My maiden voyage: Still some mechanical issues

[bikemaniac]

Hi,

This morning at 6 am I left for my first ever 3 mile tour in my model A. I needed to get a feeling with it and see what is in need for attention.

1. Spark plugs are black but the very tip where the spark is happening is grey. Is that OK?
2. Gear shift is smooth going 1st to 2nd to 3rd. But when going from 3rd to 2nd it grinds teeth unless I forcefully rapidly push it forward into 2nd. Is it because I need to travel very slow before I can smoothfully shift from 3rd to 2nd?
3. At a red light, unless I give it a very good throttle, the ride becomes jerky when I start rolling. Like a heavy swinging back and forth every second second. With plenty of throttle it is a smooth start. What might be the problem?
4. Speedo is not working. How can I troubleshoot it?
5. The radiator rather quickly becomes hot. However with my hand it feels like the temperature is the same both at top and bottom of radiator. I would think that the water should be considerably cooler at the bottom. Is that normal?
6. When running without lights, the amp meter shows that the generator is charging. However when turning on the lights, the needle moves into the discharging area. Is that a matter of adjusting the generator 3rd brush?
7. The brakes work fine and dont pull the car to one side because of uneven braking performance. However braking is also lightly jerky as if the drums are not totally circular. In other words braking is not fully smooth as in a modern car. Is that normal?

Thanks in advance,

Lucas

[insomniacshotrods]

Man its early and I havent had coffee yet, but ill compare with my car. Oh yeah congratulations on getting to drive your car.

1. Where is the GAV adjustment set at? Could be turned to much making a slight rich cond.

2. I always have to double clutch to downshift. Kinda clumsy at first for me,but I do it now for up and down shifts, just makes it smoother.

3. Hmmm, maybe a brake that is too tight causing drag, or glazing on the pressure plate?

4. Take the instrument panel down and look and see if cable is hooked up, if it is take it loose and see if its broken. Might just need oiled?

5. Not sure, Its circulating the water at all times with engine running ,unless you put in a thermostat. So I would think thats normal. Never checked mine.

6. Thats how mine acted when I still had the gen on. Mine would show 10 + without a load then 10- with lights on.

7. Normal for mine, but I dont think I have a perfectly centered set of shoes on the drivers front side. Or needs some tweaking in the adjustment dept. Stops fine, but kinda jerky. Hopefully guys with a ton more knowledge will chime in. I gotta get go get a cup of Joe.. Good luck and let us know the results.

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by bikemaniac

Hi,

This morning at 6 am I left for my first ever 3 mile tour in my model A. I needed to get a feeling with it and see what is in need for attention.

1. Spark plugs are black but the very tip where the spark is happening is grey. Is that OK?
2. Gear shift is smooth going 1st to 2nd to 3rd. But when going from 3rd to 2nd it grinds teeth unless I forcefully rapidly push it forward into 2nd. Is it because I need to travel very slow before I can smoothfully shift from 3rd to 2nd?
3. At a red light, unless I give it a very good throttle, the ride becomes jerky when I start rolling. Like a heavy swinging back and forth every second second. With plenty of throttle it is a smooth start. What might be the problem?
4. Speedo is not working. How can I troubleshoot it?
5. The radiator rather quickly becomes hot. However with my hand it feels like the temperature is the same both at top and bottom of radiator. I would think that the water should be considerably cooler at the bottom. Is that normal?
6. When running without lights, the amp meter shows that the generator is charging. However when turning on the lights, the needle moves into the discharging area. Is that a matter of adjusting the generator 3rd brush?
7. The brakes work fine and dont pull the car to one side because of uneven braking performance. However braking is also lightly jerky as if the drums are not totally circular. In other words braking is not fully smooth as in a modern car. Is that normal?

Thanks in advance,

Lucas

1. Maybe a carb adjustment would help or knowing what heat range plug your using.
2. Grinding on downshift can be normal until you get used to a non syncro trans
3. Maybe you need to get used to driving a model A or if the clutch is actually chattering on take off it could be an uneven clutch plate or flywheel surface. Did you do a clutch adjustment? How old is the clutch?
4. Remove the cable from the rear of the speedo and see if it turns when rolling the car. If it does then the issue may lie in the cable to head engagement or the head itself. If it is not spinning then its the cable or more down at the trans area.
5. I would monitor if its really running to hot it will chuck out the overflow but dont over fill the tank above the baffle or it could upchuck because of that. Use an infrared gun or thermometer to see whats going on better. The fact that it didn't piss is good news
6. Thats normal
7. Did you ck the brakes? Are the drums rusty? Maybe readjust

Wow nothing beats a brisk early morning ride in the A. i think overall you had a very successful maiden voyage congrats
At this point i would keep driving her, get used to her, monitor her and play as you go...

[Tom Wesenberg]

When you downshift you HAVE TO double clutch. Shift to neutral and REV the engine more than you'd think. I only downshaft at between 10 and 15 MPH, unless I need to shift down to pull a steep hill, then I might downshift at 20 MPH or so.

To upshift you shift to neutral, let the clutch out and foot off the gas, then clutch in and shift to the next higher gear, then give it some gas. I usually upshift at about 5 to 10 MPH for 2nd gear, then 20 MPH for high gear.

Is you right foot resting on the pedestal, so it is venly pushing on the gas? Otherwise, if you aren't used to the Model A, your foot might jerk back some as you give it gas and make the car have a jerky start.

Set the adjustable brush for 2 to 3 amps charge for normal driving. When you drive at night, move the brush DOWN for more output to power the lights. A better choice is to forget about having to move the brush and use an electronic voltage regulator. I credit using an EVR for the long life of my 6 volt batteries.

[vermontboy]

I second what Tom says about downshifting. Until you get it right it can make turns miserable.

If you baby it you will never get the 3-2 downshift right - when you slow to around 20 mph before making a turn just simultaneously kick the clutch pedal and pop the shift lever into neutral - stab the gas pedal hard with your right foot -stab the clutch with your left foot and simultaneously and briskly and firmly move the shift lever into second and hit the gas pedal again - it's really three fluid movements.

As mentioned above, there wants to be a substantial increase in rpm's when you hit the gas pedal between the gates. If you've ever driven an old MGA or TR3 it is about the same feeling and sound you are trying to achieve.

If you aren't afraid of it you should be a pro by about the third or fourth downshift - it really makes driving an "A" a lot more enjoyable.

[Willie Krash]

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I would make sure that you have the right transmission oil. It's a game changer.
I do agree with V-boy's downshifting altho' I would say that A engines are not high rev-ing. That is to say if you swing a corner go to neutral and give the engine slight throttle, it takes very little and it should slip in..Remember you are trying to match speeds in the tranny, the faster you are going the more throttle you will need but typically very little is necessary, if it takes a lot of throttle you may be downshifting to soon.
You can do the same for first gear but if you are rolling second will get you there.

[vermontboy]

I think you are correct about the amount of throttle required in normal driving. I learned this technique back in the late 60's and 3-2 downshifts when coming to a stop sign were probably more in the 25 mph range, perhaps even a little more - I remember distinctly that the car slowed down quite rapidly actually kind of throwing me forward on compression.

Model "A"'s are pretty tough - also stripped a few teeth off low gear once seeing how far the 600-16's would spin on gravel (not quite engaged when I popped the clutch). Drove it for a few months starting in 2nd and finally pulled the rear end and tranny and put a new gear in.

[bikemaniac]

I think the GAV is approx 1 turn open. If I turn it towards 1/4 turn open it slowly dies.

I talked to a local Danish Model A expert and he actually described the correct way of downshifting ... just like you did in your posts. What I was forgetting was the reving of the engine between each downshift. I will keep that in mind.

I inspected the speedo cable and found that the inner cable was torn apart at the tranny. The spring wire or what it is called had snapped just where it is connected to the rod which goes into the transmission. I greased the cable before installing it, but something has been stuck somewhere, because the transmission made the small slotted rod rotate, but nothing moved all the way to the oval speedy, and therefore it snapped.

I made a radiator measurement with an IR thermometer and got approx 70 deg C at the top and approx 65 at the bottom ... so it was far from boiling.

More info on the clutch. I have the 1 inch free play or travel before the clutch plate starts separating. So that should be OK. However, at standstill, when moving forward, with or without throttle, everything shakes until I have full engagement ... then it runs silky smooth. So, even I really concentrate on the clutch and as slowly and gently as possible let it engage from fully depressed, I get these jerky shakes while the car ever so slowly picks up in speed. Once the clutch has its full engagement everything is perfect. If I compare to my modern car, I feel that the model A clutch has a very small and tight operating point or travel. Can the clutch be adjusted to engage over a larger clutch pedal travel ... I think that would help.

I followed Les Andrews method of adjusting the timing with a small bulb. It worked fine, and I was able to find a sweet spot where the car idles very well and smoothly. However, having set the idle with the hand throttle lever, the car dies if I brake and approach a red light. The only way to prevent this is to rapidly give it some manual throttle just before it dies, but now the throttle is way too high. Then I can move the throttle lever up and find the sweet spot again. It is, as if the fuel in the carb is moved to one side due to the decelleration.

Earlier this day I also experienced the following: Once I set off in 1st gear and got the car rolling nice and smoothly, I tried to accelerate it a bit more than usual. The result was again this annoying jerky ride. I perceived the timing as good, I did not touch the clutch pedal at all, but it felt as if the car every second second or so lost its torque with the result that the rpms would decrease a bit and then after 1 second pick up again. Somehow I think there is a connection between this particular observation and the one above where it dies approaching a red light. It feels like the fuel level is bouncing up and down in the carb and thus I dont get a continuous fuel flow to the jets.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

Lucas

[Mitch//pa]

i think possibly you should rebuild your carb using a set of flow tested jets. it should idle with the gav cracked open and not stall on stops. is your idle mixture screw set properly?

[Tom Wesenberg]

No matter what I tried my 29 Tudor shook like a paint mixer every time I took off from a dead stop. The only fix was to replace the disc with a new one found at a swap meet, lightly sand the flywheel with a 1/4 sheet palm sander, and replace the pressure plate with a good used one from a swap meet. It's now as smooth as an automatic. Maybe it didn't need to have the pressur eplate changed, but I didn't want to R&R the tranny twice for the same job.

I also dialed in the flywheel cover at the same time.

[DANA BIZZELL]

Tom, smoked wires on 31 coupe, have replaced lighting wires, started on ignition wires through dash and terminal box but ran in to wire going to distributor. To get it through box how much of a job is it to discount wire at distributor, have not found short, got so hot lots of wires touching now but lots of nuts weren't real tight.
Thanks
dana

[Tom Wesenberg]

If you have the head nut clamp on the ignition cable, then you should drain the coolant to below the top of the block, remove the cable clamp, then unscrew the distributor cable.