My 1910 Mitchell "parts car" project

[edinmass]

92 bucks for a chunk of cut off……….🫣

[JV Puleo]

I know...ordinarily I'd use something cheaper but this is 12L14. It threads very nicely and I have to thread for the hubcap. It's one of the last operations so I'll have several days in this before I get to that and I don't want to take a chance on spoiling it. I could have used cast iron but the high grade stuff, Durabar, is hard to get around here and just as expensive. I have a big chunk I bought to make a backing plate for a chuck but I'd be a week turning it down.

[Laughing Coyote]

4 hours ago, edinmass said:

92 bucks for a chunk of cut off

Yep... sounds about right.  I deal with lots of sheet steel and a 4' x 8' x 16g cold roll sheet is $150.  Before the tariffs and covid carp it was about $63 a sheet.  

[JV Puleo]

Ed is puling my leg a bit. If there is anyone here with a grip on what materials cost these days, especially when you are a low volume user, it's him. That said, if you are careful it all averages out over time. The hub sleeves I made were made from free, rusty bar and I tend to use salvaged materials as much as I can, reserving the purchase of special stuff to the jobs that actually require it. As I clean up my late aunt & uncle's property I'll be bringing a lot more of it home. Some of the suspension parts were made from the prop shaft of my uncle's Chriscraft and my cousins were, if anything, more active collecting useful materials when they saw them than I am. I actually have a huge bar of stainless of the right dimensions for this job but I don't know what alloy it is and that stuff can be hell to machine. It isn't worth even trying.

[Cizu]

The good part of forgetting what you have is that you can't be too worried about forgetting where you put it... and the surprise when you run across it later is almost as much joy as when your acquired it to begin with.  

[JV Puleo]

I set this up on Saturday but only got to working on it today. The big piece of bar was reamed to 1-1/2". This is to mount it on a mandrel to turn the OD. It will eventually be bored out so it's almost hollow.

 

 

Then I turned it down to an even 4-1/4"

 

 

And turned the end that slips into the hub.

 

 

All this went well. It's a "slip fit". I can't be certain the recess for this piece lines up perfectly with the bearing race, although it is not likely to be any more than .002 or .003 off, I'll put this in with Locktite and align the bearings by putting the entire thing together. When the Locktite has set I'll add 4 screws around the OD of the hub to further secure it.

 

 

I now have to flip it around and machine the other end but since it was close to the end of the day I spent the last half-hour working on my external lapping. I miked the spindle and found it to be .001 oversize which means I'll have to remove at least .002 to get the bearing to slip on. It's slow going but I can't think of no other way to do it. In any case, when done, the fit will be very good.

 

[JV Puleo]

It looks as if Harm (Sloth) and I are having similar restoration problems...

I turned the smaller end of that big piece of bar down to the finished dimension and trimmed the end. It was about .400 long.

 

 

Then, because I was curious, I weighed it. The piece of bar weighed 18 pounds as received...now it weighs 8 lbs, 10 oz. and there is a lot more to be removed.

 

 

I decided to bore the bottom end before I thread it so I don't have to grip the piece on the threads...

 

 

I got it about 2/3 done. This has to be taken out so that the wall thickness is .200 so there is still some way to go.

 

[JV Puleo]

I got more done on the hub repair today, starting by putting in the relief for the end of the threads.

 

 

While I had the chuck on I also trimmed the sleeve in the big end of the hub. As I expected, they aren't identical. where I had to grind .050 off the spacer on the other hub, this one is .030 short with the full 1/4" spacer.

 

 

Then I put the hub  back on the mandrel to be threaded.

 

 

The threading gauge screwed on...

 

 

And just for good measure, I tried one of the hub caps.

 

 

Then the chuck went back on to bore out the center of the hub from 1.5" to 2.150

 

 

This is slightly larger than the ID of the bearing race...

 

 

The next step is the seat for the outer bearing but that's a fussy job and it's almost 5 PM here. It's best I leave it for tomorrow when I'll be that much more alert.

Edited April 27, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

The hub repair piece is almost done. I started by boring the seat for the outer bearing race.

 

 

Then turned it around to bore the inside out to a wall thickness of .200 and leave the lip that the holds the bearing in place.

 

 

The piece of bar I started with weighed 18.26 lbs (according to the packing slip)...than may have included the box but that was minimal. As you can see, the nearly finished piece weighs 3 lbs, 4.2 oz. and I have a huge pile of swarf under the lathe.

 

 

I still have to put in the 3 cuts that will allow the race to be pulled out but before I can do that I've a couple of things to do on the mill. First, when I made the castellated nuts I cut the slots 1/8". After they were done I realized that the hole in the spindle is 3/16". Since the nuts have to be really locked in place I thought it best to widen the slots to use the correct cotter pins.

 

 

Also, this came in. It is an Unterberg & Helmle magneto. Unterberg invented the "snap starter", as far as I know the only form of impulse starter that actually pre-dates WWI. This is the device that Terry's student worked up a model of from the patent drawings. I've never seen one of the mags but by a wierd coincidence two of them popped up on ebay. I bought the better (and cheaper) of the two, mostly because I want to take it apart and see how it worked. I doubt I'll use it...Bosch mags are excellent, commonplace and it's easy to get them rebuilt but I couldn't resist the opportunity to get the real thing...

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

That cool Joe! I am curious to see how close we came to it since all we had work with were the patent drawings.

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

Me too! That's the reason I bought it.

My quick look inside tells me it's quite different from the Bosch mags I'm familiar with.

Edited April 28, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

Today was the moment of truth on the hub repair. I started by putting in the 3 notches that will allow the race to be pulled if it has to be replaced.

 

 

Then I pressed the race in and assembled everything. From the beginning, the challenge has been to get everything to align properly, something that is not easy when the bearings are in two separate parts that have to align with each other. To my relief, it went together perfectly.

 

 

Then I took it apart again and put green Locktite slip fit on the new piece and reassembled it. It has to cure for 72 hours...the maximum time according to the directions and I see no reason to rush it at this point. You will also notice that the spacer on top of the outer bearing is much higher than on the other hub. The two hubs are not identical (even though they will interchange). Both the spacer and the nut will have to be adjusted for each one.

 

 

I spent the rest of the day lapping the piece that holds the axle bearing. It is very slow going and I'm wondering if there is a better way. I'd love to be able to grind it but to do that I'd have to take the spindles apart and I'm loath to do that.

[Terry Harper]

Fantastic job Joe!

 

Most excellent!

 

T

[edinmass]

“It came out perfect.”

 

Thats exactly what I was expecting from you craftsmanship…….never doubted it for a second. Well done my friend. Three thumbs up! 👍 👍👍

[JV Puleo]

I had intended to do a little more lapping today but before I started I miked the spindle I'm working on in three places. Like the bearing seats in the hubs, it is tapered. While I am removing metal with the lap, at the base it is still .003 too big. That means I'd have to remove as much as .005 to get the tapered roller bearing to slide on and that would probably take a week at the rate it's going.

 

 

So...I decided to take another look at the original bearings. I found the cups and, to my surprise, they are not of the same configuration as the hub bearings. Notice that the bottom surface is flat.

 

 

I reread Heldt on this last night. He seems to recommend a conventional ball thrust bearing since all the stress is vertical. In fact, he also suggests two hardened steel washers with one pinned to the axle...a simpler system but suitable to a piece that does not rotate and, in fact never makes a full turn. It looks to me as if these were ball thrust bearings, albeit it made in the same manner as the hub bearings. I think tapered rollers would be better — Heldt illustrates a Lozier front end and that used tapered rollers but Lozier was a very high end car and I suspect would use the very best solution regardless of cost even if the improvement was only marginal. This is all complicated by the fact that I have limited space to work with. The bearing has to fit into the recess in the underside of the axle.

 

 

So...I've decided to go with a conventional ball thrust bearing, 45mm x 65mm. I'll have to make sleeves to go on the spindles and to fit in the recess. The larger sleeve will only be about .070 thick but I think that is doable and I have some tubing on hand I can do it with so I won't be wasting money on materials that don't work out.

Edited April 30, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I started making two more sleeves to hole the thrust bearing in place...cutting off two more pieces of my rusty bar.

 

 

And reaming them out to 1.5"

 

 

Then on to a mandrel to turn them. I'm trying the offset compound like I use with the grinder to see if I can hit the dimension (which is 1.769) exactly on and get a good finish.

 

[JV Puleo]

No photos today...I made an error measuring that sleeve and went too far so I had to go back and make another one. This time I made it .010 oversize and I'll grind to the finished dimension. These have to be a little closer than the sleeves for the roller bearings because the sleeve and the bearing take up all of the axial play. If I leave too much clearance it will be as if the king pins were loose.

 

On the positive side, mid-day one of my two local old car friends stopped in (We were in the same class in HS so this goes back more than 50 years). He'd never looked at a Lemoine axle so we did a preliminary "assembly" and I discovered that the sleeves I'm making won't fit inside the vertical portion of the axle. As a result, they cannot be any longer than the thickness of the bearing. This will have no effect on how they work but it means that each of the two sleeves I'm making is long enough to make both parts.

Edited May 3, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I finished turning the 2nd sleeve to the grinding tolerance. The bearings are supposed to arrive Friday so I might as well wait for them just to make certain everything fits properly. After that I went back to the hub, setting it up in the drill press to put lock screws around the circumference. I decided to use the drill press rather than the mill because I want to do this very carefully. I don't like the way it hangs out from the rotary table but I've no other way to do it...with the drill press I can be very careful as to how much pressure I put on the drills and the countersink.

 

 

First I did a center hole, then drilled through with a #25 drill and then threaded the hole 10-24.
 

 

Then the hole was countersunk so the flat head machine screws will go part way in.

 

 

And a machine screw, with a drop of Locktite on the threads tightened in.

 

 

I did that six times going around the hub 60-degrees at a time.

 

 

With the new piece about as secure as it will ever be, I machined the taper between the large and smaller portions of the hub. To get the taper I put the intact original one in the lathe and use an indicator to set the compound over. I doubt that the exact angle is important but this go me very close/

 

 

 

To do this, you have to feed the compound by hand so I took small cuts. It takes time but works very well...I'm satisfied with the result.

 

 

All that remains it to cut the screw heads down to flush with the hub. I'll do most of that in the lathe and then grind them to finish. Out of curiosity I weighed the two hubs. The repaired one weighs exactly 5 ounces less than the original one.

[JV Puleo]

I tried turning down the heads of the screws on the lathe  — without much luck. These are grade 8 or even tougher. It's a high carbon steel that really wants carbide tools and a high speed lathe — neither of which I have. So, despite the fact that they were a good .050 above the surface, I ground them.

 

 

It took most of the day, going at .001 per cut. Also, unlike the earlier grinding jobs, I could not run off the end because the grinding wheel will hit the flange. I had to watch it very carefully and stop it before it went too far. I'm not complaining though because it came out just fine. Here are the two front hubs...the undamaged one on the left, the repaired one on the right.

 

 

I also discovered a minor error I'd made. The bearing race on the repaired hub isn't seated as deeply as the original hub. Fortunately, it's easy to compensate for.

Edited May 5, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Luv2Wrench]

Really turned out nice.  Gotta get me a tool post grinder.

[dibarlaw]

Joe:

What is the make of your go-to lathe that most of your photos show that you employ?

  5 years after my 110-year-old Century 1 HP motor started unwinding itself

I finally adapted a 75-year-old Century 1 HP motor which is physically 1/3 smaller. 

It is nice to get the breeze from the line shaft again running my 13" WF&J Barnes. This lathe came out of the Tool Room of the old Geiser Co. in Waynesboro, PA.  VERY little use with all original paint many accessories. It came with chucks, 3 and 4 jaw, a tapping die chuck, steady and follow rests a wood turning rest and much more tooling. One thing I needed to make was a better sized face plate, 12". One can see in the photo past my newly made-up faceplate what I call the Barnes wrist breaker face/driving plate. X shape.

Next, I have to get my BURKE mill back together and running, that is buried on the floor lower left of the lathe.

You have been an inspiration on doing these tough jobs with ancient machinery.

Thank you for sharing!

 

 

[JV Puleo]

Thanks! I think you will agree there is nothing wrong with old machines if you have the patience to master them. My lathe is a 15" Sidney, made in Sidney, Ohio. (It really swings about 17".) It came from the maintenance shop of an ancient bank stationary printer in Pawtucket, RI. I went to the printing auction because I was a printer...and bought the lathe ($125) and the drill press I use all the time ($25). As a result of my life taking a very decided wrong turn at one point, it spent at least 10 years outdoors so when I resurrected  it for this shop it was rusted into a solid lump. I doubt anyone else would have tried to save it but I had no money to buy anything else so I spent something like 2 years taking it apart and rebuilding it. It actually ran for the first time in 15 years after I bought the MItchell (but before it was delivered).

 

Every time I finish something I'm at a loss for what to do next...I started the day by doing a final assembly of the hubs after things were adjusted. The only visible difference in them is that one of the castellated nuts is slightly shorter than the other one. Since they are under the hubcaps, I can live with that.

 

 

I then boxed the parts up and put them on the shelf. They will come out for final assembly when all the machine work is done and I can get the painted parts sandblasted. I then went on to the sleeves that will center the thrust bearings in the Lemoine axle. I'd made these much too long to fit inside the axle — they have to be just a few thousandths under 14mm. Since grinding takes so long, I though it best to reduce them to close to the finished size.

 

 

 

With that done, I took a close look at the axle. This is the top...there is a thrust bearing on the bottom and a flanged bushing on the top. I couldn't find the originals — they are here somewhere — but I'd decided long ago that they were probably too warn to use. The hole is a nominal 1-3/8" but when I inserted a piece of ground stock it wiggled enough to suggest it might have too much play. I'm guessing that play here would be effectively the same as loose king pins. Fortunately, most of the wear appears to be in the housing. The spindle itself miked .001 undersize which is about what you'd want for clearance.

 

 

You can also see the wear where the flanged bushing wore into the housing. The original bushings were hardened steel. I'm not sure why either...it isn't an ideal material since ordinarily you'd want the wear part to be the easiest replaced. I'm going to make the new ones out of bearing bronze...so I put the piece I have in the saw to cut two 2" pieces.

 

 

The qualities that make it great as a bearing material make it very tedious to saw...I think the saw was running more than an hour and it's about half-way through. Its probably 2 hours per cut.

 

I have a 1-3/8 expansion reamer so my plan is to make the bushings slightly oversize and to ream the holes out a few thousandths. I also need to face off the top of the housing so it's flat again and make a stand to hold the axle while I'm working on it. As it is, it's extremely awkward to work with.

Edited May 6, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[TonyAus]

Power driven lathes - pure luxury!  You need to try working with one of these'

 

[dibarlaw]

Tony Aus:

 Very cool machine. I also have a 9" WF&J Barnes from 1895 that was originally a velocipede lathe.

 This is what mine should look like... Photo taken at the American Precision Museum Windsor VT.

 Unfortunately, the step drive wheel, pedal crank and seat were discarded and a 1930s washing machine motor and wooden step pulley were set up above the head stock in their stead. It is still a dandy lathe for small work. My 13" Barnes was also available as a velocipede set up.

[JV Puleo]

These are mine...

This one conforms to a Sir Joseph Whitworth patent of 1834. Unfortunately it's unmarked so it may have been made by someone else ...that seems unlikely though. It probably had a table like the gap head late above. I bought it in the UK about 10 years ago and it cost more to ship it home than it cost. The gentleman I bought it from got it from a neighbor whose father had been using it well into the 1960s.

 

 

This one was not foot driven but it's very old. American, probably from the Worcester, Massachusetts area about 1845–1855. Certainly pre-Civil War and built on the bed of a chain lathe with the lead screw added. It's a "factory" job but, again, we don't know who made it. I know of another, nearly identical, that is still a chain lathe. *A "chain lathe" used a chain running down the middle of the bed to move the saddle. They were not terribly smooth operating but were fairly simple to build. They were obsolete before the Civil War but many continued in use until the end of the 19th century. The most primitive versions have wooden beds with flat iron ways bolted on. This is a future project. I got about half done when I realized that the parts I still have to make exceeded my skills. I'm just about at the point where I could finish it but I'd rather do car work...

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

The saw finished cutting one piece of bronze for the front end bushings this morning and put the 2nd one in the saw. I started it at quarter past 1...and it's still cutting at 5PM. There is probably a better way to do it but the saw runs by itself and turns itself off when done so it isn't like I wasted the day. I did start on the other parts I will need. These are two pieces of tubing to make the sleeves that will fit into the bottom end of the axle.

 

 

And the 1/4" plates that will be the spacers that go under the thrust bearing. These are 4-1/4 in diameter and I have to turn them down to 2.550.

 

 

In this case, the plates were sawed from a piece of bar. The others I've used were rolled plate that had been water-jet cut. As a result, the thickness of these isn't quite as uniform but they are too thick in any case so before I drilled and reamed them I took a .015 facing cut out almost to the edge.

 

 

Then the two of them were turned down, holding them on a 1-1/2" stub arbor...which arrived about half an hour before I needed it. They will get ground to the finished thickness. The faced off side is perfectly perpendicular to the hole so that will go on the magnetic chuck and I'll grind of the saw marks...

 

 

There was still some time left so I set up the first sleeve and turned it to about .002 undersize...just enough to slip in easily. This is another place where I'll use Locktite when I'm sure everything aligns.

 

 

With that done I set up the boring bar but by now I'd decided it was best to leave this for the morning.

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I feel like I'm making pretty good progress. I started the day by boring out the sleeve so that the thrust bearing slips in.

 

 

I couldn't check to see if the OD was right until I'd cut it off. Thankfully, it was.

 

 

Then I made a second sleeve to match this one. The last step was trimming them to .760. Because the wall thickness is only about .070 they are too fragile to go in the 4-jaw so I put the 3-jaw on. With this chuck it's much easier to expand the jaws with uniform pressure and it doesn't need much...just enough to keep it from slipping while I cut it down. I even took light cuts to avoid putting too much pressure on it.

 

 

They actually look good...

 

 

I can't think why I should put it off so I applied green Locktite slip fit to them and pushed them in.

 

 

Then slipped in a thrust bearing to make sure it fit.

 

 

While all this was going on, the saw finally finished cutting the bronze bar for the top end bushings.

 

 

So the last thing up today was setting this up in the lathe. These are going to be reamed to 1.125" and finished turned on a mandrel.

 

 

I'm off tomorrow helping my friend Mike West load a couple of Model A's and a pile of parts...a sort of "Busman's Holiday."

Edited May 10, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I didn't have the correct drill to make a 1.125 hole so I bored the bronze bushing blank to 1.100

 

 

And reamed it...

 

 

Before doing the second one I tried it on the steering knuckle. It was just a shade tight — which is very good. I'll be able to lap it in and the fit will be perfect.

 

 

I then pressed one on a mandrel and took a light cut over the whole piece to make certain the OD was concentric with the ID.

 

 

Then turned the body of the bushing down to 1.380 — .005 over the original nominal size. I'll ream the axle to fit them, taking out the wear that I noticed earlier.

 

 

The last step was trimming the flange. I made these a little thicker than the original to allow for fitting if needed.

 

 

 

I'm also collecting bits for a future project, most of which came in today. This pile of stuff will be the ignition switch.

 

[JV Puleo]

After a weekend where just about everything I did went sideways it's good to be back on the car...

I started by setting u the tool post grinder to do the little sleeves that will fit inside the thrust bearings in the front spindles.

 

 

These are ground to 1.770 which is .0017 smaller than 45mm. The way these bearings work is that one race has a larger ID than the other. I'll put the tight one at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

Then I went on to surface grind the two spacers that take up the gap between the bearing and the bottom of the axle. the clearance here is about .008 so a .004 gap around the outside edge. It would be nice to have a real seal in there but I can't see a way to do that...

 

 

And, I tried them in the axle. They look like they are too low in this picture but the height difference is really only about .002. If they were low, I'd just add a shim on the inside.

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I didn't get in until noon today but started off by pressing the spacer/shields for the "kingpin" side of the steering knuckles on. The first one was easy after I made a "pressing tool" out of a piece of pipe.

 

 

The second one worried me a bit as it was tighter. In this case I'm making good use of the taper in the original piece...it is just enough to make a very tight fit. It also went on without a problem though I'd hate to have to get them off.

 

 

I rough assembled the first one on the axle. I actually had to do this upside down since I haven't yet made a fixture to hold the axle upright and rigid. That will come soon but, in this case I just flipped the picture so you can see how it works.

 

 

Then I went on to make the two 1-16 lock nuts that go on the threaded portion at the top.

 

 

 

They came out nearly perfect but, as is so often the case with me, I thought of a much better way to do it...something that will look more finished and conform to many of the parts I've already made. So, tomorrow I'll do it over.

Edited May 17, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

My "improvement" idea is a circular nut with notches for a hook spanner. This will not only look better, but it will mimic all the other pieces I've made that take the same spanner and I can make it slightly thinner because I don't have to compensate for the width of a big open end wrench. The necessary spanner is one that I'll have to include in the took kit in any case so it also eliminates carrying an extra tool that has no other application.

 

I cut two pieces of brass bar, threaded them as I had the hex nuts and faced them off to a thickness of .400

 

 

 

Then I took a very light cut, just to make sure it the OD was perfectly concentric with the ID and knurled them.

 

 

Then set the mill up to cut the notches...

 

 

At this point I made a mistake. I forgot to tighten the tool holder in the spindle. The result was that the first two notches came out too deep. It's a PIA but after the front hub debacle I can't get too worked up. At least in this case all the tooling, and the materials, are at hand to make another one. This is what they are supposed to look like.

 

 

I also did a quick assembly on one of the spindles to show how this works.

 

 

The piece at the top is an oil reservoir and there is a hole in the center of the spindle that allows it to work its way down into the bushing and the lower bearing. It also serves as a lock nut so the knurled nut is the adjustment and the cap locks it in place. The flange on the bushing will get turned down when I fit it to the axle. At this point, I don't have the finished dimension.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

First thing today I made the replacement for the nut I ruined yesterday. Since everything was at hand, this wasn't onerous.

 

 

Next, I had to figure a way to hold the axle upright and solid. I had one idea but a better one came to me just before I started. I made two clamps from this piece of 1" square scrap.

 

 

And clamped it down to the bed of the mill. Since the mill weighs more than 5,000 lbs...it isn't going anywhere.

 

 

I was going to ream the axle but first I tried one of the bushings I'd made, keeping in mind that the OD of the bushing is .005 larger than the nominal size. It slipped nearly all the way in — a measure of how much wear there was. Rather than ream it, I decided to lap it in.

 

 

But, before I could do that I need to get the top of that conical housing flat. You'll remember that it shows considerable wear from the original bushing. To do this I improvised a cutter using this huge counterbore. It actually supposed to be used with a fixture I don't have. I bought a pile of them from another machinist who also didn't have the fixture thinking they may come in use some day.

 

 

I made a pilot for the counterbore...

 

 

And tied it all together with a 7/16-20 socket head cap screw. The hex at the top end is 1" so I used a 1" socket and turned it by hand. It chattered more than I'd like so when it was reasonably flat I draw filed it. the result is adequate.

 

 

Then I lapped the bushing...I hesitate to show this very improvised way of doing that...

 

 

But it did work. I was able to assemble this end of the axle. I think it still needs a bit of tweaking. It's tighter than I'd like but there is no play so it's just a matter of loosening it up a tiny bit...

 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

I never get tired of looking at your beautiful machine work. I envy your ability to make something from nothing and to make it beautiful. Nice!

[nickelroadster]

It is awe inspiring to watch you work progress.  I always wished I had learned more machine work.

[Luv2Wrench]

I'm relieved to see vice grips being used.  

 

[JV Puleo]

Thanks for the support guys...it feels odd in that literally no one locally, including my two old car friends, has ever done anything like this. When asked what I've been doing, most people just stare blankly if I try to explain it!

 

I actually finished the machine work on the front axle today...starting by turning down the flange on the bushing so it fit nicely under the knurled nut.

 

 

Then I assembled everything again just to be sure it worked.

 

 

The next step was to flip the axle around and flatten the top where it was worn.

 

 

The ID isn't as worn on this side so I reamed it very carefully with this big expansion reamer.

 

 

I took very light cuts because it's easy to take out too much...I got down to "lapping tolerence."

 

 

And here I discovered that I'd misplaced the little expanding arbor I used yesterday with the vise grips. It's in the shop somewhere but after an hour of futile looking I thought of another way to hold it. This is actually better too.

 

 

With that done I assembled everything...mostly because it's nice to see something together for a change.

 

 

All the parts went into their respective boxes, to come out when the axle and steering knuckles are cleaned and painted. I also noticed that I'd forgotten something. The ball on the driver's side steering knuckle is slightly too big and won't fit in the drag link ends I made. I must have know this some time ago because I'd made most of the parts...

 

 

The only part left to make is the piece that goes into that hole and holds the ball...so, I started on that.

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[chistech]

Joe, assembling the pieces is something I do often no matter what it might be I’m working on. From a RC model plane I’m building, 1:20.3 scale train cars I’m scratch building, to cars I’m restoring, I always assemble them even when quite a ways from being finished. I always get inspiration from seeing the assembled parts which helps me soldier on plus sometimes I might change a design or switch steps in the assembly/build/restoration because I see something different once I do a “pre-assembly” that I feel will look or work better.

[Duey C]

"I'm relieved to see vice grips being used.  "

And Peterson built Grips at that! The old 10R is my favorite.

"....most people just stare blankly if I try to explain it!"

The eyes glaze over and then the deer in the headlights look sometimes. Doesn't take much does it? I get that in my world also.

I'm blessed to have come across your thread. Your sometimes "out of the box" thinking is inspiring to me and many others.

[Mike Macartney]

12 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

When asked what I've been doing, most people just stare blankly if I try to explain it!

Joe

Your comment above caused me to laugh out loud.

That's the story of my life!

Mike

[JV Puleo]

Installing the new ball in the steering knuckle went very smoothly. One end was turned down to .001 over 9/16" so it will be a tight press fit,

 

 

Then the other end was turned to 5/8", leaving a flange in the middle.

 

 

The 5/8" end was then trimmed.

 

 

And a concave seat cut. I use a 1" diameter HSS router bit for this.

 

 

I trimmed the stud (in this case it's a grade 8 stud with a fine, 3/8 thread) and drilled a hole for the split pin. I have several of these fixtures for drilling the hole in the center of a round stud. made over the years for other jobs.

 

 

With that done, I pulled the new piece into the the steering knuckle using the stud. I then took it apart, put some Locktite on the threads in the ball, and put it back together.

 

 

The last step was to put the split pin in. (Although after I took this picture I took it out and put in a larger one.

 

 

That's done now and I can clean the knuckles up and do the final assembly. All this was done by 2:30 so I was faced with another of my "what do I don next" dilemmas. I decided to make a few bits for the ignition switch. If this seems like a strange "sidetrack" I should explain that this is one of those jobs that I've been thinking about for years. I'll explain more when I start on it but for now I turned this 1" x 2" brass washer down to 1-3/4".

 

 

 

One of my biggest problems is this washer, which has to get cut into 4 segments. It's taken me some time to devise a say to do that with my machines but I finally settler on making a holding fixture that I can solder the washer into. when it has been sawed into four pieces, I'll heat it up and remove them. I'm starting with another piece of the rusty bar I've made some of the bearing sleeves from.

 

 

I reamed a 1" hole in the center, then turned it down to 2" and faced off the ends.

 

 

Tomorrow I'll bore a 1-3/4 seat that the washer will fit into....