POWER PLAY The Model T Ford: One Mean Machine

Some of us are old enough to But having one of have had say, great-grand- these machines wasn’t parents, for example, who much use if the thing when the occasion arose didn’t work; not-a- would casually refer to problem. The Ford as “machines.” It sounded funny Model T (FMT) was a and arcane, and we would snicker un- workhorse of the road, der our breath. But of course the laugh powered by an engine was on us; back in the day — 1910s that was designed to was controlled with a lever on the through the 1930s — automobiles were be manufactured providing the horse- steering wheel. The left pedal was used commonly referred to as machines. power. Let’s take a closer, under-the- to engage the gear. And the “machine” that ruled the hood look at the heart of the machine • With the floor lever in either the mid streets in those days — and claimed that moved America — the Ford Model position or fully forward, and the what then was only the beginning of the T engine. pedal pressed and held forward, the entered low gear. greatest “middle class” demographic • When held in an intermediate in the history of the world — was the The Engine position the car was in neutral. Ford Model T — AKA Tin Lizzie, T- The engine was an inline-four — all • If the driver took his foot off the Model Ford and Model T. To be clear, four cylinders cast into one engine left pedal, the FMT entered high however — Ford did not invent the block. This would prove to be BIG. The gear — but only when the lever was automobile; cars had been around for FMT’s “monobloc” design was known, fully forward. many years. but not particularly popular when Oh, and by the way — no separate What Ford did “invent” was afford- production started in 1908; but it lent clutch pedal. And yet it sure seems like ability — at least in terms of car-buying. itself to mass production, showing some very fancy footwork was required His then-state-of-the-art manufactur- Ford’s pioneering appreciation of fo- to drive one of these babies. And some ing processes allowed him to sell his cus on design for manufacturability. Of nerves of steel. cars to the working man — including equal brilliance, the head was detach- When the car was in neutral, the his own workers — for able. This not only further streamlined middle pedal was used to engage re- around 300 bucks and still make him Ford’s plant process, but also made verse gear, and the right pedal oper- a millionaire many times over. At the his future customers’ valve jobs easier ated the transmission brake. time, it was a win-win of truly historic and, therefore — cheaper. There were no separate brakes on the proportions on several levels — soci- wheels. etal, economic, etc. By The Numbers The floor lever also controlled the “I will build a car for the great multi- • Bore: 3¾" (95.25 mm) parking brake (no separate brakes on tude,” said Ford. “It will be constructed • Stroke: 4" (101.6 mm) even the wheels, but it had a frigging parking of the best materials, by the best men • Total displacement: 177 cu in (2,900 brake), which was activated by pulling to be hired, after the simplest designs cc) the lever all the way back. Power was that modern engineering can devise. • Valve train: side-valve (flat-head) delivered to the differential via the sin- But it will be so low in price that no design gle universal joint attached to a torque man making a good salary will be un- • Crankshaft: Three main bearings tube that drove the rear axle. able to own one.” The compression ratio was low by Appreciated for its simplicity, reli- Supporting the fact that the best modern standards, but typical for ability, and economy, Ford’s Model ideas are often someone else’s, credit the era, making the engine forgiving T engine remained in production for for the “assembly line” goes not (as it of poor fuel quality and minimizing many years; millions of units were pro- often does) to Ford but to another car cranking effort at starting. duced. As for the engine design — it guy — Ransom E. Olds — who mass- lived on beyond the vehicle itself, with produced his Curved Dash Model T Transmission industrial, marine, and military appli- in 1901. But the invaluable, priceless The rear-wheel-drive FMT was de- cations extending its production run. refinements and sophisticated system signed with a three-speed, planetary And one more thing: the Model T en- advances during the production run of gear-oriented transmission. It was gine is on the Ward’s 10 Best Engines the Model T are attributed primarily to controlled with three foot pedals and of the 20th Century list. (Wikipedia.org Ford and his fellow visionaries — who a lever that was mounted to the road was the primary source of information happened to be engineers. side of the driver’s seat. The throttle for this article.)

96 Power Transmission Engineering DECEMBER 2014 WWW.POWERTRANSMISSION.COM]————