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The following was supplied by
Trent Boggess and is excerpted from Frank Hadas
Reminisces at the Ford Archives. Mr. Hadas was a
chief tester during the NRS & K period at the
Piquette Avenue plant and also tested the first
Model T's. He writes:
"On the Model T, we had
trouble with the fiber discs (bands?) on the
planetary transmission. We had trouble with the
damn pump and a lot of things. The cover for the
transmission was also a stamping and the shaft
that carried the levers that applied the
pressure on the different bands; reverse, slow
speed and brake attached to this thing here.
"You press down good and proper on two of
them and you'd bend that case a little bit. You
find that the adjustments you had in there were
no good at all. We finally had to make a solid
cover. The first Model T's did not have a cast
cover. They were stampings at first."
So now we know why the stamped steel
transmission cover lasted only about 840 jobs.
It tended to bend when had pedal pressure was
applied causing the adjustment of the bands to
go out.
Mr. Ernest Grimshaw joined the Ford Motor
Company on Oct. 6, 1906. He writes this about
the first Model T's built:
"I know that when I worked in the Purchasing
Department we ordered material for the first
10,000 Model T cars. They were delivered in
quarters: the first three months 2,500 were
delivered, and so forth. It took approximately
one year before the 10,000 cars were produced.
"When the Model T went into production, one
of the Company's major suppliers was Dodge
Brothers. The McCord Manufacturing Company made
the radiators. Both B.F. Everitt Body Company
and C.R. Wilson Body Company made the bodies.
The Company was not buying bodies from the
A.(O.)J. Beaudett Company then, but later got
some bodies from them. The B.F. Everitt Body
Company and Wilson Body Company were the main
two body makers for Ford then. Referring to
castings, I believe they came from the Holmes
foundry in Romeo. The A.(O.)J. Beaudett Company
manufactured tops as well as did the American
Top Company in Jackson."
Mr. Grimshaw moved from purchasing into
claims and he wrote:
"When the Model T was first built there was a
run of poor rear axles. They had to be replaced
with new ones and were quite a loss to the
Company. The situation was remedied soon
enough."
Frank Hadas also talked about the poor nature
of the pressed-steel rear axle design. He also
confirmed that there were problems with the
early flywheel magnetos. It appears from the
comments in different Reminiscences that the
problem was in the way the coil rings were
insulated. Apparently they first tried simply
painting the insulating varnish on, but this
left air bubbles in the insulation. The solution
was found by applying the varnish while the coil
rings were in a vacuum tank. |
