Is there a source to purchase the copper crush washers for the porcelains? I would replace the worst ones if some one sells them.

Thanks ! Dave

A previous post about this, said they were available from Restoration Supply in Califunny.

I didn't find anything in the restoration supply catalogue that looked right to me. Funny this question would come up right now. Last summer I contacted a possible source who was supposed to look into it. Apparently he got busy with other things, as did I. Looking at some plugs in my shop this morning reminded me, so I just sent him another email about twenty minutes ago. An autoreply says he's out of the office, but he has my email reminder now, so maybe I'll have some news from him soon.

I had also checked Restoration Supply and there was nothing that was correct in there catalog. I also talked to RV Anderson he has the top special Nuts, and no suggestions for the cup compression washers.It would be nice to save what ever early straight side X Plugs that have survived.

Something like the washers, your referring to, is not a big money maker, so no one will p*ss with it.

Page 44 of the Restoration Supply Catalog has copper/asbestos crush port gaskets....what size?

I would think if you could procure just the washer that when tightened it would form the angle ?

you could possibly make them on a lathe with some careful tedious parting of copper or brass.

or use the modern champion x washers, they should be te same size?

I found these at a swap meet for 50 cents. They are air conditioning system copper flare seals. An early straight side Champion X copper gasket is on the left for comparison.

I was looking at the same item in the Restoration catalog.
There are two copper cups in each plug each with a different hole size for the above and below the sealing ring on the ribbed take a part's that I was looking at. The bottom ring looked to have a crush washer built in.
I think that the crush rings that Restoration Supple sells are .090 thick which might be too thick anyway to replace the bottom cup as it might place the center electrode to far up into the body of the plug.

The bottom Champion X washer in the photo I took has the asbestos gasket inside the copper seal. It is at least .090" thick. The top is copper only, about .o30".

Out of curiosity I went to O'Reilly's and blew twenty bucks on one of the current Champion X plugs. Here it is, on the right, beside a transitional X from about 1921. I call the circa 1921 plug transitional because it has ribbed porcelain like the later plugs, but has the removable center electrode like the earlier ones in Royce's pictures. It also has 5-40 thread at the top like the earlier plugs, while the later ones have 8-32.



Here are the two plugs with the pieces spread out for comparison.


The earlier plug has two copper gaskets, one above and one below the insulator. Both came with asbestos inside. Note the different sizes of the holes. The modern X has just one copper ring, below the porcelain, with no asbestos. When you think about it, one should be enough to keep the plug from leaking.

Thank You Steve, and Royce for the good information!

I think the top copper washer did two things, seal and act as a bearing when the nut was tightened down into the body so the porcelain would not be damaged.