Hope this posting is alright with this forum. Let me know if it’s not. My questions be be about how we connected the Wisconsin to the T’s drive shaft. I think I remember but at age 87, memory can’t always be trusted. So here’s the background: John and I were the best of friends in high school.
Together we owned a 7.5hp single cylinder Wisconsin engine with rope start. At one time (1957), John, his brother and I had built a Cyclops car. (Google “Cyclops Road and Track and Stan Mott” for more.)
A mutual friend’s mother told Larry she didn’t want that rusty Model “T” chassis sharing garage space in with her Cadillac anymore. “Get rid of it” said Maybelle.
So we inflated the tires and towed the frame and running gear, sans engine, to my family’s garage at 381 Ridge Avenue; the address my parents moved to after my freshman year at University of Illinois — where John and I were roommates. That would make it 1955. Dad would park his Packard 250 in the driveway.
2x4s provided enough structure to mount the Wisconsin and the “T’s" drveshaft between the frame rails.
Now, how to connect the Wisconsin to power the running gear?
John and I were both working at International Harvester that summer. Both the TD-6 and TD-9 dozers were diesel powered; both had fuel injection pumps on their engine sides. The drives on those pumps required universal joints — perfectly sized for our needs. And perfectly sized to travel in lunch boxes. (Remember them?) One found its way to our garage. One end fit the Wisconsin’s drive shaft, the other fit the Model “T’s” transmission input shaft.
I don’t remember the details, but the keyways didn’t match and matching holes were required in the hardened steel, so the U-joint found its way back to a friendly mechanic’s shop desk at IH where 1/4 inch holes were drilled. Another lunch box trip back to the garage and we were in business!