a while for me to fully get across to Ernie what I needed since the new ratchet nut was 1 3/8″ and the one I had to remove was 1 5/16″, and it took even longer for him to find them, but eventually he had the tools I needed. I suspected at this point that he was going to let me borrow the tools, but I still wasn’t really sure because mechanics NEVER let anyone borrow their tools. As he handed them to me he said, “I gotta respect anyone who will work on a car that is that f***ing old.” I offered to leave my license as collateral, but as long as I was quick about it, he wasn’t worried. But he did ask me not to tell anyone that he loaned me tools.

I went back to my garage, and found that I had to take even more stuff off the car just to get the socket to fit into the pulley, but it was the right tool for the job. I had hoped that I would just be able to pop the old nut off right away, and be back with Ernie’s tools in a matter of minutes, but of course, I couldn’t get the stupid thing off. To make it worse, the ratchet nut is on the end of the crankshaft, so that when I would torque the wrench the car would start to back out of the garage. It was very frustrating, and since this wasn’t working, I truly didn’t know what else I could do. I was sweaty, tired, and my hands hurt from cranking on the wrench so hard. The only other option was something that Devin had suggested. He thought that it might take the sudden force of an impact wrench to get the nut loose, but I didn’t have one, and there was no way I was going to go and drop that much cash. It was extra frustrating because I was under the gun to get the car running again before the upcoming car show that weekend.

I finally decided that improper use of tools and violence was my only option… don’t tell Ernie. I put the socket and wrench in place on the ratchet nut, got out my 2.5 pound Deadblow mallet, and gave the wrench handle a few good whacks. That did it. In fact, it worked so well, and so immediately, that it seemed like maybe this was what I should’ve done from the get go.

I wanted to thank Ernie for his help. Of course I could offer to pay him, but I didn’t have much cash, and that didn’t feel like the right way to repay the favor anyway. Instead I went into the fridge and got out a couple of ice-cold Spotted Cow micro-brews that I brought down from Wisconsin (for someone else… heh) and brought them with me back over to the garage. Ernie was very pleased with the arrangement.

When I told Devin the story, he was amazed that Ernie actually let me borrow tools, but he said, “It’s the car man! It just makes people want to help you out!”

“I know!” I said, “If I were a hot girl, with that car I’d be unstoppable.”

From right to left: My family’s Model A, Devin’s A, a hot rod A, a badly done hot rod firetruck.

Today Devin came up from Bedford and we had our own little 2-car Model A parade over to the rockabilly car show on the west side of town. It was awesome. There were an incredible number of amazing cars. It was almost all hot rods and custom cars, but I did manage to achieve my goal of talking Model A’s with some old car guys. It was really great, and I even learned a little about my unusual water pump… which is now leaking. But that’s ok, sort of, since one of the old car guys told me what kind it was, so I may be able to order parts for it now.

This was the farthest I have ever driven the Model A and that felt really good.

The reflection of my car in the hub caps of the car next to mine.

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For the second time today the Model A started easily, so I thought my troubles were behind me. I backed the car out of the garage, and was trying unsuccessfully to get Vader in the car (he currently hates the Model A) when there was a sudden pang pang pang Pang Pang PANG PANG from the engine compartment. I opened the hood to find the fan turning at a jaunty angle and cutting a huge gash into the radiator, which was now shooting a nice little stream of water all over the engine. For those of you following the story, that’s the same radiator that I just got fixed. Arg. So tonight I took the radiator off the car again. It went a whole lot faster this time since I have experience. Also, I got to meet a very nice lady who helped me push the car back into the garage as I was blocking her way in the alley.

New plan for tomorrow: Wake up early. Feed self. Feed dog. Walk dog. Load up car for gig. Put radiator in car and take it to Mike the radiator guy. Put generator in car to take to Devin’s generator guy down in Bedford. Drive to gig in Columbus IN. After gig drive to Devin’s house, talk cars, go see his generator guy, talk cars, maybe even go for a drive in Devin’s car, talk cars some more, go home. Drop dog off at home. Hang out with East coast yo-yo guys in town for one night. Go to bed very late.

If all goes well, the radiator and the generator will be finished by the time I am able to work on them again next week. Aside from the fact that I need to get good at driving the Model A before we move to Pittsburgh, there is also a rockabilly car show next Saturday (the 23rd) and Devin and I really want to drive both our cars there. Plus, if I’m ever going to find super-cool lookin’ workin’-on-the-car clothes, the rockabilly guys will know where to find them.

The first thing we did was to try to get the engine started. I had had it running, but I was having trouble with the battery. I’m fairly sure that the generator (the thing that charges the battery while you drive) is bad and needs a complete overhaul, AND it seems as though the battery charger I bought has died. So Devin brought his Dad’s charger up and we got my battery charging right away. Devin double-checked how I had the timing set and made a little adjustment, and we got the engine running. A lot of time was spent fiddling, making small adjustments, and trying to see where to set all the knobs and levers in the passenger compartment, and on the carburetor. We stopped the engine every so often to do this or that, and it wouldn’t always start back up again. Twice the car wouldn’t start because it had run out of gas, but sometimes we just couldn’t figure it out.

Fortunately Devin has more experience than I do with cars in general, but especially with Model A’s. He showed me a wiring diagram in the The Model A Ford Mechanics Handbook Volume 1, by Les Andrews, got out his test light and we followed it until we found a bad connection on the ammeter inside the dash. It was a quick fix.

Then we noticed that the coil (essentially a big capacitor that ramps up the 6V from the battery into 20,000V for the sparkplugs) was getting really hot. It normally gets warm, but this was hot enough that it was hard to touch.

Devin said, “You know, we can just go down to AutoZone and get a new one. They’re only like fifteen bucks. We just have to convince them that they actually have it so they will sell it to us.”

Devin, Vader, and I piled in the Prius (the pinnacle of modern automotive technology) to go off to buy a part for the second model car that Ford ever made (the pinnacle of automotive technology in 1930). It was a nice contrast.

We walked into AutoZone, and there was an older guy and a young guy working. I always go to the older guy if I have the choice, but he was busy.

“Hi. We’re looking for a 6V coil.” I said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” The young guy said.
I started laughing. This was typical AutoZone, and exactly what we both expected. “It’s for a 1930 Model A Ford.”
“Oh. You need to talk to that guy,” he said pointing to the older guy, “he knows about old cars and stuff.”

We went over to chat with the older guy, and he helped us work it out.

“A coil? Could it be called an ignition coil?” he asked.
“Sure. That would make sense.” Devin and I said together.

He punched in “6V ignition coil” under the category for 1930 Model A Ford (which I was surprised was even in their computer), and out popped the shelf number. He went to get it, and when he came back he made a funny production out of blowing the dust off the box. $14 later we were back in the car on the way home.

We got the coil installed, blew a fuse (thankfully Devin had more), put the remaining gas in the tank, and started ‘er up.

It was just getting dark as Vader and I made the first successful run down the alley and back. After twice getting most of the way around the block in the past, I now define a successful run as one where I make it back to the garage with the engine running. For the second run I went around the block once, and then Devin hooked up the lights and jumped in the rumble seat with a bunch of tools (just in case) for the third run around the neighborhood. We kept it short since we knew that we would either run out of gas, or juice in the battery soon and there was no point in pushing our luck… or we would end up pushing the car.

It was really great to finally drive the car successfully. Devin and I got an incredible amount done on the car in one day. Partly because there were two of us, but mostly because Devin knew what he was doing. One of the things that you can’t get out of books is how the engine is supposed to sound and respond. Getting that knowledge alone would’ve been made the day a success, but I got to drive around and honk the horn too.

Just after the first successful run in the Model A. You can also see Vader’s newly installed laser eye.

If you are in the vicinity of South-Central Indiana and would like someone to fix up your Model A, I would be happy to put you in touch with Devin, and I know he would be very happy to get paid to work on an A.

Here’s how I start my car:

1. Make sure that everything is in running order. Easier said than done I know. Be sure the timing is properly set, or even if you get the car started, it won’t run well, if at all.
2. Turn on the gas valve that is under the dash on the passenger side. In my car the valve is open when the handle is 90 degrees from the gas line.
3. Push the timing lever on the steering column (the one on the left) up all the way (fully retarded).
4. Pull the throttle lever on the steering column (the one on the right) down most of the way. How far down will probably vary from car to car. My friend Devin likes to have it all the way down on his car.
5. On the right side of the car, in front of where the passenger would sit is a silver knob. This is both the choke and the fuel mixture. Turn the knob clockwise until it stops, and then open it back up about 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn. Pull it all the way out and hold it there. The turning is the mixture, and the pulling is the choke, or air supply. (You only have to pull out on the choke when starting the car cold, after it is warm you can just hit the starter button.)
6. Push the clutch pedal in all the way, or take the car out of gear.
7. Push the starter button on the floor with your right foot. It’s the little one that is closest to the engine.
8. Once the engine turns over, let go of the choke almost immediately. You may have to adjust the mixture knob, but I usually have mine 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn open. Also, you will want to ease up on the throttle lever (push it up a bit). You do not need to hit the gas pedal with your foot in the starting process. In fact, that is why you have the throttle lever in the first place, it takes the place of the pedal since your foot is busy on the starter button.
9. You will have to fiddle around with all the settings a bit to get them just where you need them for your car.
10. Once the engine is running, pull the timing lever all the way down (and leave it there) for driving.
11. Have fun!

I will update this entry if I discover later on that I’m full of it.

Updated 3/26/09

Last fall one of the guys at the neighborhood auto-mechanic shop told me about a salvage yard just out of town that has Model A Ford parts, so tomorrow my buddy Devin and I are going to go out there and see what they have. For all you Indianans who are in need of Model A Ford parts (I know there are a lot of you out there, and that you spend a lot of time online) here’s the info: Carter’s Salvage, 700 E Jackson St, Veedersburg IN 47987

Ok, so this is going to be an in-depth description of how I repaired the Horn Rod on my 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe. If you are not a Model A Ford person with a Horn Rod in need of repair this will probably be BORING. But if you are like me and have a non-functioning horn button, but a working horn on a Model A Ford, this description is going to be GOLD! GOLD I TELL YOU!

The first thing I did was make sure that my horn actually worked. My buddy Devin suggested that I just hook the horn straight up to the battery. I did. It honked. It didn’t have the glorious AAAHHHWOOOGAAAHH that it was supposed to though, so I took it apart, cleaned it, put it back together, and adjusted it properly. As much as I like to think that I am a genius, all this was not intuitive. I followed the instructions in my Model A Ford Mechanics Handbook. Since the horn worked by itself my problem was in either the wiring or the switch. If you know that your horn works, but you only get intermittent honks when you push the button, you may be able to just rotate the button around and break loose enough oxidation to get it to work. If that doesn’t do it, you will need to take the horn rod apart or replace it.

I followed the instructions for removing the Horn Rod in the Mechanics Handbook, and even though it says that for the Sport Coupe you have to remove the entire steering column to do it, I found that if I opened the back window on my ragtop I was just able to squeeze the Horn Rod out. This is where the instructions in the Mechanic’s Handbook stop. I thought it would be obvious when I got the thing out how to fix it, but it wasn’t. It’s not rocket science, but maybe I can save you some time and effort by sharing what I did.

The Horn Rod is actually a long tube with a wire in it that runs the length of the steering column, has the horn button on one end, and connects to the switch that controls the horn and the lights at the other end. The one on my car is about 46 inches long.

The wire that runs down the center of the rod is one half of the connection and the rod itself is the other half. When you push the button you are connecting the circuit through the rod, the spring, the metal plate in the inside of the button, and the wire that goes back down into the switch at the base of the steering column. The reason that my horn didn’t work is that all the metal parts under the horn button were corroded to the point that there was no electrical connection being made when they touched. Once I got the Horn Rod apart, all I had to do was clean off the oxidation with a wire brush and put it all back together.

I don’t think the Horn Rod was made to be repaired, but you can do it if you are careful. I also don’t know if all Model A Horn Rods are the same, but this is how I got mine apart. On the underside of the button module there are four tabs that are bent over. These tabs are what hold in the bezel that holds the button in place

Using a shop knife I pried the tabs up to the point where I could get a needle-nose pliers in to straighten them up to vertical. Theoretically at this point the bezel should just slip right out, but I had 75 years of gunk keeping it in place. The only way I could get the bezel out was to hammer the ends of the tabs while bracing the button module so that the bezel had room to come out. This was difficult and took a long time. Partly because I didn’t have the ideal tools for the job, and partly because there was a lot of old gunk in there that didn’t want to let go. I think the best way to do this would be with a non-marring hammer (rawhide, plastic, etc.) and a block of wood with a hole cut in it that is just large enough to support the module, but still allow the bezel to push out. Once I had hammered on the tabs to the point where the ends of them had slid down and were now flush with the back of the button module, I had to go to the button side and carefully pry the bezel up the rest of the way with a screwdriver, trying very hard to not mar the bezel in the process. A plastic or wood tool would have been a better choice than a screwdriver.

Here are the four parts of the button mechanism after I cleaned them with a wire brush and some polishing compound for the chrome bezel.

This is what they look like assembled.

Here is the horn rod with just the brass collar and the spring.

What turned out to be the hardest part of this whole project was putting the button assembly back together. I think the easy way would be to use the same imaginary wood block jig that I described earlier, but that’s not how I did it. I used a pair of pliers and a rag. The rag kept me from marring the front of the assembly. First I used needle-nose pliers to tilt the tabs in toward the middle. Then I clamped down with my other pliers, but rather than just squeezing I rocked the pliers forward to bend the tab down into place.

All finished and installed back into the steering wheel. (I found out much later that I installed the lever upside-down.  It should be facing down, not up, as it is in this photo.)