POP OUT SWITCHES

The original pop-out switches were designed to be 'theft proof'. When the switch was pushed in, the internal connections were designed shunt the connection from the battery to the points to ground. With the armored cable protecting the internal wire, and the inability to remove the distributor the car could not be 'hot wired'. Ford recommended turning the key to pop out the switch and then turning the key back and removing it, to help prevent leaving the key in the ignition. To turn the car off, simply push the switch in.

This also caused main difficulty of the original switch. If it failed internally the car could not be started. The cloth insulation of the era became friable at temperature and shorted against the armour cable. I am of the opinion that this didn't occur at the rate many believe. The problem occurred, again in my opinion, in the distributor either by screwing the cable into the distributor to far and shorting the lower bus bar, or the failing of the lower pig tail wire in distributor.

There were two basic designs..the first used with the oval speedometer dash, and the second with the later, round speedometer dash. There have been several articles on the restoration of the pop-out in the Restorer including the 'Restoration Don'ts appearing in the July/August 1992 issue.

There are many details not included in these photos, and the Judging Standards should be consulted.

1928-Mid 1930	1930-1931

EARLY 1928 'BANNANA' END