2 dumb a** stupid questions

O

old31

Well-known member
1: Does anyone know why ford made the terminal box dogbones? It would have been more expensive than a nut or wingnut, and a nut or wingnut would be easier to install.

2: Why is a condenser fiber washer needed when the screw, screws into metal?
 
If we started questioning why FoMoCo designers did what they did when drawing up the Model A on the design board, there wouldn't be enough storage space on this website to cover all bases! Their only defense in retrospect is that in a very short time they did ultimately come up with possibly the second-most popular and influential car (behind the Model T) that automotive history has ever produced, warts and hairs and all. And this in a frenzied rush to market atmosphere of less than six months with Henry cracking the whip over their heads. Almost 100 years later it's easy for us armchair revisionists to second-guess these guys. Questionable design features aside, they did a pretty darned good job, wouldn't you say!? Or else, why are we all here??? A century later, who raves about 1928 Essexes or even 1930 Chevrolets??? Terminal box wingnuts and other such odd Model A features aside, I'd say Ford got 95% of its design right. The other 5% has driven us Model A devotees nuts for almost a century! That's why we band together to keep our favorite antique car ON the road, whereas other contemporary marques have sat BESIDE the road.
Marshall
 
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With the eccentric weight of the dogbones, they won't spin off with vibration. Some prewar motorcycles had similar for toolbox cover fasteners.
 
I have those on the side covers on a Royal Enfield motorcycle.If they're tight to the right of center,they stay that way.If they are tight to the left of center they will loosen,or droop down until the wing is hanging straight down.That's as far as they go.
 
rackops said:
I had no idea the dog bones were "self-tightening". Pretty darn cool. Makes sense!
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It’s more like self-limiting. If you go twiddle with them on your car, you’ll see it’s unlikely they would vibrate their way to being tighter than you made them. It’s luck of the draw as far as whether they tighten down to a position where the weight is on the left or right.

But what you do get is the assurance that they cannot back off more than half a turn. Once the weight gets to the bottom, it stays there. So the nut may loosen slightly but will never fall off. That works fine for the terminal box.

Notice also there are no lock washers - not needed.
 
I think they are unique feature Of the terminal box And when you think about it 5,000,000 model a's times 2 the money saved was in the 10,000,000 lock washers that were not needed!!!
 
Henry Ford had a pretty good back ground having been an employee of Tom Edison for a long time before getting into automobiles. He did have a knack for the simple ideas that made maintenance as easy as possible. He wanted both a nut that was easy to remove and also a good place to connect an electrical lead to check the charging system with an external gauge. Adjusting the generator was easy on those first model A generators. Open the hood. Connect the precision amp meter to those dog bones and then pop the bale off the back of the generator and do the 3rd brush adjustment. Pop the lid back on then remove the clips from those dog bone nuts and close the hood.
 
ModelA29 said:
C'mon we all know Henry made one winged wingnuts to save some ¢¢¢. A one wing nut uses only 60% of the material that a two wing nut does.
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Exactly...2 per car, over 4 million made, equals over 8 million dog nuts. That allowed him to take an extra camping trip with Thomas Edison and friends.
Once a poor farmer... always a poor farmer.
My old boss used to say "mind the pennies and the dollars will look out for themselves. "
 
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