PFitz

Steve, Agreed about sidemounts. More expense, about 100 lbs more weight on the car than just one spare. About 200 lbs more on the front end during braking. More air drag. And the biggest complaint for me is having to lean over sidemounts to work on the motor. Plus the rear mounted spares put a spare tire's weight behind the rear axle to help smooth out bouncing/hobby horsing and help prevent rear wheel lock up during panic stops. BUT, given all that, alot of owners still like they way they look !!!!! I've heard the Michelin's were good, but I can't find them listed anywhere. So as you say, its down to Custom Classics, B.F Goodrich, Lester, and Firestone. All seem to be good, so I don't know as we need more choices. Paul Fitz.

Steve, I don't know anyone who has weighed just a motor, and as far as I know any known factory literature only mentions "curb" weight of entire car. I do know of several owners who have weighed their 31's and 32's on differant truck scales and after acounting for gas, oil and driver, the cars are a few hundered pounds more than Franklin says the curb weight should be. Factory scale may have been off, or..... I think more probably, since weight was such a big factor in many of their adds, the advertising department may have "had their thumb on the scale". Paul Fitz.

Steve, Yeah, your right, I went back and looked at my pictures. It's B.F. GOODRICH, not Goodyear! My mistake. I shouldn't try to do this after only one cup of coffee !!!!! Make sure to check with that MN Franklin-ite Tom. He gets to drive alot of differant tires too. Also..... I can't remember if you car has side mounts. If so,don't forget to ask if they fit in wheel wells. Some of these 6.50-19's are actually made in a 7.00 -19 mould. Found that out the hard way !!! Only way to get the spares to fit in the wells was to get them down to 10 PSI and carry a tire pump. See you at Caz. Paul Fitz

Steve, Just about any of the narrow, straight tread tires will be quite. Just don't go out in a snow storm !!!!!! Check out the Good Year Silvertowns. They come highly rated by a Conn. Franklin-ite who puts a few thousand miles a year on a very nice 32 Club Sedan. I've driven that car and they are smooth and quite running. Firestone 6.00/6.50 are quite, but they are a smaller outside diameter by almost a couple of inches. Some think they look too small on a big Franklin. Lesters are quite, but I haven't heard anything about them now that Universal is making them. Paul Fitz.

Steve, All before my time. You know more about them than I. When some in "never used" condition showed up, I remember hearing that they were handed out at the Trek. Didn't know JC Whitney was in the act too ! Paul Fitz.

yavid, Those "Rampant Lions" show up once in awhile on eBay and they do sell. There's two on there now. I'd wait until those sell then give it a try. Just so you know, not all are from Franklin grill shells. Many years ago there were repro's made by the Franklin club, mounted on various types of wooden bases and handed out as awards, gifts, or sold. My guess is that most of the ones that show up on eBay were never on a car. I've got one here that's mounted on a wooden desk set to hold pens, pencils, paper clips, etc. Paul Fitz.

32stude Any chance of seeing some pictures? PFitz.

Steve, I've only used Rhode Island Wire so can't comment on YnZ's. Dealt with them for 30 years and they are nice people at RI, good service, and very well made harnesses. All the harnesses are labeled and include installation drawing. So's ya know. They offer a four-way turn signal/four-way flasher modification for a very reasonable extra cost. It uses the existing park and tail lights so nothing to change there. Just the addition of a turn signal switch on the steering column that looks factory. I've hooked up a number of these for customers who do touring and it's very easy to do. It's not authentic, but for safety, think about adding addtional fuse blocks while your at it. Paul.

Steve, Excellant idea! Sounds like either the head light or high-low switch. High-low has a bacalite switch plate that gets warped and gooy. Can be claened and GENTLY straightened. Before you start, check the Franklin website Q&A index for tips on wiring and fixing switches. If you don't see what you need e-mail me through the Q&A. In the mean time you can pick up a tube of anti-oxident for house-hold aluminum wiring at your hardware store. Put a dab on all wiring connections and paths to ground such as light buckets to light mountings, light mountings to chassis, etc. Works real well at preventing rust/crud from increasing resistance to electrical flow. Lights stay nice and bright. Battery terminals never need cleaning either !!!!! When you get into the re-wire, if you have any questions just e-mail me through the Club's website Q&A. Paul.

Steve, Glad to hear it's fixed............for now. It's not fully self healing, because the brass band of the friction clamp is slowly wearing loose with use. It will do that "throttle change while turning" all the sooner next time the weather starts to be a bit cooler. Eventually it will do it even in warm weather. It's easy to adjust, so best to tweek the adjustment on the friction clamp as soon as you can get a chance. Then you won't have to be doing that on the side of the road some where with all that lovely traffic you get out there !!!!! Paul.

Steve, Not uncommon on 1930 and later cars driven in cooler weather. 1. The "sludge" that used to be grease on the concentric control tubes inside the steering wheel shaft thickens in cooler temps increasing drag. 2. At the same time the brass friction clamp that is part of the hand throttle assembly gets worn over the years. 3. Your car may also have a weak throttle return spring. Original throttle springs didn't have much tension when new. Thickened grease working against weak clamp and return spring can cause the hand throttle tube to turn when the steering wheel is turned. Try...... Just below the steering box, between it and the head light switch is the brass friction clamp. Tighten the small screw and nut that pinches the middle of the brass strap(see picture attached). It should only need about 1/4 to 1/2 a turn to compensate for wear. Don't over tighten, just enough to have the hand throttle hold position against the throttle return spring..and the sludge when the wheel is turned ! Paul.

Rich, May be that the Club Library's copy from which the 31 repro parts book is printed doesn't have the tool pages. I've seen them in an original, complete parts book. Lists tools that come with the car and then several pages of special tools for the dealer's repair shop for servicing/rebuilding. Hopefully there is an attachment picture of a 29,30,31 Walker jack I picked up awhile back at the Trek. By the way, it's Walker Tool Company of Racine Wisconson. As far as I know, no relation to the Walker Body Company of Amesbury Mass. Paul.

Rich, It's not a Franklin jack, it's a "ratchet" type. Pictures of the original "screw thread" type jacks used by Franklin are in the back of the factory parts books, tools section. That style ratchet jack was popular well into the 40-50's for many light trucks too. My father brought home several from when he worked for Nabisco as a delivery driver. I still use them for various light lifting projects, such as transmissions,oil pans,etc, because they are easier to work by hand without having to use the jack "handle" when I'm working under a car. The jack handles for those types where usually a flat, rectangular steel bar, tappwered at one end to fit into the "socket" lever. They are only about 18-24 inches long. To use them you had to get under the vehical. Not bad with a high truck suspension, but no Franklin owner would be required to crawl under their vehical. The screw jacks could be operated and somewhat moved around without getting under the car, by use of their long, folding crank handles. Most Franklin jacks had sockets that the squared end of the folding jack handle (3/8 inch rod) fit into. Original Franklin screw jacks sometimes turn up for sale at Franklin Treks. Paul.

Bore and stoke the same, but the owners manual says they changed the connecting rod bearings on the 11B, so cylinder spacing, possably rocker box size may differ. I thought I could check the 11A,11B parts book.........if I could find mine. If you have access to an 11A, 11B parts book, check the part numbers of the rocker boxes. Franklin only changed part (drawing) numbers if there was a change in the part. PFitz.

Clincher, I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to remember there is a differance between 11A and 11B cages. Can't remember what, but it came up when I had an 11B in the shop a couple of years ago. Someone had put a couple of smaller valve cages on it and we were looking to get correct sized ones for. Wrong size cages throw off the rocker arm geometery and make for a noisy valve train. PFitz

Steve, Sorry, I don't know. Up until Franklin31's scan, the only original Franklin cloth spare tire cover I've seen was the Series 11 on eBay a few weeks ago. I only get to see the metal covers. I have a copy of factory drawing for series 11A,11B,130,and 135/137( #32583, 34513, 43997, 43998). They are black with the white piping, but I don't know if it was used later than 1929. My copy of the 31 accessory catalog shows what looks like two black and one tan Burbank fabric covers available, but it's a copy of a copy of....... can't see if the two dark covers have white piping. No 1932 accessory catalog that I'm aware of......so yeah, Jeff would be the one to ask if there is a drawing for any 32 fabric covers. PFitz

Franklin 31. Neat! Thanks for posting. That's in amazingly good shape. Usually they are badly cracked, chipped and scrached. Without the circle, that is the Franklin script that came into common use in connection with the 1930 and later cars. I wouldn't be suprised if that's an original accessory spare tire cover for your year car. Tire covers weren't standard then but Franklin did offer several styles of cloth cover and a metal two piece cover for both side mount and rear spares. Pictures of all can be seen in the 31 accessory catolog. The logos often appear in the Franklin factory blueprints of the tire covers. Usually it's the birds eye "Spirit of Saint Louis" logo like in the middle of the 1930/31 rear bumper bars. Never seen that logo on an original tire cover before. There was a Series 11 Franklin "kidney bean" logo spare tire cover on eBay not long ago. Anybody see it? PFitz.

Gentlemen, Wasn't "Franklin" the automobile company as we know it. It was "Air Cooled Motors", a company started by two former Franklin engineers who left Franklin when it was going down hill finacially in the early 30's. They not only made the aircooled aircraft engines, but early on they made in-line 6 and 8 cylinder commercial engines too. PFitz.

Very interesting. I was working next to a 21 Demi sedan Monday with the same cobra grain top. While not the original top I'm sure the owner will be glad to see his Demi has the same look. Thanks for sharing. By the way. Eric Haartz of the Haartz Company, will be giving a talk on top materials at this year's Franklin Club Trek technical sessions, this August in Cazenovia NY. Haartz made some of the top materials of Franklins and many other top of the line early cars. He's throuroghly researched the company's history and the evilution of top materials. Anyone interested in attending contact me at airiscool@clarityconnect.com Enjoy, PFitz.

Dave, The 30-31's had two levers. The one at 6 o'clock is the hand throttle, and 12 o'clock is the hi-low beam switch lever. Spark "retard" is still a pull knob right center of the dash. Parts such as those sometimes turn up, but usually only within the Club. Also need to know the body style because two differant length steeing coluums were used. Because by now, most Franklin parts are in the hands of Franklin owners it's best to put a want add on the Franklin Club website at www.franklincar.org, and in their Club publication,the "Franklin Service Station". That gets mailed to all the Franklin Club Members. I can give you the contact info if you need it. If your not sure what year, post the compleat chassis number stamped in the firewall tag and I can tell you. Should be two numbers for the "Series" which will tell the year and wheel base, then a dash, then six more numbers for that chassis, then an "L" or an "R" for left or right hand drive, then one or two numbers for the body style. Example, 45-xxxxxx L11 would be a 1930 left hand drive Sedan with 125 inch wheel base. Pix would be good too if possable. Always like to see Franklin pix!!!!!! PFitz.

Are you sure it's for a 28-9 Franklin ? Those year Franklins only have a hand throttle lever on the steering wheel hub. The spark control is a pull knob/wire cable identical to, and to the right of the choke knob at the bottom center of the guage cluster. PFitz.

Steve, Aircooled Motors never died. They went from Liverpool NY to Poland and it's my understanding that they've recently returned to the USA. Check it out. http://www.franklinengines.com/index.cfm PFitz.

How rare? The Franklin Club Roster lists 12 Coupes out of about 95 11a's registered. PFitz

Chassis number says it's a Franklin 1929 Series 137 ( long model with 132 inch wheel base). The "L2" at the end says it's a left hand drive "Sport Runabout", what most know as Roadster. Rather rare body style. Good luck to your friend. P.Fitz.