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| Ignition coil question |
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| BrokenYugo:
I've found that most old car technology with a bad or unreliable reputation actually works quite well (or at least well enough) if you know how to set it up and maintain it. I wouldn't doubt it if the model T ignition system falls into that category, along with drum brakes and air cooled Volkswagen heaters. It's also been my experience that aftermarket "upgrade" stuff for vintage cars is frequently worse than the OE design in some way, if it even fits and works out of the box to begin with, no matter who or where it came from. |
| james_s:
The problem is that car parts wear out and you can't get new OEM parts indefinitely. Often even the OEM stuff that is still available becomes cheap and crappy. When parts wear out and you can't get good quality new parts then it becomes difficult to keep something working properly even if you know what you're doing. Modern cars (as in made in the last 40 years or so) are also far more reliable and last much longer than cars used to while requiring less maintenance. I'm just old enough to remember when even fairly new cars still needed frequent tune-ups and a car with 100k miles was getting pretty worn out. Even my 30 year old car doesn't need tune-ups as such, it needs maintenance like any machine but there's nothing to adjust. The fuel mixture is controlled by a computer and the ignition is timed off a crankshaft sensor that reads dimples around the perimeter of the flywheel. It has a distributor but that doesn't adjust the timing. I fixed a lot of small engines from lawnmowers and such that needed the points cleaned and adjusted, newer ones with electronic ignition are much more reliable. |
| Miyuki:
--- Quote from: james_s on October 13, 2021, 05:54:36 am ---The problem is that car parts wear out and you can't get new OEM parts indefinitely. Often even the OEM stuff that is still available becomes cheap and crappy. When parts wear out and you can't get good quality new parts then it becomes difficult to keep something working properly even if you know what you're doing. Modern cars (as in made in the last 40 years or so) are also far more reliable and last much longer than cars used to while requiring less maintenance. I'm just old enough to remember when even fairly new cars still needed frequent tune-ups and a car with 100k miles was getting pretty worn out. Even my 30 year old car doesn't need tune-ups as such, it needs maintenance like any machine but there's nothing to adjust. The fuel mixture is controlled by a computer and the ignition is timed off a crankshaft sensor that reads dimples around the perimeter of the flywheel. It has a distributor but that doesn't adjust the timing. I fixed a lot of small engines from lawnmowers and such that needed the points cleaned and adjusted, newer ones with electronic ignition are much more reliable. --- End quote --- It is that sentiment because people were young back then and have just good memories. Mechanical distributor with centrifugal regulation and even mechanical contact is something terrible to adjust and worn relative quick. Modern cars tend to be more and more reliable (cars from 2000 have today fewer problems than cars from 1990 had ten years ago) Of course, there are some missteps in design from time to time and some problems caused by pressure on fuel consumption and emissions. Like early plastic thermostats tend to be fair from durable and causing engine destruction. And also modern superdownsized engines like 1.0 with turbo and supercharger in a big car will be pretty worn after 100k miles. btw I was recently servicing a neighbor's lawn mower, it uses a simple magneto, just a coil on the core and directly connected to the spark plug. Super simple system. Also spark plugs in modern engines last forever compared to old ones when you should change them like every 10k or so |
| Connecteur:
Henry Ford believed in building something to be the best of its time. Better ignition systems were available in 1908, but one source I read said it would have cost him $140 for a magneto. The trembler box had been around for awhile and tried and true. and he could build them cheaply. But Ford didn't believe in fixing what worked, even as ignition systems became cheaper and more reliable. Even though Ford was promoted to Chief Engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company, he wasn't an electrical engineer. His field of interest was more on engines, both steam and internal combustion. He tended to leave the electrical engineering to others. By 1927, he was still committed to an ignition system that was over 30 years old, and had to be persuaded by family to change. |
| floobydust:
I think Ford was being cheap and practical. Charles Kettering had lots of patents 186 (he made leaded fuel, freon too) and ignition system patents back to 1910. Who would want to pay royalties to what became a competitor (Dayton/Delco) ? Kettering had the starter motor on Cadillacs back in 1912 with his prototype points+distributor single-spark system, filed 1911 patented 1917. But it needed a secondary battery and generator. Looking at the Model T you can see the engineering was not shoddy at all, for the era. Cost was the main priority though. |
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