1916 Maxwell Help

[hddennis]

I'm restoring a dash panel for a 1916-17 Maxwell with magneto. I have a 1917 Maxwell owners manual that has a beautiful 4 page red and black wiring diagram that shows and details starting, lighting, ignition and charging circuits. I'm hoping that one of you has the 1916 version. I'm attaching several pictures to show my dash. Note the fuse arrangement and also the switch back has 5 visible connections with the top right connection going to the mounting screw or ground and may show up on a diagram as a sixth connection. The panel is diecast and has a key on the left and a matching knob on the right that says high low regulator above and below it. All these features must be visible in the manual and diagrams I need copies of. If anyone has this dash and can show me pictures of the cutout regulator I need to verify I still have all the correct wires present. I'd appreciate any help anyone could give me as I'm trying to cover all bases by having a dash on standby for both distributor and magneto ignitions in case one or the other fails. Thanks, Howard Dennis

[hddennis]

I don't know what just happened but instead of a picture of my dash panels back I ended up with a tiny picture of a Studebaker?? This isn't even on my computer? Here is I hope what I intended to show.

[HBergh]

Hi again Howard;

I wish I could help. I think I already sent to you some of the dash pictures of the 1917 Model 25 that I'm maintaining. Here are the ones that might interest you most, even though my dash looks different and the fuses are oriented differently. FYI, my engine number is 186728; I have not body number, but at least the engine seems to fit the 1917 model year. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the back side of my fuse panel at this time to share. I can get one at a later date for your future reference.

Howard B

[hddennis]

Howard, thanks once again for your help. Our cars are not that far apart. Mine is chassis # 180649 and engine # 181555. We both have what my research shows would be late 1917's with distributor ignitions and the "charge indicator" dash panel. The only difference is it appears someone has remade your fuse panel. I restored mine and made a new panel but all the metal parts are original in their original positions. The fuse panel should have terminals on the front and back. I'm looking for diagrams for the magneto igntion panel that was just before this late version we both have. I'm attaching a factory drawing showing how our dash looked when new and one showing my restored dash.

[HBergh]

Hi Howard. What nice pictures, thanks for sharing them! One interesting note to add to our car comparisons, mine actually has magneto spark. Because the front panel ingition switch is non-functioning at this time, a small toggle switch was mounted under the dash to open and close the spark. So to start this car, I have to "open" the this toggle switch to unground the spark output. Here is a picture of the right side of the engine showing the carburator and magento.

On another topic, I'm interested in trying to retore the battery set up for starting, horn and lights. It appears that an equivalent of two 6-volt batteries were used with a swtiching mechanism to provide 12 volts for starting and 6 volts for other requirements. Do you have this "subsystem" working on your car? Is so, can you describe it a little.

Thanks, Howard.