Oops I did it again... 1920 Dodge Brothers Roadster

[BobinVirginia]

5 minutes ago, Lahti35 said:

Thanks for the kind words!

You’re welcome and they’re deserved. You’re doing a great job covering details of bringing the Dodge back to life. Great detail on stuff that matters. No BS just facts of what’s needed 

[dibarlaw]

On 6/16/2024 at 6:22 PM, Lahti35 said:

I replaced the tie rod bolts and bushings this afternoon, there was play but not as severe as the springs.

 

I made a bushing remover/installer out of some threaded rod, nuts, washers, and certain size sockets to allow the old bushing to be pulled out the bottom and the new one pulled in from the top. 

 

It worked pretty good. The old ones came out without much fuss. Here's an original next to the replacement.

 

Inserting the new ones in place after cleaning and lubing the castings...

 

I did run onto a snag with the hardware supplied for the tie rod bols. The nuts were too short, I seem to run into this pretty often... The new castle nuts aren't as tall as the old ones and as a result the cotter pin holes in the bolts sit past the nut. Are they going to back off? I guess not all the way but it bugs me so I found a box of vintage nuts some time ago and have been using them instead. You can see the old NOS one (green arrow) is taller than the new unit.

 

All buttoned up...

Same issue I encountered on the ball stud replacement on my 1925 Buick Standard. One of the original nuts was cracked. So I had to go to the modern style.

 

[Lahti35]

The spring shop got the front leaf spring today and will start working on it Monday. Hopefully I can get it back early the week after next and get it back on as i'm on vacation then and that would be a great time to do it. 

 

Other smaller springs require attention as well... This week I did some research and chatted with other owners about the accelerator linkage spring. I was sure what was on the car was not factory.

 

There seems to be a lot of variation over the years on the gas pedal style. I found pictures of various springs attached to the throttle arm on the carb but that didn't seem right either.  Other pics showed a spring running from the gas pedal to a tab on the bell housing...

 

That got me looking close at the gas pedal and sure enough there was a hole hiding under some dirt. I think the spring in the cobbled up wire mess was the original spring, although a but mangled, it did fit well.

 

I did get a new spring in this afternoon and put it in, with no issue. The gas pedal now sits much higher off the floorboards, it had little travel before. It also returns much more positively too.

 

I enjoy undoing these past "doings", it looks better and it definitely functions better in stock form. It's just a small thing but between research, parts ordering, and conversing with Dodge owners I've got 1 1/2 hours into it. I can see the appeal of a 5 minute patch job with some wire, lol. Straightening this out was a team effort in the Dodge sub-forum, thanks to all who contributed!

 

 

Edited June 22 by Lahti35 (see edit history)

[Lahti35]

I'd been trying to figure out what to used for packing around the enricher shaft on the carb... It was too small for typical graphite packing and the small rope looking stuff for faucents at the hardware was suspicious. I found a member who used it and said it failed and leaked after some time. I found some suggestion to use soaped up string, viton O rings, and another to use the yellow gas tolerant thread tape. I found this last tip on the Yesteryear Tractor forum and since I had some I thought I'd give it a go. Will it work? We'll see!

 

I took a length of the stuff and twisted it into a thin rope, then coiled it around the shaft and ran the packing nut down some to compress it. 

 

It compressed well and did offer resistance to turning the shaft when tightened so we'll see. I also got my new spring for the carb so I put that on as the old one failed when I removed it. 

 

I made sure to set the shaft so the needle inside the carb was just touching the dashpot without lifting it, then adjusted the stop screw so that it was just touching the arm. This is a critical adjustment and needed to be done right. When I pulled the carb apart there was a fiber washer under the domed head/vaporizer that kept it up 1/16" from touching the lip of the carb body. I couldn't find anything about it in books or from fellow enthusiasts so I removed it, must have been someone's "fix" for something. 

 

Factory setting complete!

 

Since the carb was done I decided to get it off the work bench and put it back on the car. I cleaned up the flange and removed a set of bad cracked gaskets from the block, then installed the carb with one new gasket. 

 

I hooked up the enricher "choke" cable.

 

Then the throttle rod went on. The throttle butterfly setting looked good so no adjustment there. I did notice a slight amount of play but not sure if that's shaft wear or bore wear, if the car runs good i'll address that over winter if need be. The accelerator spring puts just a slight amount of tension on the rod when it's in place, just the way it should be. 

 

I'm going to try and roll the engine over briefly tomorrow, just a few seconds to see it if will do it. When I get the spring stuff back in and get the Dodge rolling again (it's on jack stands now) I plan on pulling the water pump/distributor assembly and going through that. I'm avoiding having multiples of things going on at once to keep stuff contained and keep myself away from the rabbit hole. 

 

I finished up the tie rod bolts today after pulling the alemite fittings out of the cleaner, blowing them out, and then installing them back in the tops of the new bolts. I did grease the bolts on assembly but I'll pump some grease into them (and the spring bolts) once the front is down off the jack stands and back on it's wheels.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23 by Lahti35 (see edit history)

[Lahti35]

I pulled the worn out shackle bushings out today... Maybe I should say I battled them out because they were happy to remain in place after 104 years and it was a fight!

 

I tried the puller I made first with no luck, they didn't budge. Then I turned a piece of metal to fit the bore with a step in it to pound them out which also failed to move them. Then it was on to drilling them out 3/4 of the way through while increasing the ID to ease the pressure holding them in. This finally worked and I was able to pound them out without excessive force. 

 

Removed! There was a slight lip from metal being pushed around through contact over 104 years, I put a slight chamfer on the hole to help the new bushing start ok.

 

I thought I was really in for a fight but after greasing the bores and the bushings they went home without much drama or crazy force.

 

 

 

I cleaned up the shackles without going overboard (don't want them too new looking!)... They're in ok shape but a bit worn, I may look for a better set down the road. For now they'll be ok. I wanted to get this done while the springs are out so it's ready to go when I pick the springs up. 

 

The other thing I did today was stick a battery in the car and turn it over briefly to see if it would. I'm happy to report that it turned over great with no issues I could hear. It was nice and steady too, none of the RRRRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr you normally get with a starter motor. I was surprised how easy it was compared to other 20's cars where you have to really push and hold on the floor button to make it all happen. 

 

Next up is pulling the steering box for cleaning and adjustment due to play in the mechanism...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lahti35]

Since the carburetor was back on the Dodge I decided to pull the steering box tonight. The heat finally subsided and it was a pleasant evening for the job. 

 

 

It was pretty easy to remove, gotta hand it to those Dodge brothers. Teardown was pretty easy too, not much to it. The grease zerk was full of dried grease so I didn't have much hope for the insides and I wasn't disappointed! What was once lubricant had become a solid with the consistency of Kiwi shoe polish, but harder and with chunks.

 

I got it pulled apart without too much fuss. The good news is that nothing appears to be broken and the only bushing with excessive wear is the one the steering shaft passes through at the top of the box. There wasn't a ton of slop when the box was on the car, it was more of a cumulative effect of wear in the various steering parts adding up to 2" at the wheel. I'll get it all cleaned up and go from there. To replace the one bad bushing it looks like I'll have to pull the steering coupler off the shaft, the shaft itself looks ok though. 

Edited Thursday at 03:47 AM by Lahti35 (see edit history)

[ericmac]

I love watching how you break repairs down into simple,  understandable steps. Those looks like a very worthwhile project. 

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

I wish my steering box came apart like yours. Mike

[Lahti35]

20 hours ago, ericmac said:

I love watching how you break repairs down into simple,  understandable steps. Those looks like a very worthwhile project. 

Thanks! It's all one big puzzle made up of a bunch of smaller ones!

[Lahti35]

14 hours ago, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said:

I wish my steering box came apart like yours. Mike

I wish they all came apart like this one, easiest one I've ever done.