Other side, other side!

[jim lee]

Wednesday, October 4, 2017



Figured out how the felt dust wiper went together. Tried everything backwards at least once. Quit proud of myself getting this far. Then I looked closer at the Tech. manual and found there was supposed to be a gasket between the ring and the knuckle. I’'m no longer feeling proud of myself.

The gasket was missing from my parts kit. So back on the phone ordering stuff. It’'ll be a few days before the gaskets arrive.



Pulling out the old copper brake line. The plan is to use the old line as a “Serving suggestion” for making up a new steel one.



The plan actually worked pretty well for getting a rough shape. As always, it took a little tweaking to get things lined up and routed properly.

Here’'s creating a double 45 deg flare for the pipe end. More tools for the tool kit. Although I’'ve found this flaring tool to be really handy.



Kinda'’ tough to see, but that’s the brand new steel brake line all fabricated and installed.



Now on to the other side. The seal was still good in this side. I felt around inside and found an original leather seal. The bushing looked brand new too. I was tempted to just leave them. I mean, its worked for 75 years..

Naw! I grabbed the puller and had at it.



Seal and bushing removed, it was time to start excavating.

This went on for awhile. As always, made a huge mess.



More bits pulled off. The top bushing looked pretty worn out. Tough to tell, covered in yuck.



Cleaning up the bushing I noticed the hole was off center. This is odd.. So I set it next to the worn bushing from the first side. OH! It wasn’t drilled off center, it was WORN off center.

Yikes, by a lot!



I grabbed a bearing race and lined it up. What in the world happened to cause this?



Then I noticed the edge was mashed down. Yet more mysteries.



As per my usual, I slept on it.

Laying in bed staring up at the ceiling I came up with a theory. I think, to get mashed like this, the wheel must have taken a hit. Probably a car wreck. Because it had to be a massive hit to push this solid bronze bushing out of shape like that. And that means.. Oh no. It may have bent the axle housing! That would make all this work pointless.

Next day I ran over to the shop and got my digital protractor. Super handy tool from the boat building days.

Set top post at zero degrees.



Well, its showing .9 degrees in the picture. But really it was less. I couldn’t get a good level spot to get a solid reading. But even with it rocking a little, it was always less than 1/2 degree. I think its going to be ok.

Whew!



About this time Julie walks in. “Why is there a spring in the cat box?”

“Huh? Oh! I thought it was a dried up worm or something. Cool, I’'d been looking for that.”

Its the spring for the passenger side tie-rod ball joint. When the ball joint came off, the spring vanished.



Bash in the new seal and old bushing. I must remember to give this drift back to Mark.

When you decide to do one of these axle repair jobs, make sure you get one of these drifts. Very handy! Don’t bash bearings in without it.



This one was my invention. The cylinder keeps the pressure inline and has a hole for the shaft to poke into when you hit the bottom.



It doesn’t work without a washer though. The washer raises the clamp off the round case. This gives a nice parallel base for the clamp, and allows everything to stay lined up. Without it, your alignment goes bad and it doesn’t work at all.

Trust me, I know.



Back to cleaning parts.

You know, I realize I’m doing a disservice to people reading this. People thinking they may want to try their hand at working on one of these ancient machines.

From this blog it looks like, a little checking up on how things go, a quick disassembly, some cleaning, bolt all these bits together and Hey! Here we go, cool vehicle!

Its not like that at all. First is “I have no idea where to start. Everything looks like a ball of rust and dirt!”

Ok, choose a bite size project. Now, figure out how to accomplish it. This is another scary deal, not knowing how stuff is supposed to work. Yes, the internet helps a lot, but its still me trying to get something that seems like one solid object to break down into pieces and not just break into pieces. There is an entire black art in getting rusty old equipment apart without breaking stuff. And I’'m terrible at it.

Once its apart, or while its coming apart, there is the entire deal of locating parts. Can I use off the shelf standard parts? Or, do I need to order stuff from distant vendors? Horse trade for parts? Are they even available?

I have mentioned tools. I’'m buying tools every week. I try not to, but that’s like trying to sand with worn out sand paper. You just get tired and nothing really useful happens. If I want to do this, I need “real” tools. What are real tools? Well, a good first pass is; if its being sold to do multiple things, its not a real tool. It’s one of those tools that the unsuspecting give as gifts.

Ok I got it apart, because I bought real tools, Yeah! The next phase is cleaning parts. Surprisingly, cleaning and prepping parts is exhausting! For example: This evening I cleaned and prepped parts ‘till I realized, if I went any further, I’'d not be able to walk in the morning. I was aching all over and so stiff I could hardly walk already. I had big plans to finish up the second steering knuckle, but it just physically wore me out.



This is where I left off. Steering knuckle mostly cleaned and prepped, mostly dry fit on the bench.

After finishing all this, I’ll finally get to bolt it all together.

Oh wait, there’s a part missing..