Story and photos by Mark Wing
As we slide into the Fall season, this work day at Larry’s Garage was noticeably cooler in Corrales, NM (a location very near the Rio Grande) than previous work parties. As is usual for Larry’s Garage, there was a wide-range of activities on this Saturday.
Mark Wing brought his 1925 Model T touring car to Larry’s Garage for the first time. The car was purchased around six years ago from fellow Tin Lizzie member Bruce Daniel. Bruce bought it at an auction when the “Million Dollar Museum” in Carlsbad, NM was closing. The car was largely original, but was very worn and had a lot of rust due to storage in an indoor, but moist (swamp cooler) environment for years. Luckily, the body was straight and the original wood was in good restorable condition. After blasting and grinding the car back to bare metal, most of the parts cleaned up nicely. Where the rust was too extensive, such as some of the fenders, splash aprons, etc., they were replaced with a combination of better originals or reproduction parts. The engine had been rebuilt at Larry’s Garage a few years ago with a Stipe 280 cam, a SCAT balanced crank, Z-head, and hardened valve seats. To improve drivability and to optimize the car for touring, a Larry designed/built needle bearing U-joint, disc brakes, Ruckstell Axle, flat-tube radiator, and a roll-up rear curtain from Classtique Upholstery were also added. Although it missed this year’s fall club tour to Raton-Clayton, NM, it will be nicely broken in and sorted out for tours in 2020!
On this day, the coils in the 1925 touring car needed to be checked on Larry’s ECCT (Electronically Cranked Coil Tester), as well as two other sets of spare coils. The tester revealed that, although they worked, the coils in the touring car tested as “poor”. Of the twelve coils tested, four could not be improved (and will have to be rebuilt), and the other eight were adjusted until they tested as “good”. The newly optimized coils made a huge difference in the performance of the engine during the drive home!
Frank Lewark (Lemitar, NM) continued working on boring the babbitted rods for his 1924 engine. Larry has a lathe devoted almost exclusively for this purpose.
Jeff Richards brought a spare generator at a swap meet and wanted to see if it worked. Initially it didn’t, as the brushes were out of place. Jeff repositioned the brushes, and “trained” the generator to change polarity by “flashing” the generator field with a jumper wire from a battery for a second. Jeff was very pleased when the generator started working!
Phil Lance had been assembling the parts needed to build a rear differential for a speedster project. Phil concentrated on cleaning parts and needed to do a complete inventory to determine if any other parts were missing prior to assembly.
Al Schwanke continued working on his 1926 touring car project with the cracked reverse and low speed drums. The Dave Nolting ductile iron drums were obtained, so now it was time to balance the flywheel, check for perpendicularity and runout of the transmission main shaft to the brake drum, and begin pressing in bushings.
Work on Don Neidigk’s 1926 coupe continued and the valves seats had been ground at the last work party. Now it was time to install the valves, new springs, and keepers. At the end of the day, the newly flattened and painted head was installed. The carburetor will be mounted soon and then Don and Larry can take it on a test drive. The compression and performance should be drastically improved!
It was a very productive day at Larry’s Garage!
