The heavy rake that I could now oogle at-will, had me Jonesin’ to see how the ass-end would look a bit closer to terra firma. The chilly weather, and lack of a shop heater didn’t deter me… too much. Earlier in the week, Bryan had called asking what my plans were for the next Saturday. I relayed to him that the front was all back together, and the rear was beckoning to be detached and torn apart. He said he’d come over to help and I assured him that a few frosty beverages would be awaiting his arrival. After hangin up with him, I self-confessed that I was pretty excited to show him my hard work and that all my crazy hours of research had proved that old stock Ford parts could mash together… and actually work. Saturday mid-morning arrived, and it was halfway decent in the temperature department. I little chill in the air… yet almost nice enough to open up the garage door, so I did. But even more-so, it would also provide a straight-on view for when Bryan walked up. Kind of a… “TAH-DAH! Look what I have accomplished!”… type of moment. When he drove up, he backed in as usual… because he typically had a special tool or some parts in the bed of his truck, that will be needed in short order. I began to walk out to greet him and found that he had already made it to about 20 feet from the open garage door when he matter-of-factly-proclaimed, “That looks STUPID!”… with substantial emphasis on the last word. I guess now is a good time to enlighten you a tad on Bryan. He is a patient teacher… if the student is willing to learn. If not, or his answers are challenged or not taken as fact… he can tend to lose interest in trying to help. And in all honesty, I don’t blame him one bit! I have seen it before… he will take the time to explain exactly what someone needs to do to remedy a problem that they have presented him with, then they don’t do it and come back later to him to ask how they can fix the problem that they caused… by not doing what he told them to do. I can absolutely understand how he can get frustrated. Fortunately for me, I didn’t fall under that category (at least I don’t think I did)… cuz I told him in advance what I was gonna do, he just thought it wasn’t the way a Model A should look. Back to it… Well, it wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for, but I understood why he felt that way. And I did laugh, because… c’mon, it was kinda funny. He came into the garage and inspected my work in silence. After a couple of minutes, but what seemed like much longer, he complimented me on the assembly and cleanliness, but added at the end that it still looked stupid. LOL… Oh well. We jumped right in and started by removing the rear brakes. The first drum we tried to remove was not at all interested in relinquishing its long-time resting place… noooo big surprise there. Bryan grabbed his puller, that had very obviously preformed with positive results in the past and proceeded to attach it to the hub. I had never seen this style of puller before, so I figured we’d give it a shot. This is the style that can be purchased at several old car parts houses. After a few gack-gack-gacks with the impact, the bolt on his puller began to deflect off the nut that was protecting the threads on the axle and the “pulling ledge” that engages on the groove on the hub, started to shove the opposite direction. Suddenly the voice decided it was a good time to interject… The voice: Weeeeell, this is getting interesting! Me: MmmHmmmm I agreed that the newly acquired issues could be a wee bit dangerous with the mega-forces of tension we had goin on. If the puller decides it doesn’t wanna hang on that hub groove anymore, it’s very possible there will be some mach-3-speed-travelin-metal-bits flyin around the shop. Unfortunately, the drum merely yawned as if we were wasting its time. Needless-to-say, tool removal took place at faster-than-normal speed… with no ill repercussions. To Be cont…
wow Kool story! sorry Brian dose not like your car! i think it looks good, kind of looks like my 29 Roadster. i can relate to you head removal i blew a head gasket between 3 and 4, no compression. i ordered all the parts, and thought i would be on the road in 3 or 4 hr. yaha right. it took me 3 weeks to get the head off. my saving grace was i would get mad and walk away! i did not brake anything, and i got all the studs out also. your work bench looks nice and clean! mine looks like a Bomb went off!
LOL, I hear ya... the "time expected" & "actual time taken" NEVER match up for me! Thanks for the kind words!
Time to get serious, baby! I sauntered over to my toolbox, with full intentions of pulling the ace out of my sleeve. I gave a decent yank on the lowest, biggest, heaviest drawer, and a slight groan emanating from both myself and it. Reaching in, the cold steel of Big Tony immediately found my fingers and a smile curled on the edges of my lips. It was like shaking hands with a good friend that you haven’t seen in some time. Big Tony is my ever-faithful-homemade Ford Hub Submission Specialist. If he could talk, I’m sure a sudo-toughguy yet whimsical, Brooklyn accent would be prevalent. He’s a 3/16" thick pipe that's about 6” long and 3” in diameter... cut lengthwise with ¼” thick steel welded sides and a 1” nut welded inside one end. The little girly “hammer-nut-drum-remover” that Mac’s sells (as a hub removal tool) resides inside of Big Tony and is machined to match the taper of the end of the “pusher”... which is a 1” threaded rod with a nut welded to it. The interlocking tapers do not allow for any side deflection, so it can’t “walk” when it’s doin its thing. The muffler clamps employ the task of holding both halves together when engaged onto the hub, so it can’t deflect like the other puller had tried to do. Sure, you could spend big bucks and just buy a similar one… but it’s much more entertaining to fab one up and then name it… but only after it has proven its worthiness to its maker! Here’s how he does his thing… The girly-hammer-nut is threaded onto the end of the axle, then one half of Big Tony is engaged onto the hub groove and the rod is threaded into the machined end of the nut. Then the other half is installed, and the muffler clamps are fitted around the whole assembly. After that, you just let the impact wrench do the clockwise boogie until Big Tony pops the hub off the axle. Here’s a recreation of how he clamps on. (No hubs were harmed in the making of this shot, nor any other removals) As I brought Big Tony over to introduce him, Bryan’s eyebrows raised and something akin to admiration escaped his lips… “HooHoooo!” I clamped Big Tony into place and with a few good gack-gacks, we were rewarded with a loud POP! Heh heh heh!! Big Tony ROCKS!!!! He obliged us by repeating his amazing feat on the other side and then he was laid back in his home… to patiently wait until another hub thinks it’s gonna kick my ass. To be cont…
Really enjoying this. Your writing skills are as solid as your fabrication. I've had this pinned to my shop wall for years. Something about a Sport Coupe...
"Big Tony" sure looks like a pro, no marks on the victim, and the job got done, word will get out to other axles & hubs. Bob
Beauty tool you whipped up there! Little-Girly-Hammer-Nut worked fine for me tho...and on drums a lot more weathered-in than yours. Surprised me, but being El Cheapo, thought I'd try that first. Lucked out! Lovin yer Build Tale...thanks. Art
Thank you for the kind words! I'm happy that its been a good read for you! That Sport Coupe looks TUFF!!! Great pic!
I'm glad it worked for you... and truth be told, it had worked for me a couple times in the past. Then one time it didn't, and the need for a better puller was born. I'm glad yer liking the thread! Thank you!
Once the hubs & drums where relegated to sit on the bench so they could think about the premeditated dastardly deeds they had planned against us, we proceeded to remove anything that remotely resembled slow-down parts. It was evident that some grease had liberated itself into areas that it shouldn’t be, but other than that, no surprises. Makes for boring stories, but great when you are doin the labor! One very cool thing that we found were the original axle keys were still in great shape! No signs of wear and a bit of the Ford script was still visible on them. And here it is in all its glory... ...and spillin its guts. Right after I took this pic, Bryan reminded me of his favorite part of disassembly and announced his retreat. I have no idea what someone or something filled that rearend with, but I’m here to tell ya… it was the stickiest goo I have ever dealt with! You could touch it with your finger then take a finger from your other hand, touch it to the goo and spread your fingers at least 14” apart and the string between them wouldn’t break! No exaggeration! See all the "stringy" lines on the cardboard? That's from the goo while taking it apart. After several feeble attempts to clean the apparently alien-cargoed goo out of the parts, it was clearly evident that this was gonna call for drastic measures. I scooped the majority of it out and used a whole roll of paper towels and a truck load of rags to get the most I could off of the parts. I left the shop that evening wondering if I was gonna have to sand blast the goo to remove it from my skin and under my nails, but more so desperately wishing for the garage gnomes to really visit me this time. The next morning, I was let down again! The gnomes had apparently blackballed me, as nothing was accomplished! I’m thinking I need to call down to the GUH (Gnome Union Headquarters) and find out just what the hell the deal is! To go along with that, the chilly Sunday temps were enough for me to put on long undies, old jeans, a t-shirt, two sweatshirts and the crappiest boots I owned. My plan started with loading all the parts into my truck and driving to a local place that I knew would have warm-ish, high pressure water, great drains and not a bunch of lookie-loos, thanks to the worshipping populace. A short drive later, I found myself armed with Purple Power in one hand and a small fortune in quarters weighing down my jeans pockets in big lumps. I donned a full body, zip-up white Tyvec suit, earplugs, the big, clear rubbery goggles... like the ones you had to wear in high school chemistry class... and some nasty old leather gloves that extended halfway up my forearms. I maneuvered the Tyvec hood up over my nugget... careful to not accidently tug the elastic strap on my huge googles (in fear of disrupting their already uncomfortable positioning) when I realized this would be MUCH easier if I weren't wearing gloves appropriate for handling trained falcons! UGH! Glove removal commenced, hood positioning completed... then I began to pull the tie strings on my hood, tight under my chin. Now I have a question for you. When is the last time you tried to tie a bow under your chin? Not under your child's chin... YOUR chin. And let's go one better... Now tie that same bow with some 2"-3" chin hair! Lemme tell ya... those are good times! Just as I finished the never-ending bow tying... which, let's be honest... pretty much just turned out to be a knot... The voice: You know you look like Walter White, right? Me: That’s better than lookin like Jessie. (I reasoned) The voice: Touche… But that Purple crap is gonna be just as bad as the stuff they used, if it gets in your eyes. Me: I got goggles on man! I’m the pillar of safety right now. And with that, I started feeding quarters into the ravenous water & suds makin stainless contraption hangin on the wall. To be cont…
Halfway through the 1st page, And most of the 4th, haha. I tripped over this thread earlier, read, some, skimmed some. Sub'd so's I can go back and read it all. You spin a fine yarn my friend.
Fantastic read and pictorial. Just picked up and fairly decent original 29 roadster pickup that has been mechanically restored and amateurly painted. All original steel from what I can see and only real modification is the 12 volt conversion.
Thank you for the kind words! LOL, It has been! I'm glad you are enjoying! Thank you! Sounds like you got a nice one there!
I was reading your description on shock rebuilding and am in a similar situation with my 32’s. I have 13 cores and need to get 4 useable. I have several apart using the bbq method and that is as far as I got not knowing how to proceed. Through hours of research, there is very little information on rebuilding Houdaille shocks. What was your process to clean them ? They share the same rebuild kit that the Model A uses. Luckily all 4 on the Model A look to have been rebuilt and are not leaking.
I agree with you, not a whole lota info out there about rebuilding them. My best advice would be... try to stick with the same inner parts that you removed from each shock body, if possible. There are variances between shocks and sometimes it can prove interesting to get one back together with a mish-mash of parts from different shocks. As far as cleaning them... I first scrapped all the charred stuff out using whatever it took. Screwdrivers, putty knife, little picks... anything. Then after that, 120 grit in the blaster. Some of it is a bugger to get out, so be prepared to stand there for a while. Good luck!!!
A couple of hours later… I wasn’t clanging around as much when I walked, since my pockets were damn near empty of all the quarters that previously weighed me down. My drenched boots contained my cold piggies and squished with every step I took… so unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I was any lighter on my feet. My white Tyvec suit and face (except where my constantly-fogged-up goggles had been plastered) were splattered with dark, black spots and was for the most part, a filthy gray. Surprisingly, my body wasn’t cold anymore tho as the suit had done wonders to block the chill that the winds and mist of water brought. But best of all, the goo-from-another-planet had been thoroughly eradicated and now the wet, dripping parts that filled the bed of my truck were ready for many hours of wire wheeling, blasting, priming and paint. Since very little of that type of work is fascinating for pics, let’s skip ahead to the good stuff, shall we? Whoooooweeeee! What do we have here? Everything cleaned up nicely. Even the sleeve bearings displayed nice, crisp stamping of Ford scripts with no wear detected. Wait… That’s not a Model A spring! Who caught it? Yer absolutely correct! I dug into my stash of experienced parts (aka… rusty shi… stuff) and came out with a Model T spring. And since I brought it up… You ever notice when people refer to their own personal belongings… they always call it stuff. But when it’s someone else’s belongings, they call it shit? “Oh man, Chuck's shit is all over the bench! I'm gonna have to move it so I can put my stuff there." See what I mean? (A little observation morsel that is more often true, than not... from the late George Carlin) Aaaaaanyway… Sliiiight detour (again)… I always see guys posting that you must use a 1926-1927 Model T spring when lowering a Model A… and I never understood why. In search of wisdom, I called my Dad one day when I had a few T rear springs layin on the shop floor. See, he knows waaay more than a thing or three about T's, so it seemed logical to give him a ring. I asked him how I could figure out what springs were from what years... since the ones I had on the floor, all looked pretty damn similar to each other. Well, there's a good reason for that. Stand by for a nickel's worth of free info... From 1909-1927, there are no real differences, dimensionally. Here’s how you can tell them apart… IF (and that’s a BIG if), they have not been tampered with over the last 90-100ish years. The rear spring assemblies on 1909-1925 Model T cars, were comprised of eight leaves per pack. The only difference that 1926-1927 Model T rear springs had was… one more leaf, for a grand total of… nine. (Lookit me, I got math skills fellas!) But we… meaning you, me & the other members of this forum… as a hard & fast rule, always remove a few leaves to get our rides down lower. So, you ask… What difference does it make to get a 26-27 rear spring? None… well, not for the reasons that we use them. Now, there can be a small wrench thrown into the works. There always is, right? On depot hacks and pickups from 1909 -1926 the rear spring pack typically had 10 leaves. Dunno about those vehicles in 1927 tho, sorry. Are there exceptions? I’m sure there are. Am I the Model T rear spring guru and all-knowing be all, end all of facts and figures? Not even close. This is just what my investigation has discovered and will hopefully assist some of you guys broaden your search on springy matters. One last point... the TT’s (heavy duty trucks) rear spring assemblies are totally different and can not be mistaken for the rear springs outlined above. Here are the emergency brake parts and hardware All the original hardware. Cleaned, threads checked, primed and painted. Ready for a few more years of service. Note the four washers next to the spring shackles… more on those later. Next time, we have more fun! Kinda... To be cont…
Thanks for the parts on red shop rags photos, reminds me of Jerry Willet's shop. Jerry was the local OFFY Midget racer, even had a car in the Indy 500. Interesting info on the 26-27 rear spring, makes total sense the 26-27 had dropped spindles up front and tweaking the rear spring would get the back lower to match. don't forget to ad shims front & rear the crossmember spring pocket is wider on the A. Bob
The Jalopy Journal
