Quote:
Originally Posted by 700rpm
Well, you’re right, Colin. I thought I got that from the Service Bulletins, but it isn’t in those. I must have just absorbed it from local guys. The earliest diagram I have in my files is 1973.  Your score. |
If you have the popular How to Restore Your Model A books, then you likely have an earlier one. The diagram on p. 42 of vol. 1 (2nd ed.) is by Fahnestock, and it is a reprint of a diagram published in 1967 in The Restorer as part of a larger article called "Torque Wrenches Prevent Troubles" (Vol. 11 issue 5, pp. 8-10). I know this because of MAFCA's index. I would love to see the text of the article if anyone has it.
We do know that tightening sequences were published for other cars at the time. Dyke's Automobile Encyclopedia printed recommended sequences for the Model T and other early cars. None of these sequences included torque values, of course, since torque wrenches were barely in existence and certainly not in most garages. That's why I've never discounted the possibility that a contemporary sequence for the Model A exists. I've just never seen it.
Despite the Fahnestock diagram postdating the Model A by 35 years, I'm inclined to consider it the next-best thing to factory specs. Murray Fahnestock worked for Ford during the Model A era. He was Technical Editor of their dealer magazine at the time. If anyone knew the official sequence, it would be him.