nsbrassnut
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Posts posted by nsbrassnut
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Hi Layden
I could use several of them. They do fit better than the other ones.
I'll send an email to you at the address above.
Thanks
Jeff
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Hi All
I posted this earlier under Restoration Projects, but thought I would post here also to see if there may be additional comments.
Looking for some advice this time. My '22 Stanley has Firestone 34 - 4 1/2 wheels and rims. I noticed when taking the rear rims and wheels off to service the brakes that the car has a bit of a mix of rim clamps. There are three different styles. In the picture, the one labelled 2 is the most common one. The one labelled 1 appears to be the best fit though.
Anyone out there with Firestone wheels and rims that could compare these ones with theirs and suggest what they think are the most correct clamps for these wheels.
Thanks
Jeff
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Side note. I did run across an article in my Stanley reading so far where someone was restoring a SV later model with the modified engine. And one of the "defects" it had was that later SV model changed the rear axle final drive gears from straight cut that Stanley had used since the start, to bevel/helical cut gears (like many camshaft gears). I think the idea was to have a quieter rear axle as helical gears are quieter than straight cut. The problem with changing to the helical cut gears was that this now results in a significant side load on the gears pushing them to opposite sides against the sides of the case. If there are no thrust bearings, then there can be problems. For this application the designer should have used herringbone cut gears that have a double bevel/helix on the gear, half in each direction of the helix. Quiet and inherently balanced thrust. But an expensive gear to make.
The author of the article changed the drive gears back to the original Stanley design of straight cut gears during his restoration.
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Hi Peter
Thanks for the picture.
It reminds me that I should have also included a picture of the clamps mounted on the wheel. My Stanley uses the Firestone lock ring wheel which is slightly different. The few clamps on the car that look similar to yours do appear to be the better fitting ones. The others don't appear to be fitting quite right. The point of the wedge is in between the rim and fellow, but the other end isn't touching anything.
Some pictures of the clamps on the wheel below.
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I have only seen one of them in person, and it was very impressive. I had to go back a bit in my files to find pictures of it when it was on display in the AACA museum at the time.
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Hi All
Looking for some advice this time. My Stanley has Firestone 34 - 4 1/2 wheels and rims. I noticed when taking the rear rims and wheels off to service the brakes that the car has a bit of a mix of rim clamps. There are three different styles. In the picture, the one labelled 2 is the most common one.
Anyone out there with Firestone wheels and rims that could compare these ones with theirs and suggest what they think are the most correct clamps for these wheels.
Thanks
Jeff
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Hi
Good to hear that the screw hasn't caused any damage. One "dumb thought" comes to mind. After the generator was re-installed and before the car was started what the generator "flashed" to re-establish the polarity of the windings? I have missed that step before and sometimes the generator will not generate until it has been re-flashed, the amp gauge will just jiggle or might show discharge.
Hopefully the repair is straight forward.
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A progress report on the Stanley brake inspection. I took the other side apart for cleaning, inspection and reassembly. Overall it is worth the effort to do a detailed inspection when you pick up a new to you old car that has been sitting. Overall nothing nothing too serious has been found. The worst finding was the bending and wear of the bronze anchor link for the service brakes. On the second side, there wasn't much bending, but the threads in the bronze are mostly stripped out. Fortunately the stud is locked in with a secondary nut to keep it in place.
While in there I took off the bearing retainer and seal holder to look at the outer wheel bearings. No obvious issues, but the grease looked a bit old. So with the seal off I was able to flush out most of the old grease and repack it with fresh grease using the grease cup on top. Refilling it a few times and rotating the axle allowed for a pretty good flush. I'm in no rush to pull the axle and bearing at this time, but I wanted to see what I could inspect while the wheel was off.
I did find a few things to clean along the way. Carefully chasing some damaged threads on a brake actuating shaft and cleaning up the threads on the brakes rods so that everything turns smoothly and the full length of the threads.
I also found one cotter pin hole on the service brake band stud that had the cotter pin sheared off in it. Some careful drilling and a drift got that one out. Now I have to go back on the other side and do the same thing as the hole is plugged in that one also.
Going through the process also helps me better learn about the Stanley. Since there are no manuals for it that I'm aware of this is about the only way to figure it out. I found out that the service brake on the car lacks any compensating mechanism balance the brake force side to side. Most cars by then had some form of one, even my '14 Hudson had one. I was able to adjust the brakes to the point that they appear to be reasonable. But to fine tune and balance the brakes will eventually need the car to be driven and the linkage adjusted to get equal action on each side. That's the only way to get this design of linkage balanced.
Still more to do, but at least I have a better idea what and how to do it. And now everything is freed up and ready to go.
And now to see if the pictures loaded in the middle as intended.
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There may be some confusion around the use of the term check valve. I have found that Stanley uses what could be described as more than one type. There are "stand alone" check valves in the plumbing that are only there to prevent back flow in the line. There are also "integral check valves" in various water and fuel pumps. The pumps have to have a way to allow liquid in on suction and out on compression, without it flowing backwards, So there are actually check valves build into the suction and discharge of the pump bodies as well.
You can test a check valve by placing pressure on the outlet and making sure that nothing is leaking backwards. But you don't have to do much testing, if the check valves are not holding it will become obvious in service when you cannot develop pressure in the downstream side of the pumps etc.. The dash gauges show steam pressure, pilot fuel pressure and main fuel pressure. If the check valves leak, the pressure will drop when standing still with nothing operating.
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Back to the Stanley brakes.
If the car manufacturers had everything well thought out, then why do they keep issuing recalls?😄
I believe that I found a design weakness in the way the Stanley service brake is mounted at the front. Let’s see if I can describe it well enough for others to see how I came to that conclusion. In this case you need to look closely at the front lower anchor point for the service brake band. The actuating shaft goes though an arm on the axle and rotates to pull the top end of the band down. The bottom band anchor is held in place by a through stud that is bolted to an outer link that is a loose fit on the rotating shaft. On the inside, this same anchor stud is mounted to a rigid arm on the combination bronze shaft bearing an anchor link. The stud is supposed to be parallel to the axle. The problem here is when the brake is energized the band pulls on this stud that is fitted between a fixed link and a loose link. Neither of the link mounts for the stud are in line with the direction of pull when the band in actuated. The result is when the brake is applied and the band pulls on the stud, it produced a bending moment on the side links. But only one link can swing and the other is fixed. So, as you may be able to see in the picture, the fixed bronze link bent towards the brake drum. The end of the brake band is now twisted and the lining will not bear evenly on the first portion of the drum.
The more correct way to make mount the stud that holds the brake band would be to have two loose links on the rotating actuating shaft, both of which are free to turn on the shaft and line up with the pull force from the band. Having two rigid links for the stud would also work, but the way that this axle is built that would require a much different forging for the end of the axle.
The inner rigid link could be modified to solve this problem. Remove link section of the bronze bearing and install a second steel floating link on the brake actuating shaft. Then both sides of the retaining stud that holds the end of the band would move together as needed.
This issue also helps to explain why only a portion of the service brake lining was replace during its last service. The portions of the lining that were removed were still in the spares box and could be lined up with their position on the band. The anchor end of the brake band where it is twisted contributed to uneven wear on the brake lining wearing the first few inches of bottom portion of the lining over half way through, while the top portion of the lining was barely worn.
Here are some pictures of the service brake actuating shaft and links. One is looking up from below so may be a bit awkward to relate to. I also included a picture of the linkages reassembled before the wheel went back on.
The various parts of the brake linkages were taken to the shop for degreasing, wiring brushing and just enough paint to prevent rusting. Overall, everything came apart fairly easily and the parts show only a little wear. I also ended up taking the brake rods off and up to the shop to wire brush and clean the threads on the turnbuckles so that they would turn more easily. It’s a nice change to work on an old car that comes apart without a struggle when you put the wrench on it. What a change from my usual experiences on old worn out Ford model Ts. I still have to do some fine tuning of the linkage, but at least now its improved from nothing to something for brakes, but you can see that there is much less action turning the wheel backwards vs forwards with this design. Propping the brakes on with a stick, I can’t turn the wheel forward, but I can turn it backwards. And I’m not that strong either.
Reading through the binder of Stanley service bulletins that came last week it looks like they did eventually realize that there were issues with this rear end design. A bulletin from 1921 goes on to describe the improvements made for the new Model 740 that came out in ’21/22 as a up scale model. Right in the description three changes to the rear axle are pointed out. A larger service brake band with 60% more lining, redesigned double acting brake linkage and a change in the rear axle shaft use tapered axle and wheel hub with key instead of the half taper half square spline mount on the 735. (similar to most of the makers by then). Tip if you are looking at a pair of Stanleys, one a 735 and one a 740 models and are considering taking one home, pick the 740. 😉
Last question. How do you get the pictures into the middle of the text instead of all at the end?
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I don' have that one. But I do have a copy of the older Doble book by J. N. Walton from the 1970's. I dug it out for comparison and had to smile when I opened it up. I bought it in Hershey back in 1994. The receipt reminded me that I actually bought it from the Stanley Museum booth. Just goes to show that I have been lingering in the back ground for a while. 😉
I have also heard the one about Stanley having only a limited set of threading gears. But I think it might have been two sets when I heard it. So there may be one other "standard" thread pitch in there somewhere too that I am watching for on the car.
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For PreWarNut
I have heard of that also. And it came to mind when I was dismantling and inspecting the brakes. The inside brake is a heavy single cast expanding shoe actuated by rotating cam where the two ends meet. Similar to that of a Ford T parking brake, but much heavier and more robust.
To make the switch on the Stanley I think I will need to make new brake rods. And to that I'll need to order in a special threading die. It turned out that the rods are adjusted like turnbuckles, with left and right hand threads. But, one end is the long rod from the front to the turnbuckle coupling at the back. And that long rod has the left hand threads. And I have been warned that Stanley used what are now obsolete thread patterns. For example so far on the rear brake parts are 5/16-20 tpi, 3/8-20 tpi and 1/2-20 tpi. Notice the trend here.😉
Here is a picture of the one side after the wheel was pulled off. I go into more detail later on what I found while cleaning it up.
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Back to some actual Stanley work.
I think it was Bellamy Partridge in his book Excuse My Dust, who said something along the lines of, “If I spent as much time on promoting my career as I spent on automobiles, I would surely be at the top of my profession”. His book was the basis for the 1951 Red Skelton movie, Excuse My Dust. A fun old movie for an early car fan. Well, I didn’t make it to the top of my profession either, I spent way too much time in the car books and later in the garage. But along the way I picked up a lot of interesting information that actually starts to come in handy at times like this.
I have managed to build up a small collection of various period service books such as Dykes and Page manuals and have spent hours just reading through them. These manuals have a lot of very good information on the general systems such as brakes, suspension, electrical etc. especially for early automobile technology. Below is an extract from a 1910 Dykes Automobile lessons booklet on brake design. I’m showing their explanation vs trying to describe it myself. I have spent some time reviewing the early mechanical brake information in these books while trying to figure out the mechanical brakes on my ’05 Cadillac and ’14 Hudson. Both have designs weaknesses and are not the best for their period. I even found information in the Hudson service bulletins where the factory realized that the ’14 brakes were “poor” and sent out modification kits to make them work better. Something that has yet to be added to mine though. And as part of that process, I have tried out three different modern linings recommended by others and my own research on my cars so far and I’m not entirely satisfied by any of them. But I have learned at least one to avoid for external bands though. There are some special steps to take to get good service from the modern replacement lining. I have on my “wish list” getting enough original period flexible woven brake lining to try it out for a comparison at some point in the future.
Anyway, look close at the illustration and description of “single acting” external brakes vs the “double acting”. This is the type my Stanley that is used for the service brake. There is also another internal band brake that is the hand brake. And as noted in the Dykes instructions, this style was considered out of date and was being phased out by almost everyone else by 1910. By 1922 it was really out of date. This style of contracting band works well in only one direction, by layout forward and is very poor in reverse. I was warned that Stanleys are known for their poor brakes. This helps to explain where that came from. And after taking one apart and looking closely I think I may have found a design weakness with the Stanley’s design too. Stay tuned later.
Most cars by this period that were still using external contracting band brakes has changed over to the “double acting” design which provides a better clamping force round the brake drum and will “self energizing” in both forward and backward motion. The double acting external bands are on my Hudson and most everything else from around 1910 up until the change to all internal brakes.
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In response to John’s question.
I sort of have an order in mind, but like many things, subject to revision as time goes on. The process is based in part by proceeding with little steps to learn about the car and gain some experience with it. Start with the simple stuff that I have some experience with, then work my way up to the actual steam systems and then eventually fire it up.
It’s along the lines of:
- Clean and condition the interior, floor and car. This help to gain some familiarization with the car. And cleaning and conditioning of the leather has been number one on my list since even long before I was able to bring it home.
- Electrical system. Since there isn’t much and its fairly straight forward, I thought it an easy way to start.
- Brake inspection and service. They were nearly useless when picked up and I need them working to move the car around, even behind a tow rope.
- Suspension and steering. Mainly, wheel bearings inspection and service.
- Move the car from the “clean garage” to the “dirty work garage” then start into the unique Stanley systems.
- The burner will need to come off for inspection. There are 4000+ small holes in there for the fuel to vapour to pass through. And after 10 years sitting, I think that even slight rusting may have plugged many off.
- The boiler cover will need to come off and the boiler tube sheets cleaned of light surface rust and the flue tubes wired brushed and cleaned.
- Hydro pressure testing of key parts, boiler, fuel tanks, etc... Pressure test only to working or slightly above pressure to be comfortable that they are good to use since they aren’t new, but they visually look good inside and out.
- Inspect the engine and rear axle since they have been sitting too. There is a good chance the engine will come out and on the bench for inspection if anything looks out of place when I remove the inspection covers.
- Inspect and service as necessary the water, steam and fuel plumbing and pumps. They may or may not come out for work as they do visually look good in place, just dirty.
- Slowly working up to stationary test firing and later on to yard test driving etc...
- Then when I have developed some level of comfort and understanding of the car, an actual road test on the road.
- And like I have been doing with my other antiques, I start out at or nearly stock in the beginning. Then if there is something I don’t like I will consider “upgrades”.
There are a lot of items not mentioned above that will have to be done along the way. Such as one big one. Biting the bullet and ordering a new set of tires. That is going to sting.
I’m not working to any specific schedule and don’t want to rush anything. Some of the parts are nearly irreplaceable and I would rather take longer to figure it out slowly than rush and break something. But I am starting to have an itch to reach the “fire it up” point before next winter.
And in between all of that, try to keep some other old cars going, doing house and yard chores, and usual “doobie” list that life keeps throwing in the way.
By the way, if anyone else is getting a Stanley itch, check out the HCCA website ads. A good looking ’23 Stanley touring was listed recently.😉
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I received a “care package” from the Stanley Museum this week. ☺️I had ordered copies of their Stanley information collection binders. I have only glanced inside so far to look for some highlights for the 1921-22 period. And I found good stuff. I ordered the material a few weeks back, but they had to wait for one binder to be reprinted (out of stock) and then the snail mail to get up here. The staff at the Stanley museum were very helpful and made the process easy.
While in the Stanley mood, I tackled the rear brakes on one side. Opening up and inspecting the brakes has been high on the list of things to start do first. Mainly as the service brakes were essentially useless when I picked it up and the hand brake was the only thing that would help keep it from rolling away. My yard is all sloped and I will have to move the car into the separate workshop before starting the serious steam system work. And I need to have a bit more control when towing and rolling it around to keep it from getting away.
Spoiler alert. The brakes are the obsolete and not very good design that I suspected when first looking at it. Stanley was very late to even bring their mechanical brakes “up to date”. Its not surprise that many have modified or upgraded the brakes on their Stanley. I’ll be taking some pictures and notes on that whole topic and will share them in some later posts.
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Hi John
Excellent thoughts and comments.
I'm off the main path up here so steam is rarely seen or heard by most. I was hoping to be able to ask Keith for more information to help me along, but unfortunately he passed away before I could. And for me to get to the nearest steam meet or another steam car owner is a drive of 8 hours or more away. In the meantime, its a look for information, study, inspect, go slow process. Nearly every time I look close at the Stanley I see new things that I didn't see previously. And I am starting to recognize what those 18 plus different valves hidden around the car actually do.
At least for me, I have a mechanical engineering back ground and worked in the steam electric power generation field for my working career. Which helps me have a basic understanding of the principles an what to look for. But its still not as good as being able to watch someone go through the process first hand. Although that may come yet.
I do hope that that the interest in steam continues. I think that it will, but it will also be likely at a reduced level from before.
If you have the interest, don't wait until its too late. We are going to need a few more steamers in the hobby.
Drive Safe
Jeff
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This one has been on the market since last September. I first spotted it then when researching the Stanley market while trying to value the one that I eventually bought later last fall.
This listing has been on Facebook, Ebay, Barn Finds and the AACA forum previously over the past 6 months. The EBay listing had the same starting price.
The Stanley market and steam market in general does appear to be shrinking over the past few years. With the possible exception of newer tires on this one, mine is in slightly better overall condition. And I was able to get it for substantially less than than this one. In my favour was the previous owner was looking for a new caretaker and wanted mine to stay local which likely helped me out a bit as we are a ways away from the main market for these.
On the flip side, the motorcycle that I sold to fund my Stanley I think I sold for slightly under market. But being at a distance from the market, taking a bit less for a local sale vs the cost of getting it to a better market may about balance out. But our local horse trading ended up with three satisfied people which is still a good ending.
Hopefully this one eventually finds an interested new caretaker that want to make it operational again in the future. But the current owner will likely have to become a bit more flexible on price.
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I'll echo that. Good to see you back at it. Keep up the good work and be sure to show the rest of us the progress.
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Yes, the standard answer should be to check with your local DMV regulations.
But it may help to also check the various rules and regulations when the vehicle is coming from another state/province to yours.
Here in Nova Scotia (eastern Canada) we do have vehicle "titles" generally referred to as the vehicle registration. That is the proof of ownership and you keep it at home. Purchasing a vehicle without a title whether local or from away can result in various challenges to get a registration certificate issued here. It can be very difficult, but not impossible. It has become more difficult since a lot of street rods applying and getting registrations for little more than a shell and sometimes less than that based on "fuzzy" paperwork. Here the rules are still a bit mixed up and modified vehicles have been getting away with running under Antique Auto plates which allow them to avoid having to have safety inspections or pay full price for their annual plate registration. Although the actual regulations for Antique Plates are only for "stock" vehicles. The DMV and Governments here have been working on new motor vehicle regulations. But like most Government departments, the process is moving at the same speed as glaciers. Its only been about 10 years in the works so far.
Now the DMV will want to see a complete vehicle, some history , purchase receipts or similar before even considering the process. And in some cases they want to see the finished product before they will issue a registration. And after the pain of that process, the registration fee is based on the valuation of the vehicle at the time the title registration is issued, but that is a one time fee. So it pays to go through the hoops to get a title registration before starting any restoration to avoid paying registration tax on your own restoration work.
Then, if you want actually drive it on the road. You first need the proof of ownership, see title registration above. Then apply for the license plates and pay the annual plate fee. Then you have to carry the plate registration with you in the vehicle.
So even in Canada, the process and regulations vary widely from province to province.
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I have a '14 Hudson with the wet cork clutch. It's always a bit harder to shift hot then cold. I use a modern 460 W gear oil, similar to the old 600W in the transmission which improved it a lot. But even that thins out when hot. But when it really hard to change get it out of gear warmed up, then its telling me that the clutch fluid had mostly leaked out again and the clutch is sticking. Draining and refilling the clutch fluid (50-50 motor oil and kerosene) brings back an smooth clutch.
And an odd possibility to consider. I did try adjusting the clutch fork to get more movement when the clutch pedal was pushed down when I was starting out learning about the car thinking that this would provide more free play. There was a point where it actually got worse to shift. It turned out that the clutch lever could move the clutch plate enough that when the pedal was pushed down the clutch disc was pushed too far open and it would start to drag "on the other side" so to speak.
Re-adjusting the clutch arm again to more of a "mid" position and some more test driving and I found middle position that provided a good clutch release that worked better overall.
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I can't say that my dad was a real "car guy" type. But he (and mom) were supportive and tolerant when I got into old cars in my mid teens.
Did did lean towards Ford products. He bought a '58 Ford convertible and courted mom with that car. A few years later it was sold when I came along. Mom felt that a convertible was too drafty when carrying an infant. Somewhere the convertible bit did rub off though, most of my current hobby cars are open cars.
I remember his '64 Meteor sedan with the plywood platform added to turn the back seat into a playpen size space for me and my younger first brother for longer trips. Try that one today. 🤫Later came the second hand '68 Ford Meteor Rideau 500 station wagon that we used for family trips and towing the camper trailers. That one was the 8 passenger version with the opposed facing folding extra seats in the back section. By then there were 6 of us in the family and we needed the extra space. That old Ford stayed in the family for several years and was car that I got my first driving lessons on and my first attempts at body work to fill in the rust holes on the back doors. It got sold after one of the brake lines failed in the parking lot when mom was driving. She put down her foot (pun intended) after that it was time for it to go.☹️
He did get a Mini Minor as a second family car for a while in the early '70s that we had fun riding in. It sounded and felt like you were going 60 mph around town when actually barely doing 30.😆
When I developed my interest in old cars as a teenager in the late '70s he recommended getting an early 60's Mustang. But I considered them too "new" and really wanted something with a side folding hood and running boards. Maybe that was his hidden interest in never having one. The family agreement growing up was if I got a part time job and saved enough to pay university tuition, I could spend anything over that on whatever I wanted. I started seriously saving up after that.
He did come with me to look at a '36 Packard 120 and later went with me when I purchased it a few months later. The Packard was stored in a rented garage downtown and they let me borrow mom's car to go down and work on it. One problem, I learned to drive on automatics, the Packard was a standard. Well when I finally got the Packard running, guess who had to drive it home. I think he enjoyed that trip as much as I did. The Packard is still in the garage and driven in the summer.
I was working on the long term restoration of a '05 Cadillac in the early 2000's that was dragged home in bits and stored around the house when I was still in university in 1980's. It drove my parents crazy, but they still let me keep the bits around and listened to my dreams about restoring it. I had it ready for the first engine run at the end of the summer in 2010 and was looking forward to inviting dad over to hear it start. Unfortunately, just a few days before that could happen, he passed away in his sleep after coming home from his cottage.😔
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I hope that the members here will allow me this small project to qualify as actual recommissioning work.
I have been thinking that I would rather see the headlight lenses stored in the lights than in the back seat or on a shelf. In part to try to avoid accidental damage.
I needed to take a break from some on-going and frustrating re-wooding of a ’13 Ford T touring body. That year was not only a bad design, this body was badly built Fisher Canada as they were just starting up about that time. And time and moisture have severely damaged the original wood frame. Enough said about that one.🤐
Anyway, it seemed like a good opportunity to take some time and see if I could make a replacement headlight retaining tab to replace the missing one. I brought one rim up to the workshop to inspect more closely. Turns out a second retaining tab was loose so I took it out to better use as a pattern. Then dug through the bits pile and found some body metal of the right thickness and cut a strip. Using combination of the vise and sander I was able to get a close match. And with the help of a sharp punch and some nail sets tapped out the tab that gets bent to retain the lens. Afterward I tinned the retainer and soldered both the new and loose ones back into the rim. The process overall went smoother than expected.
Then with some new nylon rope for the gasket in rim that the glass sets on the first lens when back in. Of course, the process was going to easily. When I went to install the second lens one of the bent tabs snapped off. Back to the shop with the second rim and off with the failed retainer. For that one I made and soldered in a new retaining tab to the old retainer and re-installed it in the rim. That didn’t go too bad either, except for dropping the first tab and it disappearing somewhere under the workbench. 😖The second one worked out though.
There should also be a rope gasket between the reflector and the lens on the back side. The reflector has a groove in it for the gasket. Getting one to stay on the reflector when it’s standing up is not so easy. When at the hardware store I found some soft white tubular weather strip with an adhesive backing. It had two round sealing sections and when split into two strips made a pair of nice ¼” diameter hollow rubber gaskets that could be stuck to the reflector. Then with a bit of care and gentle pushing the rims and lenses went back on the Stanley. And no rattles now either.
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Sometimes patience will eventually pay off. I was stumped about how to get the headlight rims off to get inside the headlights for inspection and to replace one burned out bulb. The rims were originally nickeled, but nearly all of it has peeled off. But bits are left that will cut your hand if you aren’t careful so out came some rubber faced gloves.
There were no obvious screws holding the rims on that I could see from the front. And since I have been hanging out with Ts too much, I assumed that the rims must therefore be the spring loaded, turn and release style. I sprayed penetrating oil around the rims and slowly got one to spring and rotate a few degrees but it would not release. The second was tight on the bucket and would “spring” a bit but would not rotate.
I didn’t want to damage the lenses so I walked away and would return to them now and then when I was walking by the car. One evening I tried again, with gloves and during the twisting I heard something rattle at the bottom. So, I looked more closely at the bottom of the rim and bucket and well d*#*. I found a locking lever hiding up against the edge of the rim on the bottom where I completely missed it before. A little fiddling and it moved back and then the bottom of the rim came forward and the rim tilted right off the bucket. When I tried the lever on the stuck rim it came loose then that rim came right off too.
A closer look afterward and I found out that the rim was held in by being dropped over two raised tabs on the top then when the bottom was pushed on the bucket, the lever could be moved and inside the bucket the other end of the lever grabs the bottom of the rim and holds it in place.
The whole process only took me a couple weeks to figure out what should have taken a couple of minutes. That black lever was hiding on the underside of a black bucket and I completely missed it before. But at least it all came apart without damage.
I did find inside the rims that the rope gaskets were in poor shape and the glass lenses were resting against the metal rim and the reflector. So, time to head to the local Stanley dealer, aka the friendly neighbourhood hardware store for some rope gasket material.
I’m glad that I took the rims off. I found that one of them was missing one of the four metal tabs that holds the lens in place and the lens was rattling around a bit. Another project for the list. Make up a fourth retaining tab and solder it in to replace the missing one.
The reflectors are in good condition for the age and will get a gentle polish before the lenses go back on. And a friend was able to supply a good pair of 32 CP headlight bulbs so now all four headlight sockets work and light up.
Some pictures of what I found below.
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For R1Lark
We steam power plant engineers have to stick together. We are becoming dying breed in North America these days.
My own experience (36 years) is on smaller turbine generators, only 1850 psi, 1005 F at the turbine inlet. We never got into the larger super critical boilers here.
Part of how I got my interest to chase the Stanley. And also where my caution when working on the steam systems comes from too.😉
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Now What Have I Done..... '22 Stanley Steam Car
in Our Cars & Restoration Projects
Posted · Edited by nsbrassnut (see edit history)
Here is another chassis inspection report. I pulled off the two front wheels to inspect and clean the front wheel bearings. Removing the hub caps showed that although the bearings were well greased, the grease didn’t look like what I’m used to seeing. The back side of the wheels had grease coming out which suggested that something might be out of place with the grease seals. The grease itself was a very dark brown, thick semi-fluid material that I haven’t seen in wheel bearings before. It was very stringy when removed and varsol could hardly cut it.
This car is definitely different than anything else that I have worked on. The front wheel bearings appear to be unique and are different than anything else that I have run across so far. The inner grease seal retainer is fixed to the spindle instead of the wheel like most that I have seen. The felt seals were actually missing which explains the mess on the wheels. The design appears to need felt rings to be pressed into the groove on the plate on the spindle. Then a raised ridge on the inside of the wheel hub presses into the groove and runs against the felt to make the seal. Looks like I’ll be shopping for some felt to make some seal rings out of soon.