Sloth

Hello, Joe and Allan, thank you for your reply. I leave the nut as is, that is with out the slit. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, It does not look like a mechanical failure. I can see traces of a slitting saw, so I guess it was intentionally cut. Regards, Harm

Hello, Today I made the adjusting nut for the pinion bearing. I had a nice piece of CrNiMo6 lying around, cut a slice and went turning. After threading and drilling the small holes for the spanner, I milled the small slots on the circumference of the nut. Just a question: the original nut is slitted on one side. I don't understand why is that done, any ideas??? Upper nut is the original, a bit busted that is. Lower nut the new one. Same as above but the other side, I don't understand the function of the slit. I test fitted the nut into the pinion bearing case, it fits good. But the access port is just 1/4" to small, no room for a spanner. Easy milling job for tomorrow. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, You are right, close and personal with the grinder. I have a number of small grinders and a lot of different grinding burrs. The only thing about using them is, you need to be really careful. They remove steel very fast.... But anyhow it takes a lot of time to do it right. Regards, Harm

Hello Joe, Thank you very much, never thought about it. I just ordered the Allen screws, makes assembling much easier. Regards, Harm

Hello, Last Saturday I replaced the fan of the welder, the new one fitted very well. The new fan (behind the yellow wire, just above the wheel) I started with the welding of the ribs onto the body, that went well. After that, I tidied the welds. That took the better part a the Saturday and today. I am happy with the result, much better than the original..... 😉. I drilled the holes for the rivets. Also drilled the holes and threading them (UNC 1/4") for the lid of the access port for the pinion bearing adjusting nut. Tried a test fit of the pinion bearing and the third member tube, they fit well. I think the tube needs some persuasion (shop press) to get it in to the end. There is on thing left to manufacture, the pinion bearing adjusting nut and a new lid for the access port (missed one ear). The original nut is badly scored, previous owners used a cold chisel or something like that, to adjust the pinion bearing. I hope to make the nut this week and the special spanner for adjusting the nut. Next thing to do, is riveting the third member tube; one end into the pinion bearing case, the other end into the gearbox. Have to figure out how to do that. Regards, Harm

Hello all, @ Al & Terry, thank you for your kind words. I have not yet worked on the Marmon gears, till now I have 44 hours into drawings and manufacturing of the case. Still some work to do. No welding today. I started early this morning but after a few minutes the welder started smoking. After dismantling the welder, it seems that the fan had given up the ghost. Ordered an identical one at a computer hardware store, they promised I will receive it tomorrow morning. I own an old ESAB welder, I guess its 30 years old. So, I am not complaining or using strong language 😇. Regards, Harm

Hello, Continued with the pinion bearing case. Welded the main body to the flange and tidied the welding. Furthermore drilled the holes for the studs, this took more time than I thought. Some of the studs are slightly off center. A lot of filing and some welding to correct the holes, but now it fits very nicely on the rear axle mounting flange. Also I made the strengthening ribs. I don't think they are needed, but I add them as the they are on original casting. Friday I hope to weld the ribs, then only two jobs are left. Drilling the holes for the rivets, and drilling and threading the holes for the adjusting port lid. Small rib (still to be welded) The ribs at the under side of the case (still to be welded). The protruded bushings sitting a bit proud, have to lower them a bit. Regards, Harm

Hello Joe, Today I continued with the main body. I milled a flat on the body and welded (TIG) a small piece flat of cold rolled steel (3 x 3 x 1/4") on it. After cleaning up the weld, I milled the access port in it. I measured very carefully the dimensions per original casting. Milling the access port went well, I did not touch the inner thread for the pinion bearing adjusting ring and the end of the smaller inner part. After that I welded the flat part onto the main body (as far as possible). After cleaning up with a small mill, I started to make the flange. First removed as much as possible steel from the square slab of steel (8 x 8 x 3/4"). After turning the inner hole, I threaded it (16 tpi). It fits nicely on the main body 😅. Main body with the pinion bearing adjusting access port. Threaded flange. Pinion bearing case try fit of the flange. Monday I will continue with the flange, chores left: turning the outer circumference of the flange, drilling the mounting holes, welding the flange to the main body and cleaning up the welds. Regarding the welding, first I tried to braze a few scrap pieces with the same thickness of steel. The problem I encountered: I could it not get it hot enough to obtain a nice flow of the silver/bronze braze material. What to do, asking a welding shop (5 weeks waiting) ? So I decided to weld it using tig, welding a small part each time and let it cool and then continue with the next part. Regards, Harm

Hello all, Today I continued with the main body, turning went well (knee deep in curls and swarf...). I threaded the flange end of the main body, will do the same with the flange. Tomorrow hope to continue with the adjusting box. Main body of pinion casing Regards, Harm

Hello Al, That could be very well possible, I use no coolant (too messy). The second piece of steel turned much nicer than the first, it seems that the first piece was a bit tougher. Yes, I also am very curious what the heating cost will be. At this moment we have moderate temperatures, so I can not say much about it. Regards, Harm

Hello all, Last week I completed the installation of the heath pump. It took more time than I liked, but is the system is 'up and running' and working to spec. Lets see how it behaves the next months. The cost of LNG is still very high (1m3 that is 35.4 cf sets us back $ 2,02). Oakland progress: The task I set my self to, is to manufacture a new pinion bearing 'casting' made of mild steel. I will assemble it from 3 separate parts: the main body, the small box for adjusting the bearing, and a large flange. I started last Saturday with a big lump of mild steel S355 (USA A572 Gr. C) to turn the main body from it. Continued Monday, everything went well, but when I drilled through the steel, halfway with a loud bang the drill (1,5" dia) snapped off. So the part was ruined. I left it in the lathe as it was, thinking why this happened and what to do to save the part. Yesterday morning, I removed the remaining part of the drill. Put the part back into lathe and tried to clear up mess left by the broken drill. But I quickly discovered a very hard piece of 'something' embedded into the steel. First thinking its just a left behind piece of the broken drill. But after using a pneumatic grinder, wearing out the small grinding wheel quickly, I gave up and dumped it into the scrap bin. Remaining part of the day, Ann and I watched the funeral ceremonies of Queen Elisabeth II. The original 'welded' part Drawing of the main body (dimensions are metrical). The red lines show the large flange, this will be a separate part. The small adjusting box drawing will be finished after the completion of the main body. The reason for this is that I have to take some dimensions of the main body, as the I made the whole thing a bit more sturdy. Heavy piece of steel 10" long and 4 1/2"diameter. The result of today's effort. Started today -Tuesday- early with a new piece of steel, cut from a different rod. The machining went very well, no hard parts or contamination what so ever (wonder if the first part was really s355...). Managed to turn the screw thread for the bearing adjusting ring and bearing cavity. As a lot of metal had to be removed, it took the whole day to complete the task. But so far I am happy. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, Thanks for the update, all is well with Ann and me. But regrettably no car restoring activities. Well Al, you hit the nail on its head, work, work and more work. During the last 6 weeks or so, I am very busy installing an air to water heat pump. The reason for all this: at this moment in time our natural liquid gas costs are outrageous -and still going up-. This is, as you may know, mainly triggered/caused by the war between Russia and the Ukraine. Long story short, Ann and I calculated how many years it will take, to break even with going all electric, starting with an investment in a heat pump, against still using Natural Liquid Gas. Even a worst case calculation, showed we will break even within 4 years (best case 2.5 years). Furthermore, our government hands out a nice subsidy for stimulating the use of air-water heath pumps, this helped us a lot to decide for an air-water heath pump. As we have low temperature floor heating, a low temperature (95F) water supply system is ideal for us, as there are no adjustments needed. We wanted to have the system up and running before October. So we started with a shopping list, with the intention to buy as soon as possible the heath pump, tubes, fittings and other stuff. Big disappointment, heath pumps are at the moment very hard to come by (there is something going on in China....) Delivery time would range from December 2022 to April 2023. We found one shop who sold Italian heath pumps. And lo and behold, within two days we got it on our door steps 🥰. Italian?, well the sticker on the front says so, but the internals are high quality Japanese/Chinese 😉, as found in many other well known brands. Isolated flex tubes, the same problematic story, but luckily we found a shop who could deliver within 4 weeks. Fittings and so on, I needed 7 different shops to get the stuff, last Saturday we received the last order. But now we are on our way to complete the installation. An other related activity, was the preparation of the fuse box. As we have 3 phase 25Amp/230V (400V between the phases) electrical supply, balancing the power distribution over the 3 phases was in order. This took one whole week, starting with electric power consumption calculations, and distribute/balancing them over the 3 phases. On the end I re-did all the wiring at the fuse box. Extra complication are the solar panels, they also must be distributed over the 3 phases. The weather: the last 2 month were extremely hot and dry, no rain to speak of for two month. So our garden is yellow and brown, many plants not looking well. According to the weather forecast, Wednesday and the days there after we will have some rain. The farmers in our neighborhood are full of sorrows, as the maize and grass do not look good (short, small and a low nutritional value). Potatoes, same problem, much to small and a meager harvest. Our harvest of prunes was OK but apples not. The harvest of pears, this is an all time high, good quality and very tasty. Same for the tomatoes and peppers (ouch).... Zucchini, too many and later on, too big, Rhubarb to our amazement still growing, we harvest a little a week (never happened before). But now we hope for rain and lower temperatures, today again 89F (sigh). 2022 presented us with the hottest summer in 500 years (speaking for myself -that period of extreme temperatures not to be repeated during my life time-😰 ). In between I ordered the steel for the pinion case, collected it last week. Last year I ordered the same steel (37 Lbs) cost: $1.47 / lbs now I have to pay $2.97 / lbs. Inflation is hitting us badly. I must admit that I would be very happy to continue with the Ford and the Oakland as soon as possible. Regards, Harm

Hello all, At last I have something positive to report. Today I received the ring and pinion gear I bought from Durocar. The ring gear has exactly the same dimensions as the Oakland gear and that includes the mounting holes. Most remarkable as this set was made for a 1910 Marmon. The pinion is a bit larger than the original. But as I have to make a new pinion gear casting anyway, I can accommodate the dimensional differences. Also I must make a new third member shaft, for the new pinion I need 1.377" instead of 1.26". That also means an larger pinion bearing. So for now: back to the drawing board to make the final drawings for the pinion gear casting. Regards, a very happy Harm

Hello all, Spend the last weeks preparing the Flanders20 for a trip to Germany. We just returned from this 6 day Brass Car reliability tour. Very nice, but at temperatures of 77 to 94F, a bit on the hot side. Some stretches included some steep hills, our Flanders20 became hot, about 160 to 170F just not boiling.....For Ann and me, also just not boiling, luckily Germany has a good supply of beer😋, we needed that stuff and a lot of it. Remarkably, one of the German participants drove a 1911 Oakland model 30. He told me he had a lot of trouble with the clutch..... which was 'updated' with Kevlar friction plates glued on the bronze plates. That 'improvement' broke the tail end of his gearbox and the third member cast iron tube end. Well, well, we saw that before didn't we 😀. He had it repaired at considerable cost. I observed a not so smooth take off.... Later at the evening, I showed him my Oakland saga, and advised him to bring the clutch back to original and use the prescribed oil. He told me that he had a second Oakland model 25 with the same problems as mine, that one also has the 'improved' clutch plates. I asked him what his plans are for that one. He told me he was sick and tired of it, ring, pinion and bearings are junk also some gears at the gear box must be replaced. The car is now collecting dust in his garage. Oakland matters: I figured out how to adapt the Oakland differential and Ford ring and pinion gears. I made a mock up of a set of worn out Ford ring and pinion gears. Well long story short, it can be done but this solution did not make me happy at all. Restoring a car means (for me) to stay as close as possible with the original design. So after a lot of thinking I started to scour the AACA and HCCA forums again. Lo and behold I found an add at the Marmon forum, where a ring and pinion are for sale. I contacted the seller, and asked for dimensions. It seems the ring gear has the same dimensions as the Oakland. Only the pinion outer dimension is a bit larger. I made a drawing, and there is just a bit of adjusting needed to make it fit. I ordered the set and hope it will arrive within a few weeks. BTW the ratio is 3.31 to 1, the original Oakland ratio could be 3.54 or 3.00 to 1. So it is in between, not bad at all. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, Send you a PM. Regards, Harm

Hello Joe, Thank you for your offer. But, I already found tapered roller bearings who can be used for this application (95 x 55 x 30mm). They are reasonably priced $42,- each. I need to make some adapters for the outside ring and also for the inside ring. But those I had to make anyhow, because of the position of the bearings on the hubs and the axle trumpets. Later on I will show a drawing and pictures of it. And yes, the adjustment has to be done with shims (the same as the Ford model A axle). It is a semi floating axle, with substantial shafts 35mm. One observation: some of the dimensions of this Oakland are metric (mm). I know that the designer of the car mr. Brush stayed in France for some time, maybe that is the reason? Regards, Harm

Hello, This morning I read a lot about adjusting the Ford Model A rear axle. Ford used for the differential hubs and the pinion, tapered roller bearings. Using the tapered roller bearing for the pinion is no problem. BUT, the Oakland axle uses Hyatt spiral roller bearings for the differential hubs. I measured the radial play 1/64", and that is more than I expected. It seems to be not much of a problem for the original Oakland ring and pinion gear, but I think it is not acceptable for a spiral ring and pinion set up (forces in the wrong direction). Replacing the Hyatt bearings by Timken tapered roller bearings is quite possible, there is sufficient space into the axle trumpet. Adjusting the spiral ring and pinion with the Hyatt bearings seems impossible to me. Gentlemen what is your opinion about this matter? Regards, Harm

Hello Bloo, Good point, adjusting can be quite a job. I will use the ring and pinion gear of the Ford model A, I will also use the pinion bearing (size is the same as the Oakland pinion bearing). Looking a bit better into this matter I expect that I can use the Ford rear axle adjustment rules for this modified Oakland rear axle. On the end of the day, the construction of both the Ford and the Oakland axles will be technically the same (applies only for the differential). Using the Ford bearing has the advantage that I can set the preload as described in the Ford manual. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, There are no modifications necessary on the carrier hub. On the ring gear, may be new mounting holes could be drilled ( not so sure now if really needed). I use the spacer as an adapter to use the original mounting holes on the differential hub and the new mounting holes on the ring gear. To find the 'sweet spot', that can be done by adjusting the pinion by means of original adjusting rings located in the gear box and the pinion bearing casting. Furthermore the position of the ring gear can be adjusted by putting shims behind the differential hub bearings. But I have to dig a bit deeper into that matter. Regards, Harm

Hello, For the time being, the results of my research are positive, conclusion: it can be done. I will use the Ford model A ring and pinion gear set. There are a number of reasons for it: Readily available in a number of ratios, I need the 3.54 to 1 (Oakland ratio 3.53 to 1) Moderate cost The outside diameter of the Ford pinion bearing = 80mm (Oakland 80mm) The Ford pinion can be mounted on the end of the drive shaft Bearing nuts will fit into the Oakland pinion bearing casting The Oakland bearing retainer can be redesigned so that I can use the original Oakland method of adjusting the pinion bearings The Land Rover ring and pinion set are also usable. But the pinion has a short stub axle with a number of splines. Mounting the stub on the driveshaft, straight and sturdy, will not be easy. Both ring gears have roughly the same outside dimension 8.8" and 8.2". Pinions are about 1 3/4". After some calculations: The pinion bearing casting should be about 1 1/8" longer on the inside to bring the smaller Ford pinion in contact with the ring gear. An 11/16" ring should be made and put between the differential hub and the ring gear to bring the smaller ford ring gear in contact with the pinion. A new drive shaft should be made about 1 1/8" longer. I looked into the matter of rotation direction. The Ford ring gear is mounted on the right side of the axle (as seen from the front of the Ford automobile), and the ring gear of the Oakland on the left side. That could mean that the Ford ring gear in the Oakland would rotate in the wrong direction, and would wear out prematurely. But as the Oakland engine rotates counter clock wise, the gear will rotate in the advised direction, so no problem here. First thing i will do, making a mock-up to see if my assumptions are right. Regards, Harm

Hello gentlemen, @Joe: the pinion is mounted on the full length drive shaft. The drive shaft goes into the gear box and carries 2 gears who drive the drive shaft. The drive shaft runs through the third member tube (torque tube). The pinion can be adjust by a threaded ring in the differential hub and a threaded ring into the gear box. That means that the drive shaft is fixed between these two threaded rings. Using shims would make adjustment quite a chore... Gentleman, thank you very much for your reactions, very inspirational, it gives me a lot to think about. This morning I managed to disassemble the rear axle. As I saw earlier the ring gear has a lot of welded teeth, its done very neatly but as can be seen on the picture some pinholes a visible. I must admit that don't like welds with pinholes. Oakland ring gear and pinion. Back side of the ring gear. Detail some of of the ring gear teeth. Left side of the differential hub (looking from the front of the car). This afternoon I will research which ring and pinion replacement can be used without a lot of mechanical work (relatively speaking) 😉. Regards, Harm

Hello Joe, Yes, the carrier has a threaded ring inside exactly as you thought. It adjusts the bearing up and down to obtain the ideal teeth contact pattern. I salvaged this ring, but a p.o. botched it very badly. I guess the adjustment of the pinion can be done by shims. Regards, Harm

Hello Al, Called 2 companies who are making gears. Non of them are willing to make it. So that calls for plan B. Regards, Harm