Today we drove the model T!!!<\/b><\/p>\n
Bottom end\u00a0– We continued to prepare everything for the final rebuild of the engine.\u00a0 We finished cleaning parts, made sure we had everything, an preemptively put all the transmission parts in place to ensure that they were all there and in place.\u00a0 We located two missing washers that were not listed in any of the parts diagrams.\u00a0 We also removed the bearing from the case, cleaned it, and replaced the seal.<\/p>\n
Top end\u00a0\u00a0 Last time they took inventory and made sure that they had everything they needed.\u00a0 They\u2019re pretty close to being done.\u00a0 They are waiting to fix an old oil line.\u00a0 The barrel needs to be painted with high-heat silver paint.\u00a0 The oil pathways must all be taped off to do this.<\/p>\n
Electrical\u00a0–\u00a0Last time the found the old wiring harness, and located other misc. electrical parts.\u00a0 They also found a new wiring harness that they will use.<\/p>\n
Frame, forks and wheels\u00a0– Last time they worked on truing and tuning the wheel.\u00a0 They lubricated the spoke threads when assembling it, and used wheel offset tool.<\/p>\n
They also assembled the front and rear brake assemblies.\u00a0 They need to cut the power coat in some places in order to get it to fit.\u00a0 They also had to to this to get the rear sprocket on the wheel.\u00a0 They also wetsanded the nacelle, and prepared it for painting.\u00a0 They will also sandbox battery box and prime it to prepare it for pain.<\/p>\n
We then split up and all got a chance to drive the model T!<\/p>\n
Model T Facts\/Quirks:<\/b><\/p>\n
It isn’t a traditional stick shift.\u00a0 It has three pedals, but not gas, brake, and clutch, like a modern manual transmission car – the right pedal is the brake, the middle is for reverse, and the left pedal is forward.\u00a0 The throttle is a lever on the steering column on the right, and the spark advance on the left.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t have power steering, which took a little getting used to by those of us who haven\u2019t driven old cars before.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t have any pumps for the oil, fuel, or water used in conjunction with the radiator to cool the engine.\u00a0 The gas tank is under the seat, and therefore above the engine, and simply uses gravity to bring the gasoline into the engine.\u00a0 However, if you are going up a steep hill, the engine will not get oil.\u00a0 The trick is to go up in reverse so that the gas tank is always above the engine.\u00a0 LOL.<\/p>\n
It has a motometer, which is a thermometer on the radiator and indicates the temperature of the water in the radiator.<\/p>\n
This car had an electric starter motor, but some of the older ones had to be started by turning over the engine by hand, which resulted in many, many broken wrists.<\/p>\n
It has a four-cylinder engine that makes around 25hp, and has a top speed of about 40 mph.<\/p>\n
What I personally took away from the experience: \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Sure, it was very loud, smelly, and vibrated a lot, the steering was vague and very heavy, the ride was rough, and it was not very practical, reliable, fast, comfortable, well-equipped, powerful, safe, aerodynamic, good for the environment, or any of the other \u201cpositive\u201d qualities consumers look for in modern cars.<\/p>\n
But despite all this, the T was undoubtably the best car I have ever driven (not that I have driven very many).\u00a0 The sheer simplicity of the whole thing was remarkable – nearly everything mechanical system was visible or very easily accessible.\u00a0\u00a0It was a machine that wasn\u2019t ashamed of itself – it didn\u2019t hide itself behind mufflers, layers of sound- and vibration-deadening, and unnecessary plastic covers in the engine bay that seem to say \u201cdon\u2019t even think about trying to fix it yourself\u201d to their owners, like modern cars have.\u00a0 On the contrary, it seemed to teach you about all the systems as you used it.\u00a0 You can actually hear and directly feel the engine and all the systems, so one could tell when something doesn\u2019t quite sound right or if you are putting too much strain on the parts.\u00a0 Furthermore, every system seemed so simple, it is almost hard to imagine how something could break – everything from the engine to the suspension and steering seemed to be a very simple set of tangible logic. \u00a0So despite\u00a0 it’s somewhat \u00a0primitive nature, I believe the Model T is a\u00a0 brilliant little car.<\/p>\n
WKR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we drove the model T!!! Bottom end\u00a0– We continued to prepare everything for the final rebuild of the engine.\u00a0 We finished cleaning parts, made sure we had everything, an preemptively put all the transmission parts in place to ensure that they were all there and in place.\u00a0 We located two missing washers that were … Continue reading “Last Session\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/56-terrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}