History Grandpas el mirage roadster recreation p.r.c

Actually, it's "You're only as old as the one you feel"!

 

Sorry for no more pictures me and my employees are hard at it with yard work. Elves are working on the car since im working so hard on the lawn Man if only you guys could see what the elves are doing....

 

They almost got it back on the ground. One crawled all the way up inside the axel tubes and hammered in new seals for me.

 

That lawn work must really be gettin' your goat!

 

I see you have "Ol Smokey" helping on the Deuce chores.

He's already hanging the cowl of the Deuce, He'll leave the grass cutting for "the Ol Goats". .

 

Well iv been thinking hard for a few days on making a seal installation tool for the seals that go all the way deep inside the rear axel housings. I couldent find one so just like back in the day I have been putting a few hours in on my lathe. Kinda of cool I'm using my 1946 Logan to make tools to work on cars older than my lathe. I have no idea of what a tool to do this even looks like as i could not find one on the internet. Someone said macs sells them but could not find one on their web site. So I hope y'all will like mine. I should have it finished up here by noon. So I made a guide that fits snug to the pinion side of the tube and a guide for the brake side. Then I made a holder the same size as the axel to hold the seal in place so it won't fall off in the tube. Then I machined two end mill holes in each side of the seal holder to press in a 5/8 bar of stainless. So front of seal holder and rear will have pressed in bar stock. Line up guides and press in seal all done. Where's my trophy....

 

So it's 11:30 and tool is done. Time to go get a burrito... Works really good too. Just a little tap tap with the ol lead hammer and set her home. I also thought about putting threads on the brake set of the tool and then drilling and pinning the seal retainer. Then make up a nice large wing nut style nut to use the thread to pull the seal in insted of hammering it. I will probly do this to it later. Lunch time

 

it's been 3 hours bubba...how many martini's do you take at lunch

 

3 hours you must be one if those east coast guys my clock is at 1 right now. Martinis? Don't you have to be like over 60 to drink Jin. Yuck. I'm a rye whiskey kind of guy. But no drinkie when workie... Beer maybe but it's to hot in California to even drink during the day for me. Vodka cranberry

 

Nice Job! You're kind of like me - I just have a small lathe and milling machine . . . nothing special at all - BUT, they have sure saved me a TON of times in making up stuff just like this. Keep the work going and update me on what you've decided to do with the engine build?

D

 

Now that everything is so fresh and so clean clean. I will put it all back together tomorrow bright and early. I can't wait to get it back under the car. I still have not seen the car outside of my garage and I'm going crazy. I need to see how it's gonna sit. NOTE: if you have never tore apart a banjo rearend and you are gonna do it yourself DO NOT CLEAN the threads with a tap, or a thread clean up tool. Ford and many other car parts that have holes with threads tapped into fluids, the threads have a lot tighter tolerances to help stop the fluid from leaking past the threads . If you run a tap into them you could cause leaks. Just thought y'all would like to know that. Learned that long time ago from wise ol man.... He told me only if the threads are beat up to do that but then clean clean clean and use RTV silicon. Use should use alittle RTV anyways.

 

Thanks dale yea my lathe and mill are small but you know what they say, it's not how big the tool is, it's how you use it I will be talking with you soon. My goal is to finish up the rest of the car by the end of June. And then have July and August to finish the motor. You know machine shops and their time frames. Lots of work to do. I'm talking off the hole week of the la roadster show so I will have sat-Thursday to get a lot more done then it's on the trailer for the show. Swapmeet area that is Not for sale of course just so friends from all over can take a look. It will be good times..

 

Almost done with rear end I'm working on my fav. Spider-Man work bench...

 

So with .005 axel housing gaskets on both sides I end up with .006 pinion to drive gear backlash. So now I can take it back apart and seal it up. I have to be careful here to get the sealant in the right spot so it does not mess with my backlash. I will post pictures of where to put the sealant.

 

So I took it back apart again and again wiped all surfaces with lacquer thinner on towels. I added a small bead of RTV sealant around just the edge of the housing lip. It's basically a press in fit so as long as you seal that area it can't leak. Then I put the gasket on and add alittle more to the edge of it and that helps keep in place. You must also seal the bolts as they can leak. With the right housing on I reach inside and run my finger around the press in edge to smooth the sealant and I also put sealant in the holes of the bolts. The bolts don't go out of the holes so you can also put sealant on the end of the left side too. Then same on the left and bolt it back up. If it leaks drive it of a cliff and call it a day.

 

If its not leaking its out of oil . Amazing build and story to go with it.

 

Top tip about the threads. The banjo on my old 36 didn't leak as there was no oil in it. I pulled it apart to check it was ok (it was), cleaned it all up and, guess what? It leaked until it ran out of oil again! You win some, you lose some!

 

Can't wait to see it at the swap meet....Like the work bench......cover

 

"With great power comes great responsibility"

 

Looking good Bruce,
Digging all of the progress, Now I've gotta catch up .

 

That's the great thing about rtv. You can use a very small amount of it and go a long way. Because of its...for lack of a better word..."smoosh-ability", a small amount will seal without significantly effecting you pinion settings.

Sent from my SM-G360V using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Roger that, all ready done over and out. The seal that goes behind the spedo gear in the torque tube is the same size as the two axel housing seals that I made the tool for. Lyo 28004 is the cheap seal from your early ford stores online or a national part number is 450044. I found nationals that were made in USA wow.

 

He means the new-fangled seals that guys put at the rear of the torquetube now. Keeps the rearend lube in the rearend when you have more rake than Ford intended.

 

Anybody got any pictures of this seal???

 

I don't have a picture, but there's a couple of threads on them here.

Here's one to get you started: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/torque-tube-gear-oil-baffle.382166/

 

I see. It's to late for that I already got the torque tube on. Grandpa didn't have that so I'm sure I will be ok. I think a lot of that has to do with over filling with gear oil anyway. It is designed to seep through that's why there's a return oil hole. For a car that is lowered or a z'd frame with a straight torque tube I can see the problem there. But this cars not gonna be that low. It goes have a reversed eye rear spring and in running 9 leafs. So it will be alittle lower that stock. I will make a note of this type of seal in case I have a problem later down the road.

 

So got alittle more work done. Had to put the seal installation tool back in the lathe to cut it down about .040 smaller than the seal to use it as a torque tube seal installer as well. Got it done put the torque tube on and safety wired her home. Tomorrow I will finish it put the radias rods, brakes, wheels on and get it back under her to roll her out and get that long over due money shot......

 

Great progress Bruce, it's getting done!!!!

 

Bruce,
Now you got this awesome story of rounding up original parts to replicate your Gramps El Mirage runner crossed over into a great build thread too! Sure doesn't get any better than that. You sure know how to keep us old guys smiling.
Great job, by the way!