Frank Cerutti

Hi Hybrid The model G has 28" x 3" tyres, which puts the rim size at 22". So what size are the tyres fitted to your model R? Have you ever seen clincher rings to fit your car? Regards

I have seen a 1909 model G REO runabout fitted with Goodyear detachable rims fitted with straight sided tyres. There is a YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf8Icjt5smc titled "Goodyear's History (Part 1) which sets out the facts. As explained in the video, Goodyear was a latecomer to the tyre business and trade restraints limited Goodyear's production of straight sided tyres to 1 and a half percent of the clincher tyre market. Now to the purpose of the history lesson. Goodyear detachable rims could be ordered for either straight sided tyres or clincher tyres. The detachable rim has a steel felloe, an inner slide-on ring which carries the inner edge of the tyre, an outer slide-on ring which carries the outer edge of the tyre and a split lock ring, the tail of which hooks into a hole in the steel felloe to hold the lock ring from moving away from the felloe. The outside ring fits over the lock ring to hold the lock ring from becoming dislodged radially. Air pressure holds the whole arrangement in place. The inner ring and the outer ring are identical The model G REO mentioned above has a complete set of hardware for straight sided tyres. Does anyone have the necessary hardware for clincher tyres? Just 8 clincher rings are needed. Trade straight sided for clincher rings?

Howard Good top on the heat gun. Please post a picture of the finished job. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick The latest photo of the carburettor looks better. Regarding spark plugs, we have had the conversation about Champion X. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick I set the Maxwell plug gap to 0.025inch. Regarding the carby setting procedure, look in the Yahoo Maxwell-Briscoe forum for "Files" and then "carburettor adjustment". Frank Cerutti 1900 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hello, Rick We are on some Veteran tours at present, and I am away from my photo file. However your photos show that the air inlet valve (the lower cylinder) looks right, but the mixture delivery cylinder (the upper) cylinder is not in the right position for running. The upper cylinder has a square boss which engages with the square hole in the throttle control lever. There are 4 possible positions for engagement, and only 1 is right. So in words: engage the upper cylinder with the throttle arm fully forward against the stop. From the driving position, the forward direction is at 12o'clock, the arm is at about 2:00o'clock. In this position, the mixture delivery cylinder should be just open, and so when the gas pedal is pushed down, the cylinder is pulled open clockwise. The air inlet valve should be more open than the mixture valve and is set by the quadrant and screw on top of the carburettor. There is an excellent technical explanation by Tim Simonsma in the Maxwell-Briscoe Yahoo forum, but this relies on the valves being correctly orientated. good luck Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Henry, tell us about any work recently done on the engine, for example: boring or pistons or rings. Does the engine show loss of power indicating seizing? Is the inlet manifold original? Still 1 carburettor? Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick The Champion X as commonly fitted to the Ford T will fit. Likely cheaper due to volume. The mixture looks to be lean, although you may have cleaned the plug Frank Maxwell 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Goodness, the 22 million original Ford Ts do continue to support an active reproduction market. I hope it fits. It looks so nice. Frank Cerutti 1909 Maxwell LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick Thanks for the photos. I'm glad the brake band adjustment was successful. I reckon that the custodian of the Registry will have the span of serial numbers of the existing cars and an idea of the model starting number. The next fact to determine is when the model year started. Any takers? Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick I know you are going to find this amusing, but last night was our coldest night so far this winter, 44degF. We enjoy clear, cloudless skies during the day up to 72degF. Our winters are dry and cool and our summers are wet and hot. Winter in the north is our premier rallying weather, but not so for down south. Adjusting the low and reverse bands. In my experience, the difference between slipping and not is about one eighth of a turn. So with the square headed adjustment bolt, that change is easy to gauge, just move a corner to midway to the next corner. That adjustment doesn't make a difference in selecting the neutral position. The tighter the bands the more play you have in neutral. Good work on the fuel shut off. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick I was doing some research and wondered how things were faring with your AB. I guess it has been winter and not much has happened since November. Did you reach a conclusion about the vibration you were concerned about? Would you post a picture of the car serial number (stamped into the camshaft cover on the passenger's side of the engine) and another of the vehicle identification tag (a brass plate fixed to the seat riser behind the driver's legs)? Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick Did you ever resolve the vibration issue about which you were concerned? Frank Maxwell 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

GasWorksGarage The "kill" switch doesn't. Start with your design or implementation. As mentioned earlier, the Maxwell used a proprietary Splitdorf system, waste spark and conventional energy source, points, coil and condenser. If you have installed something else, you may want to share when asking for help. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Howard, Rick and Peter "3 sample cups" is plausible but we don't understand the context, so it doesn't make immediate sense. We are unlikely to ever be sure and understand. Frank 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hey Joe Your NC is certainly a nice car. You are probably aware that Maxwell made a new model each model year and the NC is the 1908 version of the 1906 N featured in the "early factory invoice" post by Howard Dennis. I don't have a factory photo, but there is a line drawing in the publication "Maxwell-Briscoe, the cars, the company" by James Zordich. The original publication was reprinted in 2006 in commemoration of the Maxwell centenary. As it is in the public domain I have reproduced it here. Like our LD, there appears to have been short running board and long running board versions. I have seen both in the LD model. I have included a photo of our LD9024. Your photo shows the short running board and while the Zordich drawing shows long running board version. We enjoy our car. It is a fun car. Frank Cerutti LD9024 Townsville, Australia 1908 NC.pdf

Howard I have again consulted my only history document "Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation" by Anthony Yanik. He says that Briscoe leased a four-storey building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and transferred the production of the Model L to Pawtucket by 18 December 1905. This lease was enabled by a loan of $150,000 from a Mr W L Hamilton, son-in-law of J P Morgan. It's not too much of a stretch to suppose that the RH on the back of the card is a relative of W L Hamilton, possibly a son or nephew, who went along as a note-taker. This move was to free Tarrytown for the production of 4 cylinder cars. Interestingly Yanik notes that in addition to the interest payments, Hamilton was to receive $5 for every Maxwell car sold until the loan was repaid. The repayment took less than one year showing the profitability of Maxwell. It is disappointing that the WP Chrysler museum is closing and alarming that the collection is being scattered. Do you know if the records are going to one collector? Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Howard, This is gem. Thanks for thinking to send it to me. I'll see what I can add to the discussion. Part of the document appears to record an interview between R H and Mr Maxwell on September 2, 2005. Could RH be an associate of J P Morgan, a banker? 3 ..ouple cups - a coffee order? The other note written across the card says: Transferd prices afterwards. Will build 3500 cars. May use ... Runabouts as well That is as much as I can squeeze out of it. What do you think? Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

David Another puzzle: with the "hammer" of the points being so hot, the current has not passed through the "anvil", because there is no similar discolouration. Does the current flow to earth only while the points are open? That is, when the points are open does the hammer rest against some other earthed metalwork? If this is the case, when the points open they virtually close immediately and severely limit the discharge from the condenser. No spark at the plugs will result. My 2-bobs worth Frank

Rick I agree with David's idea. I took the coward's way out and didn't remove the flywheel from the crankshaft when I found I could achieve what I wanted when replacing the big end bearings. Regards Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hello Howard The original document deserves to be preserved, but I'm not sure about framing. Framing implies being hung on display. I would think it should be preserved in some sort of climate controlled environment, out of the light. The photo can be put on display. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hello Rick The only comments I would add to David's response is the oiling of the big end bearings should also be an opportunity for improvement. Our LD had alloy pistons fitted when we bought it. We suffered the failure of a big end bearing on a tour, so I replaced the con rods with those from a Ford model A as David described. I went a little further and installed an oil splash hole in each rod to assist with lubrication. I too have driven our LD with 1 cylinder not firing and the car sounds like it has a big end bearing failure. I wouldn't do any of this unless some failure forces you that way. Your car is the closest I have seen to 'as it came from the factory' for all the reasons I has said earlier. Regards Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hello Howard You stumbled across this? There must be more to the story given the condition of the document. This invoice/receipt is a fantastic document for a number of reasons. The buyer was Kelsey Motor Car Co. Cadwallader Washburn (known as Carl) Kelsy was an early adopter and supporter of Maxwell. In 1906, Kelsey wrote to Ben Briscoe about buying the rights to sell Maxwell cars in Philadelphia. Briscoe said Kelsey would be welcome to such an agency and it would only cost Kelsey $5,000. Kelsey agreed and immediately bought a small showroom and garage in downtown Philadelphia for the exclusive sale of Maxwell cars. Refer "Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation" by Anthony Yanik. This invoice/receipt will be for the purchase of floor stock. Kelsey's impact on the fortunes of Maxwell-Briscoe proved to be enormous in the following years. Kelsey also played a leading part in Alice Ramsay's trip from New York to San Francisco in 1909. Now let's examine the invoice/receipt in more detail. It is dated 19 September 1906, which will make it at the end of the 1906 production year. Production commenced in the Spring of 1905. The Model N is a 1906 model and would have run between September 1905 and August 1906. The Car Number is 10571, so I would expect that the serial numbers for the N model commenced at, perhaps 10500? Comments are invited. The car is invoiced at $1,040. Specifications researched by James Zordich shows the factory price of $1,375. So this, I suspect, shows the dealer's margin. I haven't witnessed the "Tarrytown-on-Hudson" form of address before. This is quite accurate. It doesn't appear on any other documentation that I am aware of. The Invoice number is 12. So is this the 12th automobile sold to dealers from this invoice book? The number 3364 may be some internal accounting reference. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Hello Rick It is no good heating. This will either expand the pin or contract the hole. It's time to stop tapping. I can see from your photo that you have a jack in place, and I assume it is supporting the end of the crankshaft, forward of the crank pin. The end of the crankshaft must not be allowed to flex. Ensuring you have the smaller end of the pin uppermost, I would give it a decent belt via a brass drift. Countersink the drift to accept the end of the pin if you are concerned about mushrooming the pin. Make sure you have the inside of the radiator covered with some light plywood for protection. I could not imagine that one side con rod and piston would be different from the other, but in our LD the previous owner found one piston to be +0.020" and the other was standard. Polishing is therapeutic? It may be for the first couple of times. I take 3 days to polish the brass on our LD in preparation for a tour, and invariably, the rain comes down. I love the work you are doing. Frank Cerutti 1909 LD9024 Townsville, Australia

Rick I have not had the flywheel off the crankshaft on our LD. At an earlier time someone had replaced the gib head key with a straight key and I couldn't move it. I took the coward's way out when I had to replace the big end bearings and I left the flywheel connected to the crankshaft. Overall I have not had to consider balancing any of the rotating or reciprocating parts. Do your connecting rods match, including rods and pistons? Frank