Ford Model T

Make:	Ford
Class:	Motor Car
Production period:	1908 to 1927
Engines:	Gasoline :2.9 liters (20 hp)
Curb weight :	540-750 kg

The Model T from Ford was built Between 1908 and 1927, 15 million units were built in the United States . 

History

The Model T from Ford was the bestselling automobile in the world, until in 1972 this title went to the VW Beetle . Between 1908 and 1927, There still about one per cent of all produced copies left.

Several models were developed and partially produced between Henry Ford's creation of the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and the commencement of Model T production. The earliest of these was known as Model A, and subsequent developments were designated by the letters of the alphabet. However, not all developments were suitable for production, and many remained prototypes. The Ford Model S was its direct predecessor, a progression of the Ford Model N's previous greatest success.

The "T-Ford," as he is affectionately known by his present owners, was designed with the simplest operation and ease of repair in mind, thus it was not equipped with a typical vehicle transmission with clutch and selector lever. There is no cooling water pump, no oil filter, no fuel pump, and no oil dipstick on the engine. Fuel gauges were scarce at the time, and vehicle heater didn't appear until the 1930s. The construction is simple, almost all repairs can be done without special tools. Replacement parts used to be available at every hardware store in the US, and many items were in stock. Ford realized that for mass industrial production, all components needed to be manufactured with consistently high quality and small tolerances to enable trouble-free assembly on the assembly line. He became a pioneer in quality assurance with Frederick Taylor, The T models were more reliable and durable than the cars produced at the time due to their simple structure, high quality series production and high quality materials (for example, vanadium alloy steel for the rear axle).

As a chassis , a ladder frame made of riveted U- steel profiles , which receives the axles, engine, power transmission and the body. The bodywork was available ex factory in many variants, for example as a coupe, four-seater convertible ( Touring ), two-seater convertible (" Runabout "), sedan ("Tudor") and trucks ("One-Ton-Truck"). It was built in the then usual way as a wood-frame planked with sheet metal.

The car has a forged in one piece of vanadium alloy steel front axle, which is guided by two diagonal struts and a transverse semi-elliptic leaf spring. The axle is forked and bolted to the forged stub axles . The rear axle consists of two casings (axle hoppers) housing the differential gear and the two drive shafts. The rear axle is also guided by two push rods and a transverse leaf spring. Thanks to the long suspension travel and the large ground clearance could also be traveled bad roads and fords . The basic construction ( drawbar axles , pushed forward) was retained by Ford in the following models as well.

The four cylinder in-line engine with one piece housing, removable cylinder head and gray cast iron piston has three crankshaft bearings and stationary valves . With a bore of 3.75  inches (95.25 mm) and a stroke of 4.0 inches (101.6 mm) results in 2.9 liters of displacement . The compression ratio of initially 4.5: 1 was later reduced to 4: 1. The rearmost gear bearing is often referred to as the fourth main bearing, since the planetary gear has only one main shaft. The mixture is in a flat streamformed carburetor . The gasoline comes without a pump from the slightly higher under the driver's seat. The special "buzzer ignition" works with four ignition coils connected to a rotating low voltage ignition distributor flanged to the camshaft . Each coil has its own breaker , which cuts off the circuit on the low voltage side in quick succession, thus producing several spark sparks on the spark plug . The electrical energy is supplied by a dynamo built into the flywheel . For easier starting, a battery can be connected. The engine lubrication is designed without a separate oil pump as a spin lubrication, which can lead to longer inclines lead to the front connecting rod bearings run dry, resulting in engine damage.

The engine drives the rear wheels via a planetary gearbox and a cardan shaft . The simple planetary gear has two gears that are operated by a pedal, as well as the reverse gear and the foot brake, which acts on a brake band in the transmission and thus slows down the propeller shaft. The handbrake acts via tie rods on the drum brakes of the rear axle. The car has no front brakes. As a popular accessory, there were the so-called " Rocky Mountain Brakes", additional outer band brakes on the rear axle.The engine produced 15 kW (20 hp) at a speed of 1800 rpm and the vehicle reached a speed of 67  km / h . The standing quarter mile (402 m) was reached after 32.9 seconds.

The car was the first car to be produced on automatically driven assembly lines . After switching to this industrial mode of production on January 14, 1914, the selling price was lowered from $ 850 (about $ 21,060 or $ 18,990 in present-day purchasing power) to $ 370 (about $ 9,170 or $ 8,270 in today's purchasing power). To speed up the production, only black body parts were produced between 1915 and 1925, since only one painting line was needed and the Japan Black dried the fastest. 

The price reductions achieved by the ever-increasing rationalization of production line production in the 1920s, despite the now outdated in comparison to the competition models technology and the lack of comfort still high sales of the T-model. The daily productions reached at times 9,000 pieces. Henry Ford stuck to model T for a long time. Even a model that was brought out for the last two years of production and renewed in a few technical parts could not prevent the strong decline in sales. The much-anticipated successor, Model A , went into production after extensive reconstruction of the factory from 1927 onwards.

At that time, Ford outsourced parts of production to suppliers to further reduce costs and increase production efficiency. The suppliers also had to deliver their parts in wooden boxes, the dimensions of which were specified by Ford exactly. The boxes were dismantled at the factory and the boards used in the vehicle.

While the technical changes and improvements in the 19 years of production were rather small, the external appearance changed. Thus, the model T had no front doors in the first years of production; the body was very similar to a carriage, In the following years, the body was provided with ever rounder parts, resulting in a more elegant shape. 1917 then the radiator grille and the hood of this form were adjusted. In the earliest years, when headlamps, a windshield and a spare wheel were optional extras, the Touring's top had no connection to the windshield frame; it was self-supporting and difficult to fold. 1923 came the "One Man Top", which, as the versions before, supported on the window frame and could be folded by only one person.

The technical changes were mostly only detail modifications, except for the change of the gearshift from the earlier "Two Lever" versions with two pedals and a lever (in the first 1,000 produced vehicles) to the last common version with three pedals (clutch, reverse gear and Foot brake) and a hand brake lever, which acted on the rear wheel parking brake. Gas was given with a lever on the steering wheel.

Further technical modifications were paid to the increased need for comfort. Electric starters were installed because the starting procedure was hard to handle on its own: First, the ignition must be set to "late" to avoid strains and broken bones. Then, with the choke pulled, the engine with the hand crank must be turned off so often until the intake vacuum has sucked in so much fuel that the carburetor overflows, then the ignition is switched to battery setting. Now the engine is cranked with the hand crank until it starts. Then the ignition must be reset to "early" and switched to "magnet", a detailed fine adjustment of gas and ignition helps to warm up the engine.

Switching from acetylene headlamps to electric ones was a relief in daily operation, but a throwback in terms of light output, as the 6 volt headlamps , which shone brightly or not as brightly depending on engine speed, could be brighter barely keep up with the very white light of the acetylene headlights.