Nate Dort

JoVal said they couldn't cut bevel gears, and recommended a place in TN. I sent them and a couple other places an inquiry, we'll see if any are willing to take on a small job like this.

Thanks, I appreciate you looking. The ones I'm seeing on ebay are also "taller" in the flat-to-thread distance. The ones on the front springs are taller, but these rear brackets are about half as tall. This might be the excuse I need to finally buy a welder.

There was a lot of cross-pollination between Dort and Gardner, for some reason. Same Lycoming K engines, same ignition systems, and apparently the same rear end. I'm going to try a few other shops. If that doesn't pan out, I may be forced to model it up in CAD and having it 3D printed in steel with the SLM method. Apparently sintered differential gears are a thing, so I suppose this could work, assuming it's hardened properly.

Good idea. I'll edit the thread title accordingly, maybe get some more eyes on it. It's a Flint / Walker-Weiss Axle with Brown-Lipe gear assembly. The spider gears are stamped "4064" Dimensions: Diameter: 2.64" Inner Diameter: 0.75" Thickness: 0.93" Tooth width at thickest point: 0.31"

About 0.8"

The spider gears in the rear end of my 1920 Dort are totally shot. I took them to a local gear specialty shop, but they couldn't cut a 12-tooth gear this size and orientation based on the charts for their 1940s Gleason machines. He said he didn't know of any other gear shops in the state that could do it. Maybe somebody with a 5-axis mill, he said, but he wasn't sure. Anybody know of a shop that can cut straight tooth spider gears like this?

Looking for a leaf-spring U-bolt, shaped and sized similar to the photo below. This is for my 1920 Dort, but I don't necessarily care where it comes from as long as it's somewhat similar in shape. My other one snapped the thread when I was trying to loosen the rusted nut. I'll buy one or two, if you have a matching set. Two inches wide between posts. I'm sure somebody here has something like this in their stash of parts.

Thanks Jeff. My 1927 Dyke's manual removed that section, likely because it was out-of-date and the company had folded by that point. I have a similar diagram of the Dort Connecticut system from the Standard Auto-Electrician's Manual, but it doesn't have nearly as much written description, so that is helpful.

There's a felt seal in front of it. I'll likely replace that with a modern neoprene seal.

Spent most of the weekend degreasing and disassembling the rear axle. I made a DIY hot tank with a trash can and my natural gas burner that I typically use for homebrewing. The small parts went into the ultrasonic cleaner: I need to figure out what to do about these spider gears. There's gotta be something off-the-shelf out there that will fit, but it's going to be hard to figure that out. I'll likely end up having new ones machined. Somebody had also gone a little crazy on the pinion end of the torque tube at one point. This tapered bearing sits in adjustable "sleeve," for lack of a better term, which is used to adjust the pinion-to-ring gear engagement. Everything still rolls pretty smoothly, but I'd still feel better about replacing that Timken 348 bearing. I also need to replace the "propeller shaft steady bearing" inside the third member yoke. It's a Babbitt bearing, but it's currently in pieces. I guess the model T guys replace these with brass/bronze.

Thanks, I should have known.

These rear fenders are mounted on my 1920 Dort, but they're obviously not original to the vehicle. Anybody recognize them?

I thought I would be working on stitching the broken section of crankcase back together these past few weeks, but Lock-n-Stitch is still backordered on the threaded pins that I need, even after telling me otherwise and shipping the rest of my order. It has been 7 months. They're saying May 1, but I'm not holding my breath. Getting any answers out of them has been like pulling teeth. Lots of miscommunication and ignored emails and phone calls. I'm pretty unhappy with the whole experience, but I don't really have an alternative. In the meantime, I started looking at the rear end this weekend. Pulled the wheels and the right side looked OK, at least mechanically. Left side was caked with grease inside. The brake liners are obviously shot and need to be replaced, but I already knew that. I then tried to drain the fluid from the differential, but there wasn't really any fluid to speak of. There were, however, a couple of larger chunks of metal that came out with the drain plug, so I decided to pull the whole rear end. The torque tube came off easily enough, and the pinion gear looked good. Inside the differential was a different matter... Nearly every tooth is broken on the spider gears. Side gears look OK, as does the large ring gear, but I'll inspect them closer once I get the whole thing disassembled.

More photos and some history on that car here: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1299545 Based on the catalog number written on the photos (78-xxxx), and the fact that the vehicle was donated in 1978, makes me think that these photos were taken in that year.