22touring

A hub puller for the rear wheels, interior threaded 2-7/16" X 16 TPI. An adapter for your grease gun to go from your car's Alemite lube fittings to a zerk grease gun. A 32-mm bicycle headset (thin) open-end wrench for adjusting the eccentric bushing on the steering wormwheel gear. A small bicycle spanner wrench for crankset chainring bolts, to remove the slotted nut on the starter-generator output connector (or do you have the 2-unit motor?) A medium-sized, short, stubby screwdriver with the end ground to fit into the slotted screw that holds the distributor rotor in position, in order to adjust the ignition timing. A very large screwdriver (a couple of feet long) made of hardened material with its end ground to fit perfectly in the release pocket of your split rims. (Having a screwdriver that fits perfectly into the release pocket will reliably split them and thereby reduce the risk of injury when doing so.) For removing the hubcaps I just use an adjustable hex pipe wrench, although sometimes you can find the original type of pressed sheet metal box-end wrench for sale.

I got the chassis pretty much completed, and am going back to work on the body, which is coming along nicely so far. It would be nice to be able to shoot the color coat within the reasonably near future.

My rear axle seals were leaking pretty badly, and both sets of brakes on both sides were quite oily. However, even though they were oily, they were actually working. I'm going to buy 5 gallons of naphtha from Tractor Supply, and before adding it to my parts washer I'm going to wash all the brake shoes in the clean solvent and call it good. I ordered new axle seals from Myers. Can anybody tell me if there's some trick to installing them? I could find in neither the Book of Instruction nor the Mechanic's Instruction Manual anything about doing it. I also searched for threads on this forum, but couldn't find one that explains how. Could anybody please clue me in? Thanks again.

I'm starting to get a swollen head now that all the DB experts from around the world have chimed into my thread to offer advice on my restoration! Speaking of DB experts, did I ever tell you about the time, back in about 1985, when I bought my touring car after it had been in storage for a long time, I joined the DB Club and saw Bob Scafani's name on the roster? I was then living in Berkeley, CA and Bob lived in the Fremont area, maybe about 25 miles away, so I decided to drive over to his house. The car drove flawlessly there and back, except that the original top tried to self-destruct on the way over, and as I remember Bob and I had to apply a lot of duct tape to prevent further damage on the way home. Here are a couple of pictures from that occasion. It was really a pleasure to meet Bob, and he was extremely helpful to me. Besides which, he's the DB Knowledge King! I'll never be as smart as he is! (OK, I guess that's enough ingratiation; I don't want to overdo it.) However, Bob seems to be rather reclusive. Or maybe he just thinks I'm an idiot. Whichever, my ambition is to have him post a message in this thread, too!

Hi Rodger. I'm glad you joined the discussion. I've got the rear axle and differential assembly all stripped down for sandblasting, but I've got a bunch of other parts I need to blast first. Those 3/4-elliptic rear leaf springs have lots of surface area and take a long time.

Ron Lawson wrote: I was told by an old fella mechanic that you never lubricate the spring leaves Of course our early DB cars have no shock absorbers, so some people don't like to lubricate the spring leaves because creating friction between them reduces rebound. However, it also tends to wear the springs out and sometimes to break them (leaves will get rusted together, and then when you go over a big bump sometime one of the springs will break at that point). I want to keep my springs leaves well-lubricated and in good condition, so I am prepared to tolerate all the rebound.

I took my steering box to an excellent local machinist, who took the slop out of the worm/wormwheel mesh. Everything was in good condition except that the original slots in the brass eccentric bushing did not provide a correct mesh. He cut a new slot in the eccentric bushing and made a new locating pin with an offset. The wormwheel is cut so that at 4 different positions around it, the mesh is about 2 thousandths tighter than on the rest of the wormwheel. The steering is supposed to be centered when the wormwheel is at one of these 4 points. On my steering box, one of those 4 points is better than the others, so I am going to choose that one for the final set-up. Since the drag link is not adjustable in length, I guess the only way to do that is to rotate the wormwheel to the correct position. He also bored out the inner diameter of the second gear on the countershaft to fit the roller bearing countershaft and broached a new keyway in it. He said the gear material was extremely hard, and he had to use every trick in the book in order to machine it. Since the lateral position of the new gear is slightly different from that of the old-type gear, it was also necessary to make a thin shim for the countershaft in order to move the gear into the correct position.

I learned the hard way (by restoring the front leaf springs and making all the mistakes you can make) how to restore leaf springs most efficiently, and am using this method in doing the rear 3/4-elliptic springs: Disassemble the spring and blast all the flat surfaces. Don't try to blast the edges yet because it will waste too much sand and air. Bolt the leaves together. Now blast the edges of the leaves. Hang the assembled spring up, mask the end bushings, prime and paint it. Disassemble it again, paint the bare flat surfaces with liquid graphite and hang the individual leaves up to dry. When the graphite is dry, assemble the spring again.

I figured out what the problem was. Three of the four brake control rods (the rods that run between the differential and the brake spider) had both the 3/16" solid pin and the 3/16" key holding the operating levers to the rod, as Horace Dodge designed it (Horace certainly didn't want to see any DB brake failures). On one of the rods, however, "somebody had already been in there" and had omitted the solid pins when re-assembling, instead using only the keys. At first I couldn't figure out that there was just no pin in there. Those 3/16" solid pins were difficult to pound out. I really had to beat on them to get them loose and was afraid that I might break something. I got the differential, axles, propellor shaft and brake spiders disassembled as much as possible, while taking careful notes and pictures. Now I'm going to sandblast the assembly. I'm going to try to block all the orifices and entry points that might allow sand to get inside the unit. Has anybody else out there ever done this before? Can you give me any advice for keeping the sand out?

Thanks, JayG! But I think maybe you mis-spoke? I want to try to drive it out from the side opposite from the side that is swedged, right?

Upon further clean-up and inspection of the area around where the emergency brake control rods attach to their levers, I can't really figure out what kind of pin or attachment Horace used. I don't really see a pin at all. A .187" pin gauge will go almost all the way through the attachment point, but it won't come out the other side. I really would appreciate it if somebody would tell me the method by which these levers are attached to the emergency brake control rod and how to remove them. Thanks again.

The brake spider assemblies are riveted to the axle, and therefore can't be removed, so in order to remove the brake control rods you must push solid pins out of the levers on the rods and then pull the rods out through the spider assembly. Edit: Correction. The service brake control rods are affixed to their levers with solid pins, but the emergency brake control rods are attached to their levers with roll pins. I was able to get the solid pins out of the service brake control rods OK, but am having trouble removing the roll pins from the emergency brake rods. The roll pins' walls seem to be pretty thin, so apparently you need a hardened steel drift, or another roll pin, of just the right diameter to use as a drift. I don't happen to have another roll pin of the right diameter, but a youtube video that I watched suggested finding an alan wrench of just the right diameter and sacrificing it by cutting the short end off, then filing the long end flat and using it as the drift. I'm going to try that, but I certainly would appreciate it if any of you fellow Dodge Brothers who have disassembled DB brake control rod levers (I know you're out there!) would take pity on me and give me some advice about removing these. Thank you.

I did purchase the new second gear set sold by Myers Early Dodge, and it seems to be very nicely made. The main shaft gear is exactly the same as the one that was already in my transmission, but the countershaft gear, which is intended for the earlier bushed countershaft, has to have its bore enlarged and its keyway broached deeper in order to work with my roller bearing countershaft. The gear set should work well after this machine work is done, though. The only other problem with my transmission was a worn bushing in its square drive input shaft, which I also obtained from Myers. I'm sure hoping that second gear will run quietly now.

Today I'm going to try to remove all of the brake components and the brake control rods from the axle spider assemblies. I sure hope I remember how all this goes back together. Taking lots of pictures. Hopefully I'll be reassembling it in a few days, before I forget. I might have some questions for you all when I reassemble it, however, because I want to get the brakes working well. They never did before, due to error on my part (missing return spring on one side) and mis-adjustment. I also discovered that the tubes on both rear spring seat oil cups were totally blocked with grease and dirt, so none of the oil that I had been putting into them for the last 35 years had been getting to the spring seat as it should have.

It's the George McMurtry DB hub puller vs. the rear hubs that did not want to come off the axle:

I managed to get the engine detailed and installed. Now on to the rear axle and suspension!

Well, shades of the Evans and Dodge bicycle: The small spanner wrenches sold by bicycle tool companies for holding the slotted nut on chainring bolts works perfectly for the slotted nut on the output terminal of a DB starter-generator. Likewise, a (thin) 32 mm. bicycle headset wrench fits perfectly the narrow hexagonal area on the DB steering box for adjusting the worm and worm wheel mesh eccentric bushing.

I need to figure out what to do with my steering box. It has a bit of lost motion no matter where you position the worm wheel, and that free play is definitely noticeable at the steering wheel and is an unwelcome distraction while driving. On cars belonging to other Brothers, I have seen that it is possible to eliminate all of the lost motion between the worm gear and the worm wheel if everything is in good shape and adjusted correctly, so I want the same from my steering box. Only the last two lock slots in the brass eccentric bushing in my steering box mesh anywhere near correctly; the rest of the slots are way too loose. Right now I am using the second-to-last slot, which results in the present lost motion, but when I try to use the last slot it seizes the box up tight. My layman's diagnosis is that the eccentric bushing needs to be re-sized, maybe by metal spraying followed by machining. Your thoughts?

"Yours MAY be on backwards." OMG, I did install it backwards, Doug! Doh! Thanks for pointing that out!

"Is that just the photo or is that tie rod bowed?" Yes, it is bowed, keiser31. I didn't even realize that it is supposed to be straight until you pointed it out. It's been that way ever since I bought the car back in the mid 1980s. The front wheel toe-in seems correct, though.

"Can anybody tell me if my transmission has countershaft bushings?" Master Parts List, page 344: Cars up to 798400 have 2 countershaft bushings, part no. 427. Between car nos. 798401 and 800921, some cars' transmissions have the countershaft bushings and some have Hyatt roller bearings on the countershaft, part no. 16105. After car no. 800922 they all have the Hyatt roller bearings. My car is nol. 807012, so presumably I have the roller bearing countershaft and won't be able to use the second gearset that Myers sells, but I'll have to call the transmission shop on Monday to make sure.

So the Mechanic's Instruction Manual, at page 139, states that the leaf spring shackle bolts should be tightened up and then backed off 1/4 of a turn, but I couldn't find where it discusses the front tie rod pins. Should those be drawn up tight, or backed off a bit after tightening? Edit: I discovered that if you tighten them up too much the steering gets too stiff, so I backed them off just a little bit, until the steering operated freely.

The transmission shop that has torn down the early-style (reverse shift pattern) DB transmission from my late '22 touring car has informed me that I need to replace second gear. Now on the Myers Early Dodge site, I note that they have new second gears available only for early-style DB transmissions that have countershaft bushings (as opposed to countershaft bearings, I assume). Can anybody tell me if my transmission has countershaft bushings? (Of course I could ask the transmission shop this question, but they are closed for the weekend and I would like to order the gear right away, if possible.) Thanks again, everybody.

Thanks, Jack. It might be pipe thread. I'll try some pipe fittings that I've got. Later addition: it turned out to be 1/8" X 27 TPI NPT. I'm guessing that Horace Dodge used pipe threads because they don't need a locking nut.