Head Out On The Highway…?  Well the old ’23 ain’t ready for what Steppenwolf had in mind yet, but the car is running again!!  While the professionals were getting the motor running, the lackey on Sabbatical was driving the parts to the tank in Worcester for rust removal.  Below is a collection of videos showing what a great day the old T had on October 2, 2012!

We’re getting really close…..

It’s running and smoking and sputtering… and the temporary gas tank falls…. and Jim stops by.  It’s not running well, though, and the guys aren’t sure why.  My favorite part of this clip is Lenny trying to answer his cell phone.  I think somebody was “butt dialing” him but it just made him angry.  After the I turned the camera off he said, “I’m gonna throw this damn thing in the trash!”

Above, we meet Jim.  He is a Townsend policeman (originally from Ipswich, MA) with a Model T Depot Hack like the photo below. Lenny and Mike restored his car, and he stops by from time to time to check in and ask questions when he’s having trouble with his car… Nice guy.

In this segment, Lenny is testing the spark plugs as Mike turns the crank.  At a certain point they get an electrical connection and they can determine which spark plug and coil is firing.  The firing order is 1,2,4,3.  It’s not right and they can’t figure out why…

In this clip above, Lenny and Mike explain a bit about how the Magneto and some of the electrical system works. The test will be on Friday.

This video was taken a the end of the day.  After lunch, the guys figured that two of the leads at the generator were connected wrong.  They spent some time figuring our which wires were which (difficult because the color coding was very difficult to decipher after so many years) and getting them correct. Although the motor started earlier, it was running on only two cylinders – and Lenny could tell by the sound!!  So, once the wiring was corrected, they ran the motor for a while… and then waited for me to return from Worcester.  This was how the day ended for me and the T.

While Lenny and Mike were doing the real work I had a nice trip through central Massachusetts to the city of Worcester and a company called Metal Strip of New England.  The owner, Dan Augustino, is a very nice man who has been stripping rust from all kinds of metal with chemical baths for over 30 years.  His business if the only one of its kind in New England.  Below, Dan gives a brief explanation of how the process works.  My apologies to Dan… for calling him Al.  Ooops….  I will return in three weeks to gather the body pieces – all shiny and new!