[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

7 hours ago, Peter R. said:

 

🙂

Sorry, double posted

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

8 hours ago, Peter R. said:

I'll go through my AK distributors tonight. There's a good chance I can come up with a suitable AK distributor for your engine if you decide to go AK (not expensive). I do also have all parts such as points, caps and rotors (NOS).

I assume your engine used a Simms motor-generator rather than a separate generator and starter. Just noticed there is no starter.

 

PS: Funny little car your Mini 🙂 ....I couldn't drive it....I'm too tall (chuckle)

 

I intend to restore the Cadillac. I'm planning to pull the engine next month and start restoration.

I have the fenders, the doors and the hood but unfortunately I'm missing the body shell. It won't be easy to find one so the goal for now is a driveable chassis.... There's an interesting history behind the car. It sat in a barn for 80 years when I found it. I did some research and found out that it had been used by the french army in WWI. The engine still turns over, the clutch disengages, the brakes still work and the transmission gears look like new. Nothing is worn or abused. Appears to be a real low mileage car.

 

It seems my engine number is 304354.  So that lines up with a 1920?  I wonder if it had a few retrofits over its days.

 

No starter, but it seems like the trucks didn't have one stock, I guess they wanted your drivers to earn their pay.  It has a separate generator off a model T that was adapted to fit the maxwell bracket and wide belt pulley. My only snag with an AK system I think is I'd like to run 12 volts and I don't know if the AK is 12 or 6 or if its one of those systems that doesn't care.  I'm going to do some measurements tonight and see if someone on the forum has a new gear that will work.  If that doesn't fly then I'll explore other options.  I can't believe the parts supplies you guys have collected!

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

from "automotive trade training" 1922. https://books.google.com/books?id=he4DAQAAIAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions

 

There's not a ton of exact Maxwell info in it, but if you know what you're looking for there are sections that apply.  But there are sections specifically for maxwell carbs, ignitions and Simms generator from what I've read so far.

 

[Engine number on 20's(?) Truck?]

I got pictures from different angles in case it may help.  This engine must've been stamped the Friday before, or the Monday after St Patrick's day.  If anyone can take a guess I'd really appreciate it.  The first digit looks like a 3, but the left loops look like they close and make an 8, which doesn't help.  804854?  There also doesn't seem to be a letter prefix.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

6 hours ago, Peter R. said:

By the way, here^s a picture of my project. 

There^s missing a lot....but no Ford parts on it.... 🙂

 

wow, thats quite a start to a project!  how do you intend to get it all together?  Yeah, I've got some ford parts which is somewhat of a bummer from a maxwell angle, but it sure made getting the carb together an easy job.  I'm not particular on this distributor situation, I'm just stuck with 1 difficult to reinstall gear.  I'd like the real AK setup for authenticity if I could get it but most of these arrangements I've never even heard of since last month.  

 

I'm actually considering making a points activated HEI module if it came down to it.  I made the HEI ignition for my '62 austin mini after burning through 3 pertronixes and was fed up and haven't had a problem since.  There's plenty of room to tuck my shame away on the maxwell, I just need a distributor to spin around to the right place at the right time.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

1 minute ago, Peter R. said:

so it looks like the CC model possibly had its own right angle to allow it to mount to the direct drive magneto position?  Maybe That's also where that order sheet for for both 1:1 and 2:1 gears were available, somehow piggy back an AK CC all in one onto a 1:1 magneto drive adapter to change its orientation?

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

Yeah, that's a great little snippet.  I was asking because the ad actually shows how the advance arrangement was setup.  Maybe I have the correct gears, but the drive gear was grafted onto a later distributor.  Could explain why its been impossible to find a replacement gear.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

6 minutes ago, Peter R. said:

Here you go....

 

 

I was wondering what the "ears" on the right angle block were for.  They sure didn't give you much room for the advance lever, was it just enough to hand retard it for starting, then you'd bump it back and let the weights take over?

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

I'll take some pictures of the engine number when I get home, maybe the pros here can translate it.  It's stamped very lightly and all over the place so I haven't used it as a reference much, but it seems to be the magic key to many of these puzzles.  All I've got right now is some photos of the motor.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

Boy, really makes you appreciate today's Haynes manuals.  Too bad you have to tear the motor out, that crankshaft oil drain sounds like a good solution as both I and HDDennis are dealing with leaky front crank covers

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

4 hours ago, Peter R. said:

Yep, something^s definitely woodoo here.... I can only tell from the books and according to them the angle drive ratio is 1:1 (11:11). So the distributor should do one revolution while the crankshaft does two. I think I have some more detailed information about Maxwell engines somwhere....I'll check. Interesting....keep me posted.

That still doesnt make sense to me.  The distributor drive box is connected to the crankshaft through the front cam gear train and rotates the pulley/drive 1 turn for every 1 turn of the crankshaft like mine does, it sends that 1 crankshaft turn into the 11:11 right angle box and into the distributor.  This would produce 1 rotor revolution for every crankshaft revolution which is too fast, unless it can operate with a wasted spark and an odd firing order on the distributor cap?

 

My 14:7 frankenstein arrangement produced the correct 2 crankshaft turns for 1 rotor turn, but is not mawell parts or anything close from what I can find.  If there was some sort of reduction in the maxwell gear train that would allow for the 11:11 right angle box, my frankenstein setup would be too slow.  The only thing I can see that would allow for that box to be 11:11/1:1 is if there was a gear reduction in the front gear case but the diagrams don't show anything that drastic, and to be fair I have not gotten my front case apart to count my gear train teeth.    

 

I could be missing something extremely obvious and it's just not getting through to me.  The cars I've worked on before have been much more A+B=C, this much reconfiguring is off my usual scope so I don't have any previous experience to fall back on.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

2 hours ago, Peter R. said:

By the way, I found a complete 1:1 angle drive gear set. Just in case you need it.

 

 

im curious, but pretty sure Id need to bush that gear down for my .468 distributor shaft. Does it attach with a pin?  I fear to ask what you would ask for such a rare beast.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

33 minutes ago, Peter R. said:

1 spark per cylinder per 2 engine revolutions is certainly correct on a 4-stroke engine (the distributor is running half the engine speed). When I said the distributor is supposed to run a 1:1 ratio I meant the angle drive ratio not the engine/distributor ratio. What I was trying to say is that if you're mistakenly running an angle drive ratio of 1:2 instead of 1:1 (by using 7/14 gears instead of 11/11) you would cut the engine/distributor ratio further down so you will only have two sparks per two engine revolutions for four cylinders instead of four sparks per two engine revolutions for four cylinders. Sorry for the confusion. I just counted number of theeth of the gears on the pictures and figured you may be running a wrong angle drive ratio for whatever reason. Just wondering how the engine would run that way 🙂

Gotcha, I'm just trying to get this puzzle figured out myself.  Wouldn't the 11:11 gears still produce a wasted spark?  It's not running off the camshaft like a usual engine, so there goes the usual half engine speed.

 

From checking the distibutor drive belt pulley it was running 1:1 with the crank, so I was using that for a TDC mark for the timing light.  Rotating by hand it would be at correct firing for cylinder #1 and one engine revolution later my TDC mark would be lined up again, #1 would be visuallly at TDC, but firing 180 deg at #4 which all seemed kosher. 

 

Like I said, this is just uncovering mysteries as I go and trying to get things up to snuff.  It also has a model T generator someone adapted with a new face plate, so there was someone elbow deep doing custom work at some point.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

3 hours ago, Peter R. said:

Looks like you run a 1:2 ratio....

If so, your engine needs to turn four revolutions to fire all four plugs. That's firing one plug per engine revolution, which is half of what the distributor should be firing. Not to mention firing order and misfires. Does the engine really run?

However, here's what your engine originally was equipped with: 

 

 

I had it running several times.  I was doing checks with a timing light and dwell meter this last time while on a 20 minute run or so.  Both meters were way out of spec and I was getting an odd missfire and exhaust noises which lead me to looking at the distributor more closely.  I took video all around the motor to post and ask "What is all this noise?" but when I checked the rotor had about .020 of wobble all over the place so I figured it needed new bushings.  I would replace them, get the motor running and test again.  It was not what I would call a "smooth" engine by any means, but it would cold start with 1 hand crank of choke followed by 1 hand crank open choke.  All plugs were firing according to the timing gun.  Throttle worked, engine revved and reutrned to idle, spark advance lever advanced the spark, I didn't check the action of the advance weights but I had disassembled and cleaned the mechanism. 

 

It currently has a Delco Remy 629A that I would describe as "modified".  I've only had the truck about a month.  The person I bought it from was using it as a yard decoration for about 10 years, and he had bought it from an estate sale before that so any sort of history on the truck is long gone.

 

Wouldn't 1 spark per 2 engine revolutions be correct?  Wouldn't a 1:1 fire once correctly on the compression stroke, then once incorrectly on the exhaust stroke?  I was going to go hand crank the motor with no plugs and check the TDC position of each piston and see if they coincided with a 1:1 turn or a 1:2, just because I couldn't wrap my head around how it could be working.  From what I remember of setting the static timing it all made sense and the firing order and piston position lined up.  I can't really hand check my distributor turns with the driven gear removed so I'm left scratching my head for a while.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

ordered some 11 tooth gears that fit my shafts, so have to see what happens.

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

I'll see your 11 teeth and raise you...7?

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

I have 2 distributors from a 26 chrysler with 11 teeth, but they're in really sad shape and parts seem to be even harder to find than for this one.  I haven't cracked into the 90 degree box yet, but i was curious about seeing and swapping the horizontal gear if necessary

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

It has the right angle drive which seems correct, but the distributor is off a late 20's plymouth.  It had been shortened to fit the right angle drive and had a 14 tooth gear (possibly off a 60's ford) modified and peened onto the end, no longer using the lockpin.  Someone looks to have hacksawed or heavily filed the top end of the distributor shaft.  This current journey started during a test run and timing light check.  My marks were jumping all over, so I checked the dwell which was jumping around 10 degrees.  I went in to replace very worn bushings and found this can of worms on the way.  

[distributor for 1922 maxwell]

Did you come up with any good solutions?  I'm dealing with a frankenstein distributor myself right now.

[Truck wheel alternatives?]

Im not sure what determines rebuildable.  To me they seem kaput.  The front passenger tire crawled off getting it off and on a flatbed and the passenger rear is on crooked.  Theyre larger diameter than a model t so spokes would have to be made.  The model t truck wheels just take model t stuff as far as i know but the hubs are too small for the maxwell.

[20's truck radiator retrofit]

Sounds like a plan.  Thanks

[20's truck radiator retrofit]

Im not quite sure what you're suggesting.  It currently has a bump on the very top of the top tank with a soldered nipple on the side of that bump with a metal tube running down the length of the radiator.  My concern is that bump arrangement is below what could be the maximum fill level for the radiator so I'm losing water capacity, probably a pint.  You can barely see the bump on the right side of the filler neck under the cowl and the tip of the hose poking out on the bottom right by the frame

[20's truck radiator retrofit]

Since I got my truck running and up to temperature today I want to explore something.  It currently has a 53 GM radiator with a soldered on model T neck with an overflow tube on the side of the upper tank.  First I'm considering sealing off the overflow tube as I'm worried its limiting an already limited radiator capacity.  Just let it run with the cap off until it stops bubbling over and keep it at that level.  Second, without the rear overhanging tank would this radiator even have enough capacity to do the job?  Please note radiator in the background.

[Truck wheel alternatives?]

I was all excited over finding a set of model t truck wheels and demountable tires, but looking into them the center bores are too small, 3" and my truck needs a 3.75"-ish.  Looking into other wheels nothing seems to have a center bore that big.  I was hoping to be able to have some sort of easy swap to a more common wheel and tire setup but I'm starting to worry I'm stuck.  Has anybody found options for wheels?  I realize that being a truck is probably part of the problem, the hubs and bearings are probably bigger.  Could I rebore the centers of the model T wheels, or is there a certain amount of required meet between the bore and the bolt holes?  Also the hole pattern is a little off, could I plug and redrill for the maxwell layout?

[Truck throttle lever and pedal connection]

Wow!  Bearing numbers!  I could only read the 337 when I took mine apart.  Guess ill be doing some photoshopping and compiling a couple manuals to go under my seat.  I wonder if the only big change from the 1917 version to the 20s was the switch from magneto to distributor ignition.