I am curious as to the differences in the rear radius rods through the years. Our 20 has, it appears, cast rods. The 17 has rolled? rods with a seam which at sometime were installed wrong because seam is facing upwards. Is there any strength difference between the two? Both are on small drum rearends
There are at least four designs that I had seen. I could not find a reference in the online encyclopedia so this is from memory.
Early ones had cast rear ends and no seam, left and right were identical.
The next design (about1914) dispensed with the cast ends.
The next design added the seam (about 1920) so now there is a left and right to keep the seam at the bottom.
The final design made the spacing larger at the rear to suit the large brake drum in late 1925.
I am sure someone will find the exact dates and then add the earlier variations.....
Rodda shows four.
1909-1914 Cast rear ends
1914-1919 Stamped rear end, no seams
1919-1925 Seams
1926-1927 Shorter rod, shouldered front end.
1914 and 1919 were running changes during the model year. No dates given.
(Message edited by steve_jelf_parkerfield_ks on June 14, 2016)
So the main tube was always hollow? Either as a rolled tube with seam or an extruded tube?
Yes, all were hollow - if solid, they would have been much too heavy.
And there were variations within the types. When trying to find a matched pair of round seamless rods for my 1917 car, I had 5 different ones before I found two which had the rounded section of the rod the same length.
Allan from down under.