There is a whole chapter in Fahnstock's book (page 40 on) about 'fixes' for crankshaft end float, mostly designed to avoid engine removal, some designed to reduce wear. These fixes include looped shims for the rear cap, special adjustable centre caps and ball bearings to go behind the pulley or at the rear of the transmission.
Has anyone got or seen any period adverts for these products please?
Here you go.
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/195658.html
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/116466.html
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/179198.html
There was a good fix for this problem a few years ago in the Vintage ford magazine.
The owner removed the rear cap and elongated the holes in the cap so the cap could be moved closed to the crankshaft. That method worked fine in my 1919 Runabout.
Jay,
as always, many many thanks.
Chris, Lang's sell a bronze spacer that fits between the block and the front pulley, it bolts on to the two bolts on each side of crank. I pulled a couple off some used engines years ago and tried one for the fun of it and the mag started working again? There cheap and you do not have much money in them and you do not have to get in to the engine to fix it. I had cast a couple extra years ago and Don Lang saw them at Hershey and now they are his! If you plan on running the car a lot, I would pull it down and go through the whole engine because more than likely there is more issues than that in it. Hope this helps Joe
I purchased one of those "gizmos" from Lang's quite a while back and although it was clearly a new casting, it also appears to have been patterned after a "used" one as one can clearly see the groove from running up against the front pulley and it did nothing to take up any clearance issues with the rear main gap. Since then I have picked up a NOS one and it clearly has no indications of being run.