High School Auto Shops should have a Ford 8N Tractor

S10Vette

Member
Tackling a rebuild on my dad's 1951 Ford 8N, and taking my time still had it split and engine disassembled easily after a couple of short days work.

It occurred to me that all the basics of a internal combustion motivated vehicle are there and so easy to work on that a Ford 8N would be a great first vehicle for new students in auto shop to work on.
 
Yes I agree....if it was 1965. Nowadays
much of the technology is pretty
irrelevant to cars.
 

Do schools still offer auto shop? I took auto shop one and two in high school and I'm glad I did.

But like markct inferred, taking auto shop today should be preparing todays kids for tackling todays auto problems. If a kid is sharp and learns something in auto shop he should have no problem applying it to and old flat head engine.
 
(quoted from post at 11:53:58 08/10/16) Yes I agree....if it was 1965. Nowadays
much of the technology is pretty
irrelevant to cars.
One of the mechanics from the local Agco dealer looked at my 8N
one day while I was working on it and asked "Where do you hook
up the computer to diagnose it?" I laughed. Hope he was joking.
 
auto shop wasn't as much about fixing cars as it was following a logical path to a solution. Once you have that you apply it to anything but women!

Kevin
 
Driver's ed, wood shop, auto shop, most art classes, many music classes and PE; all removed from the schools in my area. Most places have a hard enough time keeping the lights on these days. It would surprise me to hear of any school that has the same things to offer that mine did when I was young.
 

The technology is to outdated to offer much of a benefit in there life adventures.

My pic for a engine to teach the basics would be a Robin 2cyl 4 stroke OHV engine. The repair manual is a free download it covers all aspects of disassembly, inspection and assembly. If nuttin else it will show you how to correctly measure and recondition parts that are basic for most engines.


Google

engine shop rebuild & service parts manual 27615-g01 - Jacobsen
 
"Most places have a hard enough time keeping the lights on these days."

Around here I don't think they care about the lights.
Nor grades. As long as they have football.
I still pay some of the highest school taxes in the state for
a school that is no longer open because it couldn't compete.
They're not going to lower our taxes or swap them to another
district though. I haven't had kids in school for years and my
grandkids have never gone to a school in this district.
Yet, I pay the taxes for a none existent school with no students.
I think I'll just back away from that subject now. :evil:
 
(quoted from post at 17:29:46 08/10/16) Driver's ed, wood shop, auto shop, most art classes, many music classes and PE; all removed from the schools in my area. Most places have a hard enough time keeping the lights on these days. It would surprise me to hear of any school that has the same things to offer that mine did when I was young.

Back in my day, they had Auto shop, wood shop, general shop (metal shop) and mechanical drawing.
 
It might not be so bad for a shop class to overhaul an 8n. True
the technology is way outdated. If they measure all the crankshaft
journals it would teach math. Removing frozen bits and nuts would
teach problem solving and patience.They would learn the basics of
how a 4cycle engines works and what all the components look like.

I have two nephews that I bet couldn't tell the difference between
a piston and a lifter.

When I was in high school. I had woods one and two. Welding one
and two. And small engines.

The welding class made stock trailers,gates,bale movers, and pig
carries.

The wood classes made gun cabinets,waterbeds, cedar chests, book
shelves. We also made lawn mower sheds and sold them at the end of
the year.

In small engines, I was the only student. We took 3hp engine I
provided a part and repaired it. At the time my dad was a Snapper
dealer. I was already doing service work on Snappers. I taught the
shop teacher how to install valve guides and how to replace the
brushes in a B&S starter.

Today, welding class just welds scraps together. Woods class now
only builds a lawn mower she'd. No personal projects.

I don't know if the small engines class is still going.

Taxes here are horrible high. Every school has to have an old
Greyhound bus to haul kids all over the state to play sports. The
parents are screaming for more after school activities.

My sister is the art teacher at one of the local high schools. The
school pays her $1800 every spring to decorate for the prom. That
is not for buying supplies. Just doing the decorating.

I think the parents should do all the prom planning,preparing, and
clean up afterwards.
 
In the mid 70s Ford donated a lot of
tractors to high schools and vo techs.
"For the advancement of technical
education."
They came as shown in the photo.
100_03201.jpg
 

The good schools are NATEF certified why because once certified they get free funding that includes all the good stuff. I can tell you a instructor that works to get NATEF certification for his school works his arse off for it.

I have set on the board of review I had my fill you could not pay me enoufh money to teach under that kind of pressure. The administration wants the free money they know nuttin about what it takes to set up a involvement to get NATEF certification. They have a big turnover for instructors its just not worth the pressure. They get kids that drag the system down they don't belong but are forced to put up with them. Tell me the truth if you are willing to put your heart and sole into it would you not want to kick out the students that are just a filler to just fill a seat.

A NATEF program is set up to cover the first year of automotive technology for a two year degree in automotive technology. That means a kid should be able to enter a collage and go straight to the second year class of automotive technology, I can tell you it would be one in a million that could actually accelerate at that speed and make a living at it are put to any use as far as that goes.

Its just not what it use to be, it use to be you worked with the ones that picked up on it the ones that did not did not set back and did not disrupted the class. The disruptive take down the ship these days there's nuttin you can do about it :cry:
 
Our program is NATEF certified and you're right about the work that has to be done. They require a lot and they recently changed the standards so I had to redo all the syllabi and make a lot of program changes to get ready for our reaccreditation. A lot of employers call us for students because there is a huge void of technicians that's been coming for several years as people leave the profession and not many new techs are there to replace them. I did get a couple of boxes of DVOM's oh and some posters. That's it.
 

What I should have said was to get accredited the school has to provide a list of equipment and have every OSHA safety standard applied in a shop environment. If they get certified then the government money will flow in to reimburse the school if not they are stuck with the bill... The pressure is on the instructor he has to be a sharp cookie to fulfill the bill with a administration that only knows they want there money back.

Every NATEF certified instructor I have ran across is the real deal he's no wanna be. There #1 complaint is jerk off's he has to put up with.
 
(quoted from post at 19:08:07 08/10/16)
If a kid is sharp and learns something in auto shop he should have no problem applying it to and old flat head engine.

So you'd think. I work at a GM dealership and many of the 'mechanics' dont know the basics of carbs, points, etc. One guy just bought a '79 Chevy truck....and the parts guy (me) had to show him how to set the timing and adjust the carb!!!
 
(quoted from post at 09:17:47 08/11/16)
(quoted from post at 19:08:07 08/10/16)
If a kid is sharp and learns something in auto shop he should have no problem applying it to and old flat head engine.

So you'd think. I work at a GM dealership and many of the 'mechanics' dont know the basics of carbs, points, etc. One guy just bought a '79 Chevy truck....and the parts guy (me) had to show him how to set the timing and adjust the carb!!!
parallel to "I can do about anything on a computer, but can't write cursive or make change without a calculator".
 
A friend of ours is a shop teacher and we donated a 47 2N Ford to his shop class a couple of years ago. He was able to get free tires and free parts from several manufacturers and had the class totally rebuild the tractor. They held a raffle for it and used the money they raised to buy equipment for the school shop.
 
Good to hear that many high schools still have auto shop and sad to hear that others do not. Our has a pretty good sized shop and program. They also built a fairly competitive dirt track car.

I agree today's cars are fairly complex compared with the 1960's but they are still machines just that the electronics figure out all the critical operating parameters. Personally I like working with modern ECU's. I installed a Chevy LS V8 in my S10 Blazer and getting the ECU to communicate with the decade older BCM and also get thru California smog was difficult but rewarding.
 

10-4 ON DAT. He may never see a carb are a set of points are depend on them for his daily bread.

The next generation will use the data he can get from a computer and put it to use faster and more profitable than using manual labor.

Like this

[URL=http://s102.photobucket.com/us...hobo1301/SCOPE PATTERN_zpssif6y5x8.jpeg[/img][/url]

In 10 min from start to Finnish it confirmed the timing belt had not jumped time with out removing any parts.
 
I have six 4 inch binders full of information they require. Since the other instructor retired, it all fell on my shoulders. You are right about the people that consume my time with games like "Let's play stump the instructor.". By the way we use a Pico scope. Pricy but good.
 
(quoted from post at 01:49:25 08/11/16) "Most places have a hard enough time keeping the lights on these days."

Around here I don't think they care about the lights.
Nor grades. As long as they have football.
I still pay some of the highest school taxes in the state for
a school that is no longer open because it couldn't compete.
They're not going to lower our taxes or swap them to another
district though. I haven't had kids in school for years and my
grandkids have never gone to a school in this district.
Yet, I pay the taxes for a none existent school with no students.
I think I'll just back away from that subject now. :evil:

Where do the local kids go to school? That's probably where your tax money is going.
 
(quoted from post at 13:22:49 08/12/16)
(quoted from post at 01:49:25 08/11/16) "Most places have a hard enough time keeping the lights on these days."

Around here I don't think they care about the lights.
Nor grades. As long as they have football.
I still pay some of the highest school taxes in the state for
a school that is no longer open because it couldn't compete.
They're not going to lower our taxes or swap them to another
district though. I haven't had kids in school for years and my
grandkids have never gone to a school in this district.
Yet, I pay the taxes for a none existent school with no students.
I think I'll just back away from that subject now. :evil:

Where do the local kids go to school? That's probably where your tax money is going.
They're divided up across the surrounding schools now.
That was kind of the point. If they would pick one, any one and assign my
taxes to that district my tax rate would go DOWN from where it is now.
That's not likely to happen.
 

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