Questions for Sears owners

[AVS619]

Well, it is time to get my 1909 Sears Model H running and driving for 2012 after a 30 year slumber and prior to that, another fifty years of museum display. My questions are, what carburetor is on your Sears (there is a Kingston Five Ball on mine now), what do you use for the fiction material on the friction wheel (what is on now is leather that just does not work) and what is the material is within the 'clutches' on the end of the jackshaft (it appears someone put brake lining on in the 1920's and it also no longer works)?

Follow up question would be for those you drive their Sears. Is it a good car, or can it be made to be a good car, for touring? Anyone do one a one and two-cylinder tour in their Sears or even the New London to New Brighton?

Please email me directly at edfors@charter.net. I will greatly appreciate any help. Thank you indeed! Tom Edfors

[Guest EMF-Owner]

I sent an email, but here is my response for those who will find this thread in the future:

Carberator: I believe the early cars had a Kingston 5-Ball Carb on it, and at some point the carb was changed to at Schebler. I think you can tell the cars that should have the Kingston by a hole in the frame on the drivers side where a wire to either a choke or the tickler came out. Early chassis diagrams show this cab and his wire. I am not sure when this change happened. The Serial number on your car is early enough that I would not be suprised if that car is right. I would be interested to know if your frame has the hole I am talking about.

Friction material: My dad just redid his friction wheel a couple of years ago and he layered up Masonite and it has worked fantastic. He just bought sheets from the local home improvement place (Menards I think) and cut out enough circles to make it the right thickness. Got the idea from a friend who has a firction driven saw mill and that is what he used. It makes a nice smooth clutch and the material is surprisingly close the to the original which was taken off my dads car.

Material in the clutches: I can not help much on this one. Still running original material on my dads car.

Sears for Touring: We have only ever driven locally. I can not imagine driving on a long tour. You have to have your foot on the pedal constantly. I do REALLY enjoy driving the car though. We took it to Greenfield Village this year for the Old Car Festival and put more miles on it than it has had in Many years. I have heard of people driving Sears on tours, but I am not sure if I would. Maybe when it is my car, I may consider it.

Hope this helps. Remember, the Sears Motorbuggy website is there to assist you of I can. See the URL below if you need to.

Best of luck.

[Guest Mochet]

If you'd like to get the original-type friction material, try www.Paperpulleys.com. They sell them for the Sears, Cartercar, Metz, etc.

Phil

[trimacar]

Sears are nice cars, well engineered and easy to drive, if you discount the fact that your foot would get tired of holding down the "clutch" pedal all the time!

I had a beautifully restored one, fellow by the name of David Stewart of Longview Texas had restored, and it was an AACA winner in late 70's or early 80's. I can tell you that it was restored to current standards, was a great car. Sold it at the first The Auction in Lost Wages, when was that, 1985 or so? It brought $18K, so that tells you quality.

Nice driving car, but low speed. 15 to 20 mph maybe, anything over that and you were downhill and it was scary.

On a 1/2 cylinder tour, it would need to be a very local, short tour. I guess, if there were nice smooth roads (solid wheels/tires make you feel every bump, I lived on a brick street and that was an experience!), you could drive 60 miles in 3 hours or so, but you'd be whipped.

Don't get me wrong, very pretty cars, and I wish it were sitting in my garage now, but would need to be a very specific situation for it to be a good tour car.....