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tgryphon

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Everything posted by tgryphon

  1. Thanks, kmstrade, for the suggestion. As it happens, I just bought a different '23 Stutz Speedway 4 roadster so don't need the info now. I see you have a '23 as well. I am wondering what the best source of technical info on the Stutz is. Before long, I am going to dig into the brakes and steering and need info on them. Tom
  2. I believe that this car was in Tim LaQuay's collection in Victoria, Texas. Anyone know how to contact him?
  3. Auction houses keep the IDs of their consigners to themselves, for understandable reasons, I guess. I emailed Mecum, but did not get a response.
  4. At Mecum's Harrisburg auction this year there was a 1923 Stutz Speedway 4 roadster that was bid up to $80,000 but not sold. I am interested in this car and would like to contact the owner. If anyone can let me know how to contact him, or get a word to him to contact me through the forum, I would very much appreciate it. An auction photo is attached.
  5. Here's an update on the problem of wander on my '41 Continental. After following all of the good advice given by the folks who replied to this posting of last November, I went through the suspension again and found one problem: the left rear wheel bearing was loose. It took me a couple of months to figure out how to get it apart and then repair the bearing race in the differential housing, but it is now like new. Unfortunately, that didn't change the wandering issue at all. I went back to the alignment shop to confirm everything was in spec, and noticed that caster was on the low end. Spec is 3 to 6 degrees and it was 3 degrees. That, and the alignment tech, got me thinking about the effect of caster on steering, and after talking with a few people, I came to the realization that radial tires need more caster than bias ply. So I made a shim that moved the wishbone rear attachment ball-and-socket down as far as I reasonably could, about 1", giving me about 1 1/4 degrees more caster. That gave some improvement. Then I tried running more air in the back tires than the front by about 5 psi, and that helped a bit too. After this, it was better, but the car still wandered. I think it needs about 2 (or more) degrees more caster and I can't get that except by bending the axle with an unobtainable Ford-specific hydraulic axle bender. Finally, I bought a new set of bias ply tires and the wandering issue went away. Problem solved. In a couple of days I'm off on a 3,500 mile trip with the Lincoln so it will get a good test. Thanks to everyone for the help!
  6. 19tom40: Date codes on the tires show them to be three years old. I took your advice and lowered the pressure to 35 all around and drove the car. Then I tried different combinations of front 32, rear 35; front 35, rear 32; both 32. There was some improvement (tho not much) at the lower pressures. I think now that there must be something wrong that I am just not seeing. I think I will jack the car up and inspect front and rear one more time.
  7. Roy: Glad all is well with you. And thank you for the invitation.
  8. Matt: Good info. I use Diamondback radials on my '34 Packard and like them a lot.
  9. Matt: I was afraid you were going to say that. Now I will have to buy new bias tires. Phui.
  10. Thanks for these suggestions. Let me answer what I can. Shocks are all rebuilt and adjusted towards the firm side. They feel OK, though I am no fan of Houdaille shocks. They are very temperature sensitive. The Coker 7.00R16 tires I have at Coker's recommended pressure...41 PSI...and have just rotated them. I dismantled the steering gear last year and had to remove only one shim to take out the free play between worm and rotor. It is in excellent shape now, doesn't bind, and I cannot see any play in anything else in the front end. Matt: it does feel like oversteer on this car, even though I certainly don't corner hard enough to loose traction in the rear. For example, on an easy freeway turn I turn the wheel, say, 20 degrees to the right to start into it and then immediately need to correct back to about centerline or perhaps even a little to the left to continue my way around the turn. Since I believe the front end is in good shape, this is why I started focusing on the rear end. It feels sort of like the transverse spring in the rear is shifting sideways and causing what I have called "oversteer." The spring can shift sideways since there is no track bar in the rear (and never was one). The car does drive down the highway very nicely without wandering unless there is a gusty cross wind, In that case, I do need to correct back and forth quite a lot. Regarding bad tires, I used the same tires, 7.00R16 Coker radials, on a 1941 Packard Sport Sedan, a 900 lb heavier car, and they worked well. It originally had Firestone bias ply tires and the radials improved it no end. It was the identical situation with the Continental...It had the Firestones when I bought it and I changed to Coker radials. No guarantee my problem isn't tires, but at this point, it doesn't seem too likely, though I certainly would like to hear more details on what you found wrong with the tires on your '48 Continental. New Zealand: I've done all you suggest except check the square head bolt. Is this the one in the middle of the spring which centers-up the spring assembly on the frame? And more importantly, how badly were you affected by the earthquake and tsunami?
  11. Thanks to the three of you for your responses and suggestions. Here's what I have done. I checked alignment...caster and camber were OK but toe-in was off. I corrected that but it made no difference to the oversteer. I confirmed again that there were no problems like loose tie rod ends, binding king pins or steering box, or loose spring shackles or track bar. Then I tried reducing rear tire pressure 5 PSI. That made no difference either. So I am back where I started. Any more suggestions?
  12. My '41 Continental has severe oversteer. When cornering, even on a gentle freeway curve, after I turn the steering wheel to start a turn, I have to correct back nearly to the steering wheel center position to keep from oversteering. It makes the car pretty unstable on undulating roads or in a crosswind. I have rebuilt the entire front end including spring, shackles, track bar and sway bar. King pins, shocks and tie rod ends are OK. Steering box is not worn. I have Coker radials all around. I haven't done anything with the rear end, although I can see nothing obviously wrong. The only thing I notice is that there is no track bar on the rear axle as there is on the front. I assume this is correct, but I wonder what keeps the body centered over the rear axle. I am sure that the lack of a rear track bar, if there is supposed to be one, would cause oversteer. Interestingly, I think Fords did have a rear track bar. Anyone have thoughts on this or have any suggestions to correct the oversteer?
  13. Interesting that a Packard model seven years older than mine resets OK and mine doesn't. Re your '27 not tracking...I have a '41 Continental with the same problem but found that the reset knob was not pulling out all the way and consequently the gears were not in mesh inside the odometer. You might check this out.
  14. Phooey. I was afraid of that. Makes it pretty useless, doesn't it? Thanks anyway, O. D., for the response.
  15. The trip odometer in my 1934 Packard will not reset to zero. Instead, when I press in and turn the reset knob either forward or backward it just counts up or down mile-by-mile without picking-up the adjacent counter wheel. Any suggestions?
  16. Thanks to the two of you for responding. They were very helpful and solve the problem of how to get my glass etched!
  17. Does anyone have a 1930s Packard that has the original safety glass windshield still in it? If so, I would like to get a photo of the etched safety glass logo. Are etching stencils available? My car is a '34 Coupe-Roadster and I want to get the proper logo etched onto the glass. Thanks for the help!
  18. Thanks for the suggestion...I'll try that. Has anyone tried putting a couple of diagonal score lines across the lining? I thought that might change tendency toward squealing, though for the better or not, I don't know.
  19. Are there any tricks anyone can pass on about how to stop an external contracting (band) brake from squealing? My 1902 White is terrible. It has a single band brake on the chain-driven differential. The lining (Scan-Pac GGW) and drum (cast iron) were replaced last year and all was fine then, but now this year the brake makes a horrible racket.
  20. Roger, You are right that the steel will get hotter and probably will expand faster eventhough its coefficient of expansion is less than bronze. So maybe a press-fit sleeve would work. And it certainly would allow a better lining material. Stopping from 60MPH is not a concern...on a good day I can get up to 25 or 30. The concern is a long downhill grade. Steamers (as this car is) have no compression braking. White in one of its publications says to drag a log behind on a long grade. Tom
  21. Thanks, Frank and Roger, for your good advice. I have some other very recent input that indicates modern woven material would give good stopping power because its coeffecient of friction is higher, but that it is abrasive and would cause wear on the bronze drum. This material is Kevlar-based. This fellow thinks that the original lining would have been a "treated cotton belting". Sounds to me like Scandanavian band linings for a Model-T. Anybody have thoughts on that? I wonder if it would run dry without shredding. Or if the tarred Scandanavian would work... Re Roger's suggestion of a steel sleeve. There is a lot of difference in the thermal expansion rates between steel and bronze so I think a press fit between the two would not survive hard braking. But maybe a mechanical attachment could be contrived. I'll think on that. The other option is, of course, to cast an entire new drum in iron. I have been avoiding that because the bronze one has complex cores and would be expensive to reproduce.
  22. My 1902 White steamer has a single band brake on the chain-drive differential and uses a cast bronze drum. I need advice on what type of lining to use. When I bought the car it had a woven lining of unknown material (asbestos?) but this had hardly any stopping power. I replaced it with a Scan-Pac 242-OR molded lining (same as McMaster's "high friction" lining). This material ate-up the soft bronze drum badly in just a couple hundred miles and the car still didn't stop well. There is conjecture that the original lining was leather, but the expert in such things, Bob Knaak, says leather won't withstand the heat generated in brakes...great for clutches but not for brakes. One person suggested using a woven Kevlar lining like that used with some success in Model-T transmission bands. Chopped Kevlar is, I believe, the replacement for asbestos in modern molded linings but woven Kevlar does not appear to be used, at least as far as I can tell. Any suggestions along with a discussion of what works for you would be much appreciated!
  23. Thanks everyone for your responses. Looks like 1949 was the first year for the bullseye headlights and I'll need to find some GEs.
  24. No, this George Whitney was originally from Washington state and went to SF in the mid-twenties. He was quite an entrepeneur, building his SF empire during the depression from his start as a carnival ride operator. He collected anything. His motto was that if an item attracted paying customers, he collected it.
  25. I bought a very original and relatively low mileage 1941 Packard recently and it has the early AutoLite "Bullseye" sealed beam headlights with metal backs installed. Does anyone know when these "bullseye" bulbs were first introduced? I've seen them on Mopars of the fifties, but never earlier.
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