The primary focus of this work day at Larry’s garage was preparing Art Gebeau’s 1927 speedster engine for it’s first start on an engine stand, continuation on disassembly of a donor engine, and making further progress on Mark Wing’s 1925 transmission for his touring car.

Art has been at work on his high-performance Model T speedster engine for a couple of years and has done a very meticulous job.  His engine has a Rajo head, SCAT crank, high-compression domed pistons, Dan McEachern brass timing gear, high volume carburetors, a distributor, and custom exhaust.  The engine was so tight, and had such high compression, that it was hard starting.  After Larry adjusted the timing, it ran for a brief time and it sounded great!  As it was a cold day and getting pretty late – further test runs would have to wait for a later, and hopefully warmer, date.

The rusty spare parts engine that Larry had brought from Northern California had been largely disassembled at a previous work party, but many of the components were so rusty that they had fused together.  Copious amounts of Aero Kroil had been squirted at critical points in the engine to free them a couple of weeks previously.  Kirby, Don M., Marilyn, Bob R., and Bob H., and Larry managed to free the crankshaft and had taken the valves out.  As rusty as this engine and transmission were, many of the parts are still salvageable and will live on in other club cars!

Mark’s 1925 touring car transmission was at the point of adjusting the heights of the magnet retainers and peening over the brass screws.  Bushings were being installed in the drums and parts carefully measured for concentricity and runout.  Larry has become a firm believer in keeping engine and transmission components as balanced and true as possible.  The end result will be very smooth running, quiet, and long-lasting car.  Some of technical tips to achieve this goal we owe to Mike Bender and the Tulsa, Oklahoma Model T Club who publish excellent articles and data on their website and on forums.  Thank you Mike and other Tulsa club members for the great research and documentation!  Thanks also to Vernon Armstrong who assisted on the transmission project.

As always, were are very appreciative of Larry’s generosity for another great work party!