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1922 Essex resto


Guest RonB

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I am working on a customers car ,1922 Essex tourer ,which was restored in the 1960's. The engine is a Six L head of unknown vintage (maybe a later Essex super six) .Is there a reference online where i determine the type or model of this engine ?.It's nothing like the original and the rear mount bolt holes dont line up with the rear engine plate holes. There are only two bolts in the plate...

Also,it appears that oil pump has been disconnected on the distributor housing. there are two pipes (one joined with a rubber hose) running from the timing case and along side the block on the right side. It was running when it arrived but it all appears dodgy..ha ha.I have replaced the clutch with a single dry plate unit from a Holden Torana (GM Australia) and rebuilt all the pedal bushes to get rid of several cm's of free play. Pics to follow soon.

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You may wish to post an inquiry at the Hudson Essex Terraplane Open Forum http://forum.hetclub.org/ , as this is well-patronized by Hudson and Essex enthusiasts. (There is also an "official" Hudson forum at the Club's website, at Home - Hudson Essex Terraplane Club Site , but you must register in order to read the messages there.) Surely someone can help you determine what you have (and indeed, where you might find "the real thing". As you may already know, the original clutch was a wet clutch, and parts and service are still available for these. Lots of parts -- reproduction, used and "new old stock" -- can still be found for Essexes, but you need to know where to look.

You didn't say where you were located, but if you're in Australia you may know that there is a club for Hudson - Essex enthusiasts there, Hudson-AMC Car Club of Australia Home Page and you may be able to find original-style parts right in Australia for your client's automobile.

Edited by Jon37 (see edit history)
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The early Essex were 4 cylinder cars until 1924 so this '22 in shop is a modified vehicle. The early 4s were considered really great motors! The first generation of the Essex 6 had a very bad reputation and would be a terrible swap choice. Hopefully with some numbers off this engine you will find it to be from the very late '20s or first of the '30s and then it would be fine though still incorrect for the car. The owner has to decide what he is after in the finished product.

You might try getting hold of Jim Scammell near Adelaide and see if he can help with ID. He has an Essex 4 speedster. Whatever happened to the Elliott family farm full of Essex that were well inland from Melbourne? I visited the Elliotts late 1980s -- must have had 2 dozen Essex cars and others.

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I'm in Brisbane which is a similar distance from Melbourne or Adelaide as Canada is to Texas ,ha ha. The car was put together like this about 50 years ago ,and the owners family want all it's odd foibles retained . One thing that has me thinking is the angle that the engine sits at. it appears to be leaning forward. The front uni joint is certainly at a bad angle,so I maybe making a pair of rear mounts to clean up the installation and getting everything looking a bit more tidy. I was born in New Zealand so I saw plenty of Essex in my younger days .Hudsons and Essex's were a big seller in the 20's there because of thier good reputation. i must get these pics done :-)

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  • 3 weeks later...

It took me a few minutes to realize what had happened with this car. hen the six was bolted in,the engine mounts were in the wrong place and it was simply a matter of alining the holes up properly. it now sits correctly. Further investigation has shown that the engine and trans are 1930 units.. a hot rodded Essex....ha ha. We have also found a few missing bits and peices such as the hand brake lever which had been removed because it hit the clutch pedal and gear lever. Easily sorted once the clutch pedal bushes wee replaced and the gear lever pin repaired. it wont be long now and it should be running again,the upholstery has been started and a new wiring loom is being made up today.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i had a look at the distributor and the shaft,cam and drive were basically worn out. I rebushed the housing and reamed the shaft out to the size of the unworn section of the shaft.and made a new shaft . That left the cam. A closer look at the distributor shows that although it is an Autolite branded part,it is in fact an early Bosch design. And because bosch didnt change designs much over the decades, that opened up a few possiblities regarding the cam.

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The Essex dissy is on the left with a six cylinder mercedes dissy on the right.

The points plate is held in place with three screws ,exactly the same as four cylinder mercedes /bosch dissy which i used,the Left hand one with the holes. This meant drilling an extra hole in the side of the housing to fit the power lead for the points. The mercedes points are located a bit further around the plate but are a lot easier to install and have a easy adjustment .

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I had to alter the design of the cam,the mercedes part is longer so I machined the lower part of the cam down slightly and swapped over the weight arm and pins from the Essex part. i didn't shorten the part of the cam where the rotor fits .This was so I could use a Mercedes rotor.

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I used a Mercedes six cylinder cap and rotor ,along with a set of points for a mercedes so all parts are now easy to buy OR the points could be discarded and a Pertronix ignitor installed .

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Edited by RonB (see edit history)
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I spent a few hours yesterday removing the hand brake pins on the backing plates. 80 odd years of wear has seen the little shafts worn out completely,and that was just the hand brake!. Unfortunately those who worked on the car before I took over the task of restoration had ignored the brakes completely .Not a good idea on a car with only rear wheel brakes..... It looks like we will have to lift the body again to remove the brake equaliser system and completely rebush the whole thing.

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  • 2 months later...

Well, brakes are done, (so many clevis pins!!) and the engine is almost ready to refire after the body work is almost finished. What i need to know is..what do the bolt heads for the front fender tie bar and headlight mounts look like? this one has had generric hex bolts on it but they look pretty hokey.

Cheers! :-)

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