I think the ones made after around 1919 all had a six volt electric system and a generator and the ignition switch could be switched off, battery, or magneto.
The very first cars were magneto only and lighting was by kerosene or carbide lamps.
Electric starting was also available starting around 1919.
Many an arm was broken when / if the engine back-fired while it was being cranked and the crank handle snapped backwardsâŠ
Yup, I think thatâs why the guy grabbed the crank with his left hand and grabbed the left fender with his right hand for leverage. That way his arm was out of the way if it back fired. Information I fear lost on the new generation. Another twenty years theyâll all be push button and no one will know what a key is.
Anyone who has the presence of mind to hold the crank in a way that it doesnât break his arm if the engine kicks back should also have the presence of mind to double check to make sure the spark advance lever is in full retard position before trying to start the car.
Iâm pretty sure that all the kickback injuries happened when someone tried to crank an engine with the spark advanced.
Old farm tractors with magneto ignition had a device between the magneto and the shaft driving the magneto called an impulse coupling. At cranking speed, a pawl would catch the magneto and cranking the engine would wind up a spring, when it was time for the spark, the pawl would release the magneto and the wound up spring would drive the magneto a fraction of a turn at high speed. The pawl release point was also designed to give the engine a retarded spark timing.
Because of this automatic spark retard, very few farmers broke their arms while cranking their old Farmall tractors.
That might have added an extra $2 to the cost of a Model T which would have been unacceptable to Henry. Donât think they had that idea then anyway but the electric starter took care of the problem.
Retarding the spark was actually the secondary function of the impulse coupling, the primary function was to spin the magneto fast enough to generate a spark at cranking speed. Itâs the impulse coupling that made that âcluck-cluck-cluckâ noise while cranking the engine.
Once the engine started, the centrifugal weights disengaged the the impulse coupling and the magneto was directly driven with normal advance.
On airplanes, normally only the left magneto has an impulse coupling, the right magneto is grounded during the start so that its weak but advanced spark canât cause a nasty kickback which can damage the starter or really hurt if you are hand cranking the engine.
Some magnetos use a âshower of sparksâ system for starting, where battery voltage is supplied to a vibrator that energizes the magneto coil on and off very rapidly much like the way Model T coils worked.
Lawn mower and chain saw magnetos simply rely on the ability of a pull rope starter to turn the magneto fast enough to make sparks.
How about this idea? Instead of a starter motor, just have a big spring. When the engine is running it can wind the spring tight. Then next time you need to start the car, a solenoid releases the spring and it cranks the engine.
Getting rid of the starter motor seems a good way to solve a lot of the complaints we get here. Iâd guess the most common single complain we get here is âno crankâ.
Youâd think someone would have thought about that by now.
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Yeah we had a mower with the crank start. I guess it was ok but prefer a battery. I remember my BIL talking about some semi tractors having an air starter. They used the compressed air from the tank to run the starter motor. Problem was that you only got one shot at it. If it didnât start you were out of luck. Especially in the winter in Minnesota.
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great video showing how hard one of these are to drive if youâre not used to it 
Modern car layout didnât come until a few years later⊠brake clutch and gas⊠If I remember correctly I think they said Cadillac was the first to have the âmodernâ car layout, but its been a few years since I watched the videoâŠ
Upon researching Model T Fords on the web, I learned that a popular modification was the installation of the Ruckstell two speed rear end. This gave the rear end a direct and a 1.54:1 underdrive, which nicely split the difference between the Tâs 2.75:1 low and 1:1 high, and also gave you a low-low granny useful for climbing really steep hills, walking speed maneuvering, or walking speed parades without constantly riding the low speed clutch to control speed.
When going up a hill too steep for the 1:1 high, you could shift the axle to low and go up that hill at something faster than a slow crawl.
Yes, it also gave you a low and high reverse gear.
Some people exchanged the stock 3.63:1 ring and pinion for a 3:1 ring and pinion making high-high sort of an overdrive for a somewhat higher top speed on good roads.
In the video, she pulled up on the crank. I have heard that the problem with getting your arm broke, or even getting killed was from pushing down on the crank.
If it kicked back while pulling up, it would just pull the crank out of your hands, but if it kicked back while pushing down, then you could get a broken arm or worse. Because you would be moving your whole body downward, the crank could hit you in the face and break your neck.
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Hereâs a really cool video of a Model T speedster thatâs far from stock. Itâs 30 minutes long though so donât try to watch it if you have to leave for work in 10 minutes.
Iâve heard that Model-T drivers would resort to backing up steep hills, when they couldnât make it going forward. Not sure if thatâs b/c the gears were lower in reverse, or that the fuel in the gas tank at the rear of the car wouldnât drain into the engine if the hill was too steep.
Itâs probably a little of both. Prior to 1926, the gas tank was under the front seat and the fuel was gravity fed to a carburetor below the intake manifold. Later the gas tank was moved to the cowl for better gravity feed.
@GeorgeSanJose The model T did not have a fuel pump it was gravity fed so had to back up a hill to keep the tank higher than the engine.