21raceabout

Tim is having a little trouble logging in so asked me to post this on his behalf: The #11 with the 2 guys in it also appears in a photo on David Greenlees' web site, "Old Motor". It's an action shot clearly showing the radiator with that distinctive 11 on it. Much dust, and a big tree right next to the track. No ID as to when or where. I think I have seen a small image of this scene in a book, cannot find it now. The car clearly is a 1911 Raceabout. ID features of the 11's are the longer spring shackles on the front of the rear springs, and the flat spokes in the steering wheel. These spokes were reinforced with a rib on the bottom starting (probably) with the 1912 cars. I say "probably" because Mercer made many running changes in their cars in the early years. The car has Continental rims, and cowl light brackets. Both indicate a stock car. A special race car would have quick-detachable rims and no lights. I wish I could read the license plate on the front axle! I have the photo of the 2 guys in the car, have no idea who or when. I do know that Wishart first drove a Mercer when he was hired by Mercer at Elgin in August 1912. He was assigned to a 1912 Raceabout. The surviving photographs of Mercer race cars show that they never ran last years Raceabouts The had new ones every year. As for the Laviolette photo, the only record I have found shows him setting a new lap record at Springfield MA on 25 July 1914 in a Raceabout. He also won a 3-mile race there that day. The Raceabout #11 in that photo is a 1911. The Continental rims, flat steering wheel spokes, and cowl light brackets all indicate a stock 1911 car. And isn't that motorcycle an Excelsior twin?

Contacted Tim Kuser, he will be signing into the forum with some additional info.

Seems to me the best source to answer this question would be Fred Hoch at Schaeffer & Long in Magnolia NJ. He does not do email or internet.

I will forward a link to Tim Kuser.

Last year had front end shimmy problem at a discrete speed in one of our antiques (not Buick). In our case it turned out to be non-OEM sized wheel bearing on front passenger side was loosening up (slightly). Unfortunately OEM size bearings are no longer available so stuck with the cobbled solution; just need to keep an eye on them now that they stay "tight". Agree with comment above that could be any number of things are slightly loose and/or out of alignment.

Relative to the discussion on roller lifters, on our '15 C-25 project the originals were worn out. We ordered hardened drill guides custom made to order (ID, OD and width) for the rollers and off-the-shelf drill rod for the roller axles, both from McMaster-Carr. First shot shows grinding down the ends of the roller axles, second shot the shows the new parts ready for intallation.

Mr Hammer - The Marvel Carb arrived today. I appreciate the careful packaging. It is exactly as you described. Pleasure doing business with you. THANK YOU!!!

I've been running a NAPA 7212 6V commercial battery in my cars and very happy with both the perfomance and longevity. I keep them in heated space over the winter.

KLF - Front/side views from a few years ago. Cosmetically she is a bit rough with a poorly applied paint job guessing from 60+ years ago and has original leather seat backs and cushions in the back, but she runs great so gets used often. Our Raceabout may come out of hibernation this weekend.

Gotta love it when your 100 yrs old car fires up on the first attempt after it's long winter sleep. Took a ride yesterday to hunt down some essential local provisions. Traffic very light as all the beaches and hotels here remain closed.

One option would be to look into Fastenal as a cheaper alternative for shipping rather than say UPS. Fastenal uses their empty trucks returning from making deliveries to their store network to daisy chain shipments for hire. Container has to be firmly secured to a pallet. Weight limit is something like 1500lbs. Pickup and delivery is at your local store on each end. I used them to ship my engine to Harkin-Arcola in Minnesota from Maine and back. Good luck and stay healthy.

Or modify a HSS lathe cutter with a dremel cutoff wheel and make a series of concentric rings in a piece of cast iron rod after first turning and tapping the other end.

This is what the knob looks like on a 1915 C-25.

We acquired a 1915 Buick C-25 "next-to-the-barn" find back in 2017 that is now nearly back to running condition. It did not have it's original Marvel model E-2 carb when found, rather a period late teens aftermarket Webber Model C carburetor. This carb was made in Boston; it is not the European Weber brand (with one "B") . Does anyone have any experience using one of these units...advantages? issues? Thanks much in advance for any insight.

The photo is of a Mercer Raceabout with a 300 cubic inch 4 cylinder "T" head engine (intake and exhaust valves operate vertically on opposite sides of the cylinders). The Runabout model was a bit more "civilized" with a cowl and doors. The Raceabout of this vintage is highly coveted by enthusiasts today and is one of, it not the most valuable cars of this era. The Raceabout was, as apparent by the photo, a very racy affair, low slung and powerful, that most experts consider to be America's first sports car. Owners could take their new Mercer off the showroom floor, remove the fenders and go racing with the expectation of winning - just as your grandfather appears to have done. The grandfather of former NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon ran his Raceabout known at the "Gordon Special" in races on the West Coast. It's designer, Findley Porter, once said that "we built racing cars for the street". It was hand built in Trenton NJ by the Mercer Automobile Company which was backed by the Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge fame) and Kuser families. If you have any other pictures or memorabilia I'm sure we would all like to see it.

Work is progressing on our 1915 C-25 project. Ran into a question about the condenser on the Delco M.G.56 motor generator. The original condenser was in tough shape and failed electrical tests. I was able to procure one similar (original P/N according to parts book was 10860, whereas replacement I acquired is 10861) It looks like the replacement has a different wiring set-up compared to the original. According to the original wiring diagram, one lead attaches to the timing contacts after the resistance unit (coiled wire shielded by metal cover) and the other lead goes to ground. (Remnant of the original wire is still attached to the timing contacts in the photo). The replacement condenser is wired directly to the resistance unit metal cover, although the wire actually being too short to reach. The gound wire is also intact. Thinking I need to remove the part of the wire with the metal cover attached and splice in a new wire to reach the timing contacts. Anyone know exactly where the ground wire attaches? (under the upper left hand screw of the condenser unit?). As always any comments or even photos much appreciated.

The 9th annual Mercer Associates meeting will take place at Hershey Fall Meet on Thursday, October 10th, at 3pm in the Red Field spaces RWN/RWM 20-25. As in the past, the meeting is an informal gathering for owners of Mercer automobiles and honorary members of the Mercer Associates. Looking forward to catching up with all of you on the news from the past year.

Cleaned up th oil pump on my 1915 C-25 project and was disappointed to find heavy wear on the bronze gear (ID and OD), shaft (which appears to be integral with the housing) and the housing itself. How a pump which is supposed to be immersed in oil has so much wear is a bit of a mystery. I studied up on geared pumps and it would appear that the pump still delivered pressure because as the bronze gear shifted away from the steel driving gear, it's OD continued to rub on the housing resulting in tight clearance preventing by-pass leakage. This wore ~0.050" off the OD of the gear. If I true up the shaft and put a bushing into the ID of the bronze gear, to re-establish it's original center, that will open up the clearance between the (worn) bronze gear and (worn) housing, losing pump effiiency (proportional to the gap cubed... similar to the importance of minimizing blade tip clearance in a turbo-fan engine). I considered ways of replacing the worn material in the housing using brass shims or even babbitt, but before I do that was wondering if anyone has a spare pump or parts (bronze gear, housing) they would be willing to sell. Also looking for a push rod for the same engine if anyone has a spare before I go off and make one. Thanks...

I'll send you a PM tonight. Are you in need of windshield (frame) parts? If you do I can probably help with that.

SummitA, where are you in Maine? The C25 I am working on is located in Cape Neddick. I removed the "wide flanged screws" that hold the rear of the outer brake bands with heat as was previously suggested. I ended up making new ones on my lathe when it went back together.

For my C-25 speedster project I replaced all the original (and heavily worn) "Z" type bolts with the built in "base" for the grease cups with Grade 5 9/16" fine thread bolts. (Best deal on fasteners I've found is a Bolt Depot.com in MA, short of the Grade 2 junk sold for $1 a pound at Marden's.) I drilled the bolts on lathe part way down the length through the head and cross drilled in the center for the grease to exit. I threaded the hole through the head with 1/8" PT so as to enable use of standard grease cups from Model T suppliers or a Zerk fitting. I calculated shear capability for the bolts with the internal hole and found plenty of margin of safety with Grade 5. This avoided having to buy carbide taps for Grade 8. I recognize I'm compromising authnticity but this will be a driver rather than a show car and everything done is fully reversable. All the old worn out steel bushings in springs pressed out and replaced with bronze from McMaster drilled out on lathe then reamed after install.

I recently used Harkin-Arcola in MN for the babbitt on my 1915 C-25 project (center main was falling apart in chunks). Excellent customer service. I used Fastenal's shipping service to get crankcase from ME to MN and back. Made a sturdy box for it bolted to a pallet and had no issues.

The 8th annual Mercer Associates meeting will take place at Hershey on Thursday, October 11th, 3pm at the west end of the Coker Tire tent. As in the past, the meeting is a gathering for owners of Mercer automobiles and honorary members of the Mercer Associates. Looking forward to catching up with all of you on the news from the past year.

Thanks for the commentary. So to finish the story, in order to get that last cage out we made a 1/2" thick AMS5663 Inco718 plate to cover the inlet and exhaust ports of the offending cylinder. Made some hollow spacers using an EOS M70 DMLS 3D printing machine with Inco625 powder so we could use the original studs to clamp the aforementioned plate to the cylinder head. Inco625 is a good choice of material as it has high temperature capability but being non-hardenable has some "give" so as to avoid damaging the studs. Before installation of the plate we drilled and tapped the exhaust side for two 1/4" pt brass fittings with ball valves and barbettes. We also drilled a 1/8" hole through the plate on the intake side. Best to use a carbide drill on such hard material. We cut off a 1-3/4" diameter piece of round bar stock about 2" long out of MARM-242 in order to block off the valve port that already had the cage removed. The original cage nut was used to hold the bar stock in place. MARM-242 is a great choice of material here given it's higher oxidation resistance compared to steel at higher temperatures; especially important if one had multiple cages that are stuck. Next we made some hardwood wedges (about door stop size) and drove them between the flywheel and frame to keep the crankshaft from turning. Then we attached a neoprene hose of the appropriate diameter to each of the barbettes and funnels to the other ends of the hoses to facilitate pouring in equal amounts of methanol hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide to partially fill the cylinder. Next we placed a firecracker fuse into the small hole and we lit her off. Had to get the ladder out to recover the valve cage from the hole in the ceiling where it got stuck. Oh yeah, don't forget to install an old spark plug on the other side tightly otherwise this technique might not work.

We were able to remove all the cages from our "parked next to, not inside, the barn find" 1915 C-25 by removing the cage nuts and then working the brass seals out with a pick. Then soaked the cages in acetone and ATF for 2-3 weeks per Mark and Terry's suggestions. Most came right out, with the last one naturally being a little more trouble due to rust. We used the modified NAPA puller set-up as described in Dean's 1915-18 club newsletter as we did not have the vintage Buffum tool.