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We acquired an Oakland with a "little" work.


Sloth

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Hello,

The last two days, I spend turning the propeller shaft from 42MoCr4. As the shaft is rather long (3 1/2') and slender 2", it took a lot of shallow passes to get it vibration free turned back to 1 3/8".  The fixed steady was needed to ensure some rigidity. For some unknown reason, using the traveling steady made things worse, that is, a lot more vibration. Using only the fixed steady, no vibration at all. As this lathe is nearly 65 years old, some play here and there is evident. I can live with it very well, but for this job it is on the edge. Turning the shaft took 9 hours in total. Things left to do: milling the square part, cutting the thread at the pinion end ( 7/8 x 20) and turning the trust plate for the pinion bearing.  Also a new pinion nut is needed, the old one is busted beyond repair. 

 

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Half way.....

 

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At last, most of the turning is completed.

 

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Just to give an impression of the length of the propeller shaft.

 

Tomorrow will be a rainy day (according to the weather forecast), that is not the right weather to mow the grass 😉, but excellent weather to complete the work on the propeller shaft😊.

 

Regards,

Harm

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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Harm, you probably know all this but I'll mention it in any case. I found milling the square end to be more challenging that it first appeared. I'd made a fixture out of 2" square aluminum with a 1-3/8" hole in it and four soft-point set screws to hold it in place. I placed that in the milling vise but what turned out to be the problem is that it has to be perfectly level...I ended up using a machinist's level on the bar and a little screw jack to get a fine adjustment before I locked the vise up.  Because the mill isn't perfectly level (It is close...but not perfect) I first put the level on the table then matched the location of the bubble to that...

 

Al...Lodge & Shipley is a very good machine. I suspect machine tools are tough to find in your neck of the woods so I'm glad you got a good one! (The antique machine guys usually refer to the west as a "machinery desert")

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19 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

Harm, you probably know all this but I'll mention it in any case. I found milling the square end to be more challenging that it first appeared. I'd made a fixture out of 2" square aluminum with a 1-3/8" hole in it and four soft-point set screws to hold it in place. I placed that in the milling vise but what turned out to be the problem is that it has to be perfectly level...I ended up using a machinist's level on the bar and a little screw jack to get a fine adjustment before I locked the vise up.  Because the mill isn't perfectly level (It is close...but not perfect) I first put the level on the table then matched the location of the bubble to that...

 

Al...Lodge & Shipley is a very good machine. I suspect machine tools are tough to find in your neck of the woods so I'm glad you got a good one! (The antique machine guys usually refer to the west as a "machinery desert")

Hello Joe,

Thank you for he good advice. The mill I use is certainly not level, its more or less level 😉. Yesterday I tried to get the axle level and centered, I used a 4 yaw chuck with independent yaws mounted on the indexer. It didn't work out, whatever I tried, but after 2 full rotations the shaft was off center. As last resort I decided to clean the inner parts of the (rather old) chuck. When I dismantled it, some chips and a part of a yaw thread fell out. Well, how about that. I bought this chuck 20 years ago, and never used it till yesterday. I ordered a new one yesterday, should be here tomorrow.

Regards,

Harm

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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I think we all have similar experiences. I would have liked to use the indexing head to mill the squares but I don't have one that the axle would pass through...hence my use of a square fixture and the vise. I think that might be a better way although it requires being leveled for each flat and each flat carefully measured during the process since there is no way to make the fixture perfect. One of my dividing heads has a 3-jaw on it...not the best but one of the very few items I've bought new. I don't generally like 3-jaw chucks and only use them when I have to but for milling and indexing they seem to do the job.

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Hello,

This morning I received the new chuck. After fitting it on the indexer, I started leveling the mill as good as I could. The machinist level is very sensitive, so it took me more than one hour to have the mill level, its not perfect but better than before. After that, I mounted the indexer and the shaft on the mill table, still using the machinist level for  levelness indication. That went rather well, to support the shaft I used a V-block and some steel plates and brass shims. Got it parallel with the mill table.

After milling a lot of shallow passes, I got a very nice square. No taper at all, I used a micrometer and a dial indicator for measuring this.  So now I am very happy with the result.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I put the shaft again in the lathe, centered it and measured the taper of the shaft. Length of the shaft 3 3/4' , I measured the taper from 4" of the end of the shaft till the square that is about 3' shaft length, shaft diameter 1,375"  total taper 0.002", not bad for an old late.

 

Vierkant1.jpg.88d42e3248511177eb353f972b4263e1.jpg

Picture of setup of the shaft support

 

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Result of 2 hours milling and indexer turning 😀.

 

Remaining activities, completing the nut, milling the key way for the pinion milling the key way for the nut retaining washer, turning the pinion bearing trust washer and cleaning the shop and machinery (what a mess it is now).

Regards,

Harm

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I always find cleaning up the mess after finishing a big job to be relaxing...with none of the tension I suffer when doing a major operation on a piece I've already spent days on...always with the idea that if I make a mistake now it's start all over. That's a great job Harm. You've every right to be pleased with it.

Edited by JV Puleo (see edit history)
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  • 2 months later...

Hello, after nearly a 3 month standstill (a lot of small but time consuming chores, and a few vintage car outings) I continued with the restoration of the rear axle of the Oakland.

I started with the drivers side of the axle housing, that is the side where the ring gear is bolted onto the differential. As the Oakland 40 HP engine runs counter clockwise, the ring gear is mounted at the opposite side, contrary to clockwise running engines. I first made a test sleeve for the cup part of the differential gear. I made it with a loose fit, this to facilitate easy removal when adding or subtracting shims. Then the fun began, putting in shims to get the right gear clearance (ring and pinion), and obtaining some bearing preload. The differential and shafts became quickly very heavy, after removing and replacing it more than 10 times. After that I removed the test sleeve took dimensions, and turned the final sleeve, the final sleeves have to be a press fitting. Pressed the sleeve into the axle housing, putting in some shims and assembled it, together with the third member including the prop shaft and pinion. Disassembled it again, and put the test sleeve with some shims into the passengers side half of the rear axle housing.

After that, I bolted it together with the third member. Result: not too bad, by hand turning the prop shaft, nearly no contact noise from the ring and pinion. Axial end play of axle shafts: 1/16" each.

 

Some questions to be solved: differential bearings preload, how to make the final adjustment and how to measure the real pre load. Gear play (I have no idea how to measure that as there is no inspection hole or something to observe the gears). The only possibility is using the prop shaft? Maybe I should use the Ford model A procedure. Starting with disconnecting the third member and removing the axle shafts from the differential. Then assemble the empty differential case -including some shims- into the axle housing and measuring the pre load by a small torque meter. Well I guess I must dive into the Ford model A procedure.

 

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Final sleeve with shims and cup, I milled a provision for inserting a cup removal tool.

 

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Axle housing half with final pressed in sleeve shims and bearing cup.

 

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Assembled passengers side of rear axle housing with third member. I made the 12 special bolts to bolt the ring

gear at the differential case. Must also make the correct bolts for bolting the two differential case halves together.

A P.O. used a mix of Allan bolts and grade 2 bolts.  Also have to make the necessary special castle nuts, botched

grade 2 nuts with washers are not OK.

 

IMG_1302.jpg.77fe4b5db7a9a9d45899e9ec85629a4e.jpg

Assembled rear axle with third member and differential.

 

So far so good, more of this next week.

Regards,

Harm

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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26 minutes ago, alsfarms said:

Nice work Harm.....

How hot is it in your neck of the woods?

Al

Hello Al,

Thank you. Where I live its 70F and rainy, that is rather cold for the time of the year. We had a cold month of July. But in Italy, France, Spain, Greece and  Portugal (that is to say, the whole south of Europe), it is extremely hot. 118F at some places, and very dry, terrible. Because of the wild fires, most of the tourists at the Island of Rhodes are now being evacuated. Maybe you heard about it on the news?

Regards,

Harm

 

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Yes, I saw in Greece how bad the fires were. We are at 105f and that is plenty hot for us. The crops, garden and or hard are liking it however.  It appears that you will have your Oakland rear axle repaired and ready to drive test soon.

Alan

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That is really excellent work Harm. It's a pleasure to know that there are still enthusiasts out there who can and will undertake this sort of "save". I'm guessing you've come to the same conclusions I have regarding the real cost...if you had to pay someone else to do it, it would never get done. Heck, it isn't cheap to do yourself!

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  • 4 months later...

Hello,

After a nearly 6 month gap, I started again restoring the Oakland. The reason for my absence are some family matters. Ann has one sister, now 82 years old, who participated successfully, this year for the 18th time the 'Nijmeegse Vierdaagse'. A world famous 4 days walk event. For her age group, you have to walk 20 miles a day, during four consecutive days. Ann participated successfully 8 times, but did not like it anymore. Nearly 40,000 participants, just too many people to her liking. So all went well, but after two weeks my SIL went ill. Long story short, we nursed her and stayed with her. She slowly recovered, but no work on the Oakland could be done (my SIL lives 80 miles away, it takes at least a 3 hours round trip, very busy roads over there).

 

Interesting part of this story:

As Ann and I stayed at my SIL's place, my SIL asked me to start with the clearance of her estate (with is huge -for Dutch standards-. Well there are a number of sheds / shops / and garages.... Filled to the brim with car parts, to me most of unknown cars and lorries. So a lot of work is involved, not easy for two 70 year old humans😏. I will not bother you with the details, but there is one very nice 'detail' to mention. As my brother in law, collected and dismantled many cars 😭 (he was a bit of a hoarder) he also dismantled a.o. a 1935 Auburn 851 cabriolet. The icing on our cake: we found nearly all the important parts of this car, Engine+gearbox, dual ratio rear axle, frame, steering box and wheel. Furthermore, 2 complete doors, front fenders, 1 rear fender, complete hood and so on. And a complete undisturbed wind shield, boy is that thing heavy! But sadly no front axle nor wheels. Also the sheet metal after the doors is missing. But I know why, I will write about it in another installment.

But most important, I found all the paperwork and some pictures belonging to that car, in the archives of my deceased BIL. That means a lot of less trouble with the authorities -if I ever get living long enough😉 to restore this car-. Having all the numbers and papers, i did a quick scan and could tracing the history back to the second owner. I guess with a bit of more effort, it must be possible to find the first owner.

 

Back to the Oakland.

To boast morale, I started to assemble all the parts on the Oakland. Just to see it as complete as possible. The running boards are junk, the PO cut of all the bolts and screws. So I made new running boards, that went well. But, I could not get the drivers side horizontal. The running board sagged about 6 degrees,  and that shows! After a lot of thinking, I came to the conclusion, that the weight of the very heavy Prest-O-Starter tank + the two spare tires, was just to much for the running board brackets. After more than 100 years they sagged a bit. So, with the help of some heath and a a large Bahco key (monkey wrench?) I got them horizontal. Progress: the front fender did not fit any more 😡. Seems that in the past the 'restorers' made it fit, by putting the front fender 1 inch more to the front and relocated the bracket for fitting the fender to the running board. That caused the head lamp to rub at the fender, they relocated the stanchion more to the middle of the car by cutting it of and welding it 1/2" more to the middle of the car, using a big nut as reinforcement.

I removed all this hacking and installed it as the car left the factory. The running board, fenders and head lamp are now fitting properly.  Today I started (again), with finishing the upholstery. Made the door panels. (no pictures, phone empty).

To be continued soon.

Sincerely, Harm

 

 

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Today Ann and I worked on the front seats. We are sewing the side pieces on the seats. As these side piece are sewn on at a 90 degrees angle, it is a very difficult job to do it with a 'regular' sewing machine. Years ago I bought a very old Singer leather workers machine. It took the greater part of the day to get it running and sewing again. But now it works perfect, after searching the web, I found and could download PDF manuals for it. Bringing such an ancient machine back to live you really need some kind of manual. Its a Singer type 29K71, its manually driven by hand wheel or by treadle. We use the hand wheel, start and stop is easier to control.  Ann and I managed to get one seat sewn, Ann turns the wheel and I guide the leather seat, went well -still happily married 😉-. One problem I encountered, sewing in a straight line is rather difficult with this type of machine.  The reason is the transport mechanism is simple, just the upper feet is transporting the leather. After a few inches it tends to put the leather of line. But on the other hand, you can rotate the upper feet 360 degrees horizontally. For this kind of job, a very useful machine. BTW it goes straight through 1/3" leather (be careful with fingers and nails, they are no match for these machines 😲. I hope to do the other seat to morrow.

IMG_1387.jpg.2ddf96260ad912fbe9fc350a646d0e3e.jpg

Ann turning the hand wheel of the Singer sewing machine. The pink dots are sewing pins. As it is rather cold

in the shop, we keep our body warmers on.

 

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Left side new running board. Bought he brass edge trimming at the Restoration Stuff Company.

 

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Finished right side rear door.

 

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Finished left side rear door.

 

Regards,

Harm

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Harm, At this time of year I would like to swish your and your good wife the best of the Holiday Season and a very Merry Christmas! Now along with having a pleasant Christmas and New Years Celebration, may your progress on the Oakland, Cleveland, Model A and anything else you put your mind too, be productive and rewarding!

Al

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Today, I finished the drivers seat cushion. Sew the underside slab (artificial leather) to the side panels of the seat. Did it by hand with a canvas needle, that is a half round needle. As the artificial leather is quite stiff, I used pliers to push and pull it through 2 layers of leather and 4 layers of artificial leather. -Have now sore hands 😫-.

One remark: the front of the seat is about 4" high, the rear of the seat is 2 3/4" high. The difference in height is necessary to keep you seated without sliding out of the seat, when the brakes are applied 😉.

 

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Cushion top side.

 

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Cushion bottom side.

 

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Driver side cushion at its final position.

 

Hope to continue to morrow with the passengers side.

 

Regards,

Harm

 

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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Nice work. I am not sure I understand not using your Singer machine rather than the hand work. How did you hold all layers in position while you manually stitched it together? What type of thread did you use for that process? You are really bringing a great brass era cars back to life while reversing the affects of being modified to a speedster. 

Al

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Hello Al,

The answer to your question: the Singer can not be used as the amount of material is to small to use the Singer sewing feet. Maybe there are sewing machines for this, but I am not aware of them. Below are some detail pictures to make it more clear what I mean.

 

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Cushion upside down, with underside cover slab.

 

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These two parts should be sewn together.

 

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I use a curved strong sewing needle for sewing together the bottom slab and the cushion side panel. And this is

where the fun begins 😉

 

All the layers are sewn before, so holding all the layers in position is easy. For regular leather work I use thread number 20, plenty strong for these cushions. For sewing the back slab to the side panel, I use thread number 10. To make it a bit more easy to get the threat through all the layers, I use hard leather wax on a small rag. (swiping the thread with the waxed rag)

Al, thank you for your kind words.

 

Regards,

Harm

 

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Today I competed the sewing of the back slab to the side panel of the passengers seat cushion. Put it into the car, not unhappy with the result. Only thing to do is: investigate what causes the wrinkle on the right side of the seat.  Same happens on the drivers side 😡.  On the picture it can clearly be seen, in reality not so much, but I can unsee it anymore, very annoying.

I started covering the back seat with hessian. Next thing to do, sewing side panels.

 

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Passengers cushion, ready for installation into the car.

 

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Detail of the cushion back slab sewn to the side panel.

 

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Completed front seats.

 

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Hessian on the rear seat.

 

Regards,

Harm

 

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have not been much in the shop. Last weeks were very cold 🥶 (for a Dutch point of view). As I keep the shop heated with a pellet stove, the stove was this time not up to the task. Instead I took the passengers rear seat into the nicely warm house, and upholstered it (the seat that is 😉). Fitting the back slab on the cushion was a bit hard in my fingers, pushing the half round needle through 6 layers of leather and some burlap is a heavy task. Thinking this over, and contemplating how large the back seat cushion really is, I thought that there must be an easier way to do this. So I looked at a website for horse saddle makers, tips, tricks and tools. Long story short: those people using a special tool for it.

 

IMG_1413.jpg.0ef5cc042aa43fc6f8520b5da7928dd8.jpg 

I ordered one at a leather shop. Its not expensive at all, I payed $35 for it. Well that was quiet a revelation, I don not say its easy, but its really a much less though job now.

 

IMG_1412.jpg.a4671a02d7eea6e9aa6f5e224c51c466.jpg

It works like a small hand sewing machine. You push the needle trough all the layers you wish to be sewn. Retread it a little till it forms a small loop on the end of the needle, and feed a sew thread through the loop. And then repeat it, to sew the back slab to the side slabs took me 6 hours. But on the end, my fingers were not nearly as sore as when I made the front cushions.

 

Here is the result of my labor:

IMG_1414.jpg.bb187512f3da84bac5961bceeabdb153.jpg

 

IMG_1415.jpg.148dbe4920a03b0de3f889033f527ac1.jpg

 

Regards,

Harm

Edited by Sloth (see edit history)
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19 minutes ago, alsfarms said:

Very nice Harm. How much horse hair did you use?

Al

Hi Al, about 10 - 12 Lbs. So that is quite a lot. I think you will need the same amount for your Locomobile, maybe less if it is not diamond tufted but straight.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello all, thank you for your kind words. I consider the upholstery part as done. Just left some small chores to be done when I put the hood on the car. Last Monday I send the ring and pinion to a Steel Hardening Company. I used this company in the past, they will Nitrading the gears. Hope to receive the gear back at Thursday next week. To day I riveted both parts of the outer shell of the multi-plate clutch together. The riveting went well, see pictures. So, at last, I can start with assembling the clutch, gearbox and third member.

 

IMG_1423.jpg.ebf4d9e09f8e02b83209a41192664749.jpg

 

IMG_1424.jpg.9600c94153fd4d760d2ec160d51f96f6.jpg

 

Regards, Harm

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Just now, alsfarms said:

I am curious how you set the rivets in this application? Did you hear close to white hot, insert, and hand hammer against a clamped backing bar?

Al

Hello Al, yes I did it that way. But Ann assisted me, as you have to work fast. The rivet cools rather fast. The last action (after hammering) is heating the hammered head to a white / yellow heath and using a small pneumatic hammer with a rivet tool to make a nice round head.

Regards, Harm

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Hello Harm,

That is how I also would do the rivets. For Smaller rivets, I have a custom vice that holds the round head in place while I squeeze the shank end into a formed round head with the vice action of my clamp on the other side. My rivet vice is limited to a certain location for the rivets. Even with this process, quick is the only way! Setting a good tight rivet is rather rewarding! Your end results are very professional.

Al

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  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

Hello,

I started last week trying to assemble the multi plate clutch. That went well, till I tried to move the clutch plates against each other. Sometimes it went more or less smooth (but with a lot of force), but most of the time it get stuck and they wont' move at all. After trying the same with the broken hub, the movement of that one went very smooth. Inspecting the slots in the hub it dawned to me that the slots in the reproduction hub, that are the slots with the fixed pins were to small and had a wrong angle. So, putting the hub into the milling machine and made the slots larger and on the right angle. The consequence of all this was that I had to turn new bigger pins. After some fiddling and small adjustments, the mechanism now works very smooth.

 

  IMG_1431.jpg.0004878458e76f80944a126d3434bbf0.jpg

Multi plate clutch mechanism, with the modified slots enlarged pins.

 

IMG_1432.jpg.4d515b5cb37ea722fdc90c4aceea82e4.jpg

Parts of the multi plate clutch. Left side: assembled clutch plates with inner hub and clutch movement mechanism.

Middle: Universal Joint

Right: clutch plates outer hub, bearings and driven gear (in side the gear box)

 

IMG_1433.jpg.55ed03c7a0ee444ba957baccfa67bb14.jpg

Same parts as above, pictured at the back.

 

Yesterday I painted the clutch and gear box housings.

IMG_1451.jpg.8f5cfb9d22f174d6d792582996fc443a.jpg

 

 

IMG_1452.jpg.57b593bedcfdc7ed321773efdfd4a56f.jpg

Painted clutch and gear box housings.

 

To morrow I hope to start with tuning new half shafts. The current half shafts: one to short and the other one to long and with a botched screw thread (not repairable). Furthermore the square part for the differential gears is just to small (on both half axles).

Regards,

Harm

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