2022 MCCTA
2022 MCCTA
Montana 500 Newsletter
| Jul - Aug 2002 | Volume 2 Number 4 |
Montana Cross Country T. Assn. 7516 E. Mission, Spokane, WA 99212
www.montana500.com2002 Officers and Directors: Front cover: All the cars from 2002
President: Sam Nickol
Vice President: Rick Carnegie
Sec.-Treasurer: Janet Cerovski
Directors:
Rick Carnegie 2003
Tom Carnegie 2002
Janet Cerovski 2003
Tony Cerovski 2004
Rob Flesner 2004
Mark Hutchinson 2004
Doug Langel 2002
Sam Nickol 2003
Meeting Secretary: Carla Carnegie
Correspondence and newsletter: Tom Carnegie
Membership dues $10.00
Touring class: $25.00
Endurance runner: $35.00
Top to bottom, left to right:
1. Mike Robison 2. Rick Carnegie 3. Gary Ebbert 4. Sam Nickol
5. Mark Hutchinson 6. Art Hedman 7. Doug Langel 8. Gary Gordon
9. Tom Carnegie 10. Dave Huson 11. Ted Ballard 12. Ron Miller
13. Scott Stubbert 14. Tony Cerovski 15. Nan Robison 16. Rob Flesner
17. Anna Marx 18. B.J. Miller
General News
The 42nd Montana 500 is now
history. There is a separate write-up on it later
in this newsletter. We had eighteen cars this year
and one tour car. I saw the tour car on inspection
day but never again after that. No one I talked to
had any idea where he had gone. From my
perspective, things went pretty well. The major
complaint I have can be summed up with two words
"affordable mediocrity". The hotel
accommodations were not adequate and were misrepresented
to our agent. We were also unable to get a good
warning from the locals about the situation.
Luckily the Holiday Inn Express more than picked up the
slack, and made a bad situation good.
The next order of business is the fall meeting. I
will let you know as soon as Sam picks a venue.
As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, I had written a
six-part serial or rather, six short stories that I will
be publishing in this newsletter over the course of the
next year.
I have a lot of pictures of the 2002 run that I will be
posting on the web page. If you have any good
pictures of this or any other race that you would like
me to post, please send the pictures or e-mail me scans
of them. I am positive that there are many
pictures of past races that are lurking in people's
closets. I would dearly love to present these for
all to enjoy.
Thanks to Tony and Janet for letting us use their shop
and house for the teardown and picnic respectively.
The Laydon Garage is located in Baton Noir, Idaho. It is owned by Harry Laydon but operated by Joseph Vant. Joseph is a man of about 40. Some say Joseph is a bright fellow - some say that he is a know-it-all. One thing for sure is that you don't call him Joe. He'll correct you if you do. Baton Noir is a small to mid-sized town located near Pinto Bean Lake, on the Crawdad River. The "Baton" part of Baton Noir sounds like "batten" as in "batten the hatches". The "Noir" part sounds like "nor" as in "neither one nor the other". At least this is how the locals pronounce it.
The Laydon Garage has no employees other than the manager. This is not unusual for a garage in a town this size in 1919. There are a few free agent mechanics that faithfully show up each day in the hopes that there will be some work for them to do. Usually there is. The Laydon Garage is known locally as the Model T Garage. This is because most of the work they do is on Model T Fords.
Hayes and Jesse Olson are two of the free lance mechanics. This morning Hayes is finishing a transmission job and Jesse is putting a new top on a 1917 touring car that they started working on yesterday. Most people think that Hayes and Jesse are identical twins. Actually, Hayes is 3 years older than Jesse. They both look as if they are in there mid-twenties. They both have blond hair and full beards. Butch Dunsel is a kid. He is about 20 years old, but he is a kid if ever there was one. Joseph likes Butch and gives him all the work he can.
Butch fancies himself a mechanic. He is not too great with the technical stuff,
but can push a broom and reline bands and tune up coils and that sort of stuff.
Butch is on the bench this morning waiting for some work to come in for him to
do.
Joseph walks into the shop and says, "Gentlemen, I have a proposal for you.
The way we work it now is that you are paid by the job as they come in. A
whole day could go by and you could sit on the bench all day. Butch, I
know this has happened to you a few times last month. What I have in mind
is to pay you each for a nine-hour day. The Olsons I will pay sixty-five
cents an hour. Butch, I will pay you forty cents an hour. You'll get
here at 7:30 each morning and leave at 5:30 with an hour for lunch. There
will be advantages and disadvantages to all of us, but it will allow us to do
things that we haven't been able to do before, such as deliver parts to our
customers. What say, gentlemen?" After a few moments of
mentally figuring their income over the past few months, both the Olson boys
announce that they are in. As soon as they make their announcement, Butch
says that he's in too.
Around noontime most days, Jesse grabs his fiddle and Hayes his guitar and they
play a few fiddle tunes. As they finish up a tune, Butch says, "That
is a lively piece. What is the name of that song?" "It's
called the 8th of January." Replies Jesse. "Oh
man," says Butch, "it is so snappy that you'd think it would be a song
about spring or summer, not winter." "It so happens" chimes in
Joseph, "that it is a tune, not a song. It is about the Battle
of New Orleans, which took place January 8th, 1815. Too bad
that war was ended with the Treaty of Ghent, signed Christmas Eve the year
before." Joseph's youngest and newest employee's face goes sort of
blank, and he says "oh."
It is not uncommon for some of the town's people to stop by about this time of
day to hear the music. Today, Bob and Ruby Ilks are there. Bob will
soon be heading out on horseback to check on the "high irrigation
ditch" north of town.
It is not a ditch at all but rather an elevated wooden
flume that is somewhat prone to leaks. Once a week Bob drives his T into town,
borrows a horse and walks the "ditch" looking for leaks. While his T
is in the shop, the folks at the Model T Garage do minor adjustments on his
car. Today though, things are different. For one, Ruby, Bob's pretty and very
pregnant wife is there. After Bob walks the "ditch", they are heading
out to Ruby's sister's place where Ruby is going to stay until the baby is
born. The other thing is that Bob's T is going to have some major work done
today. The hogshead is coming off and a new set of bands will be installed.
The music dies down and everyone drifts away except the crew and Ruby.
"Jesse, could you pull the radiator from my car and solder up the lower
strap, I noticed that it has started to leak." "Sure, Boss."
Jesse grins from ear to ear as this is the first time he's called Joseph that.
Ruby comments on the fine fiddle playing of Jesse, then adds, "I would like
to be able to hear music all the time in my house. The Showalters have a
Grafanola that plays disks. It is really quite wonderful." "It won't
last." Says Joseph. "What won't last?" asks Ruby. Joseph
explains, "What I mean is that people aren't going to continue to listen to
canned music, and I'll tell you exactly why. Nobody is going to listen to the
same songs over and over again. It will be like hearing the same concert night
after night. Nobody could stand that. Mark my words. As soon as the novelty of
canned music wears off, it will die a quick and well deserved death."
"Oh!" says Ruby sharply. "You'll see I'm right." Responds
Joseph. "Oh!………..Oh!…… I need to get out to my sister's place
quickly….. OH!" Suddenly it dawns on Joseph what is going on.
"Hayes, grab my car and drive Ruby out to her sister's place."
"Jesse just pulled your radiator off." Joseph clamps his head between
his palms, spins around a couple of times then realizes that the only running
rig on the place is Butch's 1911 Torpedo. "Butch," he says,
"could you please take Ruby out to her sister's place?" "You bet,
glad to, can do, you bet!" Hayes and Joseph help Ruby into the seat as
Butch cranks up the motor. "She's easy to start since I put a storage
battery on her." Butch is talking as they go down the road, but Ruby
doesn't seem in the mood for small talk.
About a mile from Ruby's sister's place, Butch's T makes a couple of loud
pops, then the engine slows and dies. "Oh man, my mag must have died -
great timing." Butch flips it over to battery, runs around to the front and
gives her a quarter pull. The T pops once, then nothing. Ruby is clearly
uncomfortable as Butch tries to figure out what is going on. He runs around and
checks the fuel tank. Nope, not that, plenty of gas. It clearly seems electrical
to Butch. Slowly he pulls the crank. A coil starts buzzing. He pulls a
screwdriver from his coveralls and shorts out a plug. It is number two that is
buzzing. He pulls the crank until the next coil starts buzzing. It is number
four. It has a good strong spark just as number two had. "This thing should
run!" intones Butch to no one in particular. "It has gas - it has
spark - it has compression - it should run!" In frustration he spins the
motor over with the crank. It pops a few times, but won't catch. "It must
be the timer." So he pulls off the timer. Sure enough - he sees exactly
what the problem is. The timer roller spring is gone! The timer is not of Ford
manufacture. It is a replacement roller type timer of supposed high quality. It
has a Bakelite insulated ring instead of fiber. The oiler lid is not the flip
type like Ford's design but rather a cover over a hole. This cover is held on by
a spring much like the one that is missing on the roller. Butch installs the
cover spring on the roller and replaces the timer. A quarter pull on the crank
and the T fires up. On to Ruby's sister's!
The next morning Bob Ilks shows up to claim his car and pass out cigars with
blue bands around them. "Robert junior is fine and so is Ruby" he
beams. "Thanks to you folks at the Model T Garage." "I thought
that we could deliver things from this garage," said Joseph, "I just
didn't think we would start with babies!"
Montana 500 2002
This year's Montana 500 was a thrilling event. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
With that said, I'd like to review a little bit of Endurance Run 2002.
I never got above the top 5 position (that was my starting number), so the view will
be a view from the back. We all have our own stories, but I hope you can relate
to some of these events. At least three insidious things that can go wrong
with the N.H. Carburetor. By Tom Carnegie The N.H. carburetor is the carb of choice for most model T people.
It is a very simple, yet effective unit. In its swayback form, it is the only one
allowed on the Montana 500. When you have a good tight throttle shaft and have
properly adjusted the float level, you will likely have a carb that is smooth
over the entire R.P.M. range of the model T, once the mixture has been set right.
This is assuming that all the internal passages are flowing freely. These include
the two idle ports, the air passage (it exits under the name tag) and the bowl vent.
Lately N.H. carbs have been getting harder to find at swap meets. For this reason
I suppose, the N.H. carb is now being reproduced. Unfortunately, not all of these
reproductions will pass the Montana 500 carburetor inspections. Some of them in
their unaltered state have too large of bore. This appears to be the result of a
core shift at the time of casting. You can make a simple gauge to check your carb.
(see ill 1.)
by Mark Hutchinson
I'll start by saying thank you to all the people who worked hard to make this
event happen in the first place. The flaggers, trouble truck drivers, and anyone who
made it easy for us to go and play with our grown-up toys for a week!
Next, congratulations to Tom Carnegie for winning the event in the men's division
and to Nan Robinson for taking the ladies' trophy. Last, I would like to
congratulate the rest of us: We all finished! After all that is the point
right? With that stated, I'll start by talking a little about just getting
there, cause that seems to be half the fun.
We all seem to have our own way of preparing for the Montana 500. Our methods range
from the one extreme of tearing down the car the day after the run (mostly the
winners) and tweaking it to within 500 miles of it's death; to checking the
water, oil, and battery in hopes she'll start and run better than last time.
In any case we all have our own checklist that we go through in hopes of finishing.
Personally, I rode around trying to break-in a newly rebuilt engine 'til
I was blue in the face, and a few other body parts as well, only to find that it
sure ran a lot better in Washington than it did in Montana. Next year my
checklist will include a carburetor rebuild. I should have seen it coming,
since Tom and I drove over to Helena and the closer we got, the poorer it ran.
While we had a short drive, some of us came from as far away as Georgia and Ohio.
My hat is off to everyone who came to this event. Well, now that you mention it
my hat is off completely, having been blown away by one of the few
J gusts of wind we encountered during the second day of driving. But wait, I'm
getting ahead of myself. As we all know, we start with the Safety Inspection.
Most arrived either Saturday or Sunday in time to get our cars
inspected. Tony Cerovski and Rick Carnegie did the lion’s share of the work to
ensure we were all properly wired and sealed, Ruckstells disconnected, and that
we had lights, brakes, and a horn, that worked. O.K., I’ll try to have the
horn working by next year as well. Rick Carnegie thought it was a little cheesy
that I had to hold onto the horn and hit the button at the same time to ground
it out since it was a little loose, but given that it made a noise they let it
go. In any case how many of you honk at another driver to get out of the way
anyways? I’ll tell you after two years of doing this, and having been passed
by every car in both races (minus one or two), no one has ever honked at me yet!
In any case, it’s on the checklist: Fix the horn! To keep this from being a
stinky old race Gary Gordon passed out ODO-BAN to anyone who would take it.
Guess he likes the stuff? I believe the only car not inspected on Sunday was Sam
Nichols’; seems he would be a little late getting in.
Late in the afternoon some ominous clouds started to build to the west of the
city. Tony Cervoski, a local to Helena, said this was a pretty normal event and
that we could expect a storm around 5:00 P.M. He also stated the clouds would be
pushed down the valley, circle around, and be back about 10:00 P.M. for another
go of it. What he failed to say was this storm system would not escape the
valley for the next three or four days and that this cycle would continue,
pretty much up until the end of the event. Guess he was kinda keeping that
little secret to himself, not wanting to spoil our fun of discovering Montana
for ourselves. Thanks, Tony! Well, the last car passed inspection with the help
of a droplight. Finally we were ready for the first day’s run through White
Sulphur Springs and back to East Helena, approximately 195 miles.
Probably the most memorable thing that happened to all of us the first day
was when we were handed the directions for the upcoming three days of driving.
It’s amazing to me how many people over the course of a few short days would
modify these directions to their own liking, not worrying about the added time
they would incur. I know I appreciate their kindness. However, add to the
checklist to ask if we are supposed to turn north, south, left or right at the
intersections posted on the directions, then write it on the paper, because I’m
not remembering things so good anymore, and it's a tough call at speed. At one
of these turns, Rick Carnegie decided to get the help of the state patrol,
something about he couldn’t remember if he had any felonies or not.
Apparently, according to the officer, he didn’t. Now we all know. Geez, we
think of the strangest things while driving our T’s don't we? Well I guess it
was just an excuse he was using to give us all a thirteen-minute head start.
Thanks, Rick! Anna Marx, also feeling a little sorry for us, forgot to check her
gas tank before leaving town and while the new car was running strong, it only
did this while it had gas. I know it sounds silly now but how many of us can
honestly say we have never run out of gas before? Just the timing was pretty
poor that’s all! Anna, maybe you need to work on your timing? Come to mention
it, so do I. Another thing going on the checklist for next year: Check the
timing! It certainly wasn’t long after getting gas that Anna passed me like I
was standing still. O.K., fine, I must have been changing a coil or something.
We all pretty much ended the day about the same time, except for Ron Miller who
decided to take a little side trip. He joined us a couple hours later for dinner
and was extremely good-natured about the whole thing. His son B.J. Miller was
also going his own way for a while, but got turned around in plenty of time to
finish the event in third place, just three seconds ahead of Gary Ebbert. After
a nice meal and some stories, we mostly did last minute preparations for day two
to include tuning up coils on a tester that Tom Carnegie donated to the club and
Rob Flesner set up on one of the trouble trailers. Everything in order we
retired for the evening ready for the second day. Our next day’s route was out
to Choteau and back, around 191 miles.
The first leg of the day would be one of the fastest runs of the trip. I don’t
believe everyone passed me on this leg, but quite a few did. Rob Flesner’s car
developed a little knock and wound up on the trailer, and come to think about it
Dave Huson was also on the trailer on day one. Both of these cars would be put
back together. Dave I believe needed a rod and Rob needed a main tightened. In
any case, lots of people chipped in and got both cars going again. The second
day was noteworthy for weather: lots of wind, rain, and some sunshine every once
in a while. I swear it seemed to me no matter which way we were heading, we were
going into the wind, but as I said earlier that storm was circling around the
valley and so were we. Hey, I wish someone would put it on their checklist for
next year to let’s try to circle in the same direction as the storms, want to?
I’m not sure if anyone got lost on the second day or not, but I know we were
all accounted for before dark. Since we were now starting to get into a routine,
we went over to check the coils again and put the battery on charge overnight.
Hmm, another checklist item: Make sure the lights are not on while trying to
charge the battery. We then settled down in anticipation of tomorrow's events.
I'm not exactly sure where we went, but it was about 114 miles.
Day three started the same as the last two: Wipe the rain off the car, turn
the lights off (damn!), and drive to the starting point. Somehow, and I’m
still not certain what happened, Scott Stubbert lost his son and his
"T" somewhere between the hotel and the starting point. Fortunately
for me, the car and his son showed up just in time to take off in his position.
Fortunate because my car wouldn’t stay running and since I was supposed to
follow him, that gave me another minute to get running again in hopes of making
my time. Well this tactic seemed to work and we were off. Seems Ted Ballard
would miss the first turn-off and add some time to his run as well. Most of the
day I spent trying desperately to stay ahead of Mike Robison, who was plagued
with constant timer problems, and trying to catch Art Hedman, just to say I
could. But, as it turned out, I couldn’t! Quite a few of us had problems on
this day of where to go and once we all got rounded up we decided to cut out one
of the trickier legs. It was pretty much easy sailing back to Helena from there.
What beautiful scenery! I know that I had a lot longer to enjoy the Montana
countryside than a lot of you did. I’ll bet Doug Langel is laughing at me
right now because as far as he is concerned he’s seen more of Montana than
probably any of us. Lucky man. To be honest I think this has got to be some of
the prettiest country I have ever seen. At the end, all that was left was to
tear down the winners.
Tony and his wife invited us to their home for a fried chicken feed and a
Model T tear-down. Thank you for your hospitality! The first three cars were
inspected by some pretty knowledgeable/capable people and judged to be legal,
and the run results would stand as they finished. Obviously there will be items
to talk about at the annual meeting, as there should be. If not, why have
meetings? That’s another story. This one is just about concluded. Next day,
after the tear down, some people left for home, some went on a tour. We followed
Tom and Susie Carnegie back to Spokane. We rode in the Dodge pickup, trailering
the T; they drove the winning car home another 310 miles without missing a beat.
I guess after three years of trying to get one to stay together long enough to
finish the Montana 500, you made a winner this time!
Tom, the only thing I can say is everyone will be gunning for you next year.
As you can see, some of us will have pretty comprehensive checklists; perhaps
someone will even have one better than mine? Are you scared yet? If I were you,
I'd start preparing early cause something tells me your car won’t be fast
enough next year!
Good luck to all next year. I had a fantastic time.
Just round the ends of a piece of 3/8" or so round stock until it is .710" long, then attach a wire for a handle. For all of its simplicity, there are a few things that can go wrong with these carbs and if you’ve never encountered these problems, it could be quite frustrating to track them down. All three of these problems involve the high speed adjusting needle. As the needle is adjusted it lets more or less gas past the spray nozzle. The spray nozzle is supposed to be screwed solidly into the carb body. It is located right above the valve that holds the float bowl on. It is screwed in from the bottom, and has a gasket between it and the carb. If this nozzle is allowed to get loose, the adjustment can spontaneously change whilst driving. Besides making sure this is tight, a drop of Loctite or similar product is not a bad idea. Problem number two is caused by worn threads on the needle. I have seen the situation where you think you are adjusting the needle, but it is really just going round and round. Of course, simply replace the needle and the part that it threads into to fix this. The last problem is perhaps the most insidious of all.
The steel part of the needle is swedged into its holder. It is possible for this part to become loose. The T will run, but it will be impossible to hold a fine adjustment on the mixture. Even if your carb seems to be working well, these are things you might consider checking.
Sadly, longtime club member Max Danskin has passed away.
Tom and Susie Carnegie were involved in an accident. They were on a Sunday
drive in the 1917 T that was driven by Anna Marx in this year's Montana 500.
In the collision, Susie was thrown from the T. She suffered some broken bones,
cuts scrapes and bruises but is expected to recover. The T was totaled.
Gary Gordon made it home to Georgia with only three minor explosions on the
way. One involved his truck's air conditioner, one a tire, but the
third is a mystery. No one was hurt.
Mike Robison broke the crank in his T on a routine drive. He had the Montana
500 restrictor plate installed at the time.
Al Rieker, Rich Armstrong and Bob Braun all stopped by at one point during the
run to say hello. Great to see you folks! How about bringing a car next year?
Ed Towe was in Helena the Sunday before the run, but we didn't get hooked
up with him.