Ruckstell Restoration questions

Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration
Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2013: Ruckstell Restoration questions
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jem Bowkett on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 04:08 pm:

I have a big drum Canadian Ruckstell here, which I have had for at least 15 yrs. Now I am retired I have finally got round to looking at it.

Prior to me buying it, it looks to have stood outside for a long time minus drums & brake shoes. Then someone cut the radius arms and pulled the driveshaft, covering the hole with a plate.

It looked like it had otherwise been untouched, but when I split the housings I found no lock wire or cotters on any bolts and the shift lock lever had been removed, so someone has been inside it.

I've never done one of these before. It looks fairly good to me. The diff gears are good, there is a little ovality on the spider arms. The roller gearings are all good and no lips on the sleeves. The big ball bearing is a bit sloppy and there is wear on the P146 teeth, and some wear on the bronze plate teeth. A spring leaf is broken on the shifter yoke, but the rollers are good. Your opinions would be welcomed.

I am having trouble uploading photos, so please use this link for the rest
https://plus.google.com/photos/100465155247781991498/albums


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Eubanks, Powell, TN on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 05:31 pm:

First thing you need to do is buy the Ruckstell book that all the peddlers carry, called Ruckstell Axle dual control, put out by the MTDFCA. Second thing is have a mic handy to measure taper of the axles, third, find a machine shop that will bore and sleave your planatary studs, of course you will need to order a new bearing from one of the peddlers. The bearing is not available from a reg bearing house. Once you get the book, follow it to the letter and you will have a good Ruckstell. I would also recommend getting the modern pinion bearing set up from Fun Products.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan Howe Helena, Montana on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 07:40 pm:

The bearing is available from any competent bearing supply house. As with all ball bearings and most others, it is measured in metrics. The bearing size is 60 x 110 x 22 mm, thrust type. There are usually two grades of thrust in stock, higher thrust numbers may have to be ordered. The common part number for them is 7212 becby. Similar numbers will relate to what thrust it will take.

The 60 is the internal measurement.
The 110 is the external measurement.
The 22 is the width of the outer bearing.

SKF will run $250, Fafnir should be less than $100. I would not run a non - thrust bearing but there is no real reason to run the style that will accept the most thrust. It will cost over $100 more than the thrust specification the vendors sell.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Schwab on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 10:07 pm:

I took a "New Departure 0212" out of the Ruckstell I'm working on. The bearing house I called has a couple NOS New Departure 0212 (made in USA) available for $100.00. Is that a decent bearing?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Schedler, Sacramento on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 10:07 pm:

Milt Webb recently completed a "how to" book on all aspects of Ruckstell inspection and overhaul. Call him at 916.599.8737


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Schedler, Sacramento on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 10:48 pm:

Jem, I checked your profile and see that there's lots of land, then water, between thee and me. I don't think Milt monitors the forum so send me a PM and I'll act as a go-between if you want to get your hands on one of his books. I'm not sure about the money end of things.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan Howe Helena, Montana on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 11:20 pm:

AFAIK the 0212 is not a thrust bearing. I would not buy one from a bearing house unless it was cheaper and I knew for SURE it was an angular contact bearing.

Here is an SKF on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/7212BECBY-SKF-New-Angular-Contact-Ball-Bearing-/15114503 6485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2330f23ac5

The ones from the vendors work fine and are probably cheaper. I am not posting this trying to take business away from them, just dispelling the myth that is perpetrated that this is a special bearing that is not available anywhere other than from the Ruckstell guys.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Kable on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - 01:03 am:

Hi Jem,
Here is a comparison between a worn and new sliding Ruckstell gear, you can see although the gears look good they wear away and become far shorter making them eventually slip out of gear snd in the end fail to make any contact.

You can see the groove between the gears is the length they used to be.
Ruck3


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jem Bowkett on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 04:01 pm:

Gentlemen, thank you for your help. I have the MTFCA Ruckstell book and access to a machine shop: - we have Wed night car club at a local school with a Workshop Tech dept.

I took the dismembered assy in last night and did 'show & tell' with the lads - none of them are T people so it was an education for them.

We established that the gear pins are within tolerance both in the P160 and the gears, but P145,146 &147 are worn on the teeth. Where the axle shaft goes through P159 is over tolerance - it's 12thou, the book says 10thou max. We looked at whether to bore it out and rebush, but it is hard and would need to be ground out - Stan, our resident machine shop expert, said, when told a new one costs $105 'Then why waste time buggering about with this one' so new it is.

The MTFCA book doesn't give any dimensions for P146, so thank you Peter for the photo - it tells me mine is definitely in need of replacement.

Incidentally, you would like Stan - he is 88 yrs old and is ex-RAF Bomber Command Flight Engineer. He flew 16 sorties over Germany until February 1945 when a nightfighter got his Lancaster and he was a POW until the end of the war. He had some harrowing times, including coming under attack from 'friendly fire'.

Just a month ago, he went back to Germany (by train this time) - an aviation archeology group had found some remains of the Lanc. He was treated like a celebrity, interviewed for the papers and on TV, and they sent him home with a big piece of Lancaster. He said he felt quite embarrassed at such a reception when he'd originally been there to kill these people's parents!
Here's a couple of links to his story:
http://www.419squadronbewarethemoose.com/S%20Instone.html
http://www.419squadronbewarethemoose.com/Instone-804.html
http://www.moosburg.org/info/stalag/instoneeng.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan Howe Helena, Montana on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 05:49 pm:

It's your money to spend but the bell -- P159 -- is not hardened at all. It is soft cast iron and is easily machined. I just cut the worn hole out to 1.995 and press a bronze bushing in them, cut it off to the correct length and turn the inner diameter to the size of the gear I'm using. It actually makes for closer tolerance than installing a new one because virtually every axle gear is worn to some extent. I also do that with the axle hole in the differential assembly that the axle also passes through. Now it is .002-.005 clearance and the axle gear is running in a bronze bushing instead on directly on cast iron.

It's true that I've probably done 30 or so of them that way so I maybe have my system down to a quicker time but I figure it's a 20 minute job max to do each one. I can do 20 minutes at the lathe and press for $102.50 -- I figure the bushings cost the $2.50 or would if I had to buy them. I had a box of bushings I've been using bushings out of for ten or fifteen years, not down to the bottom yet.

I would spend the money on new pins and new little pinon gears. Even if they don't look worn. Unless you marked them when you took them out so they are running in the same position I think they need to be replaced.

I've only seen two or three P147 lock plates that were so worn I wouldn't use them. The P145 is pretty critical and the bronze plate, P139 need to fit very well and have little if any wear. I find that often in units that were supposedly rebuilt or good originals and won't shift the P139 is worn in the outer diameter of where the P145 fits and is allowing the unit to move around.

I haven't seen Webb's book, didn't realize there was a new one out. I'll be interested to read it. Always ready to see how somebody else does it and learn something if possible.


Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.
Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration