MTFCA Forum

I am installing an original-accessory belly sling for a 4 dip pan engine. It seems to me that it would be prudent to pad the sling with leather or some similar material to avoid having the sling and pan grind on each other.

What have others done in this instance?

thanks much.

I stuck a dense piece of foam sheet on mine, but it has probably worn through by now. Leather sounds like a better plan. Be sure to cut a hole to allow access for the oil drain plug!

Thanks for the advice, Mark

am also considering rubber sheet with pressure sensitive adhesive backing,too, but that's more costly. Leather around here is more common than bricks in Baltimore.

The ones we make and sell through Lang’s and Snyder’s have a thin piece of neoprene, so any oil that may get on it doesn’t swell it. You want it snug, and that does the trick. ( semi-shameless plug )

I was thinking about a piece of scrap conveyor belting. Those conveyor belts are tough as all get out but still have some give and are very resistant to oils and water. I was thinking about mounting the belting with flat head bolts towards the pan and nuts to the outside of the brace. Preferably, with all the bolt heads where the would NOT contact any part of the engine, pan, or transmission. We used to use that belting for mud flaps. It lasted forever and you would damage the mounting pieces before you pulled the flap off. She's hard to cut, so use a new/sharp blade or a jig saw. The saw always worked best for us when there was power to be had.

Good Luck,
Terry

I have several installed on 3 of our T's - straight up - no padding - just occasional verification that all is still snug.

For us new people, what the heck is a belly sling?
But if Tim makes them I probably want one!

dmdeaton wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 08, 2020 4:59 pm

For us new people, what the heck is a belly sling?
But if Tim makes them I probably want one!

This is a belly sling. Hooks onto the frame's side rails. Lang's sells them. Padding with a sheet of neoprene wouldn't be bad idea.

Here's the one on Betsy, my 1924 cut-off touring. I installed it because one of my pan ears had a weld repair and I wanted extra support in case the weld ever failed. Note how the nuts firmly clamp the hooks onto the threaded rods to prevent relative movement that can cause the hooks to rub a groove into the rods over time.

If you want to use a barrier Scott, a good option is old cloth firehose. Split and fit, holds in place really nice. I use it under the body mounts too.

Just Sayin",

Hank

Mark

that is the type I have.

To all:

thank you very much for some really good ideas

And Hank, I just have to ask: Does South Pittsburg have a bunch of 99 foot long firehoses right now?

DO NOT ASK AND I WILL NOT TELL! Do you need some?

Our folks at the local volunteer fire departments here are the greatest. Old unserviceable hoses they give out. We all pitch in and do our part for them!

Hank

Agree with Hank. That is what I use. But as a old Fire Fighter we tend to find lots of uses for old fire hose.

Both conveyor belting and fire hose are great ideas. We lived near a quarry for awhile and I have conveyor belt mats all over the shop areas. When I need a small piece I just bend over and slice what I need. When I left the fire department, I took my big long hose with me, so have that covered, too. I’m a fan of recycling, but not sure how thrilled a customer would be with that kind of recycling on a new product, that’s why we supply just a thin piece of neoprene rubber glued in place. Never heard of one coming loose.

See Scott, others have firemen with short hoses too!

Hank

Scott, unless things have changed drastically , we only used 50’ lengths of fire hose. None of us were man enough to carry 100’ in each hand. My point being , So. Pittboig may be sporting 49’ hoses.

Well, Tim, from my statement, you can see that I'm clearly not a member of the VFD or I'd know such things!

Thanks Hank...I'm good!

BTW, I'm "in the middle of nowhere", yet have a great firestation and wonderful volunteers only 2 miles away...pumper, engine, ventilation and several F350's set up for wild fires...also EMS with ambulance. Darn impressive stuff for being out here. Next Sat, we will have our community celebration where VFW Color Guard lead off, draught horses pull antique farm equipment, the mandatory T-bird and '57 Chevy shows up, as well as yours truely in one T or another. We leave the fire station, go about 1/2 mile, turn around at the "Y" and come back...all very efficient as you only have to wave out one side of the car and you get the entire crowd...all 100 of them

In 58 years of T ownership and driving, I have never found the need for a belly support. What am I not doing correctly?

Allan from down under.

I'm building a car for (hopefully) long-mile touring, and have married a 4 dip pan (for ease of maintenance) to an earlier hog's head. So, I've managed to join the floppiest pan to the least supported hog's head and hope to not have the crankshaft rent asunder. To that end, I'm reinforcing the pan/block/hog's head joint with heavy braces and adding a support for good measure.

Allan, Even though I’m an accessory nut, I probably would not have attached one to everything here, but 10 years ago a cracked arm got by my rebuilder and myself until I was installing in a chassis. A quick weld with a MIG, not the strongest of welds, took care of the Immediate problem and the girdle was just insurance. These lizzies are all approaching 100+ years old, and metal fatigue is a real thing. There are all different types and many cannot even be noticed when installed. I’d bet easily just 1 person out of 100 would ever know it wasn’t birthed there, unless you’re at a T party. They’ve been a popular accessory since these things were new. Good cheap insurance, JMHO AND, maybe your roads are better under there.

My parts chassis came with a homemade belly sling. The chassis was last used as a car in 1961 and the by the looks of it, the belly band was in place for a very long time before then.

It's pretty crude looking visually but very solidly engineered and easy to install. And, since my aim has been to return my 24 Touring to how it may have looked during the tough days of the Depression/WW2, this homemade sling fits right in. It and the attachment bolts look like they were made by someone like my Papaw (my dad's dad). He had enough blacksmithing skill to make things he needed on the farm and make them solid and dependable but he didn't have enough skill to make them pretty.

Look at where they split the band in the middle to make access to the oil drain plug. Dang...it's pretty roughly done...but I think it's a pretty safe bet that whoever made this back in the day, didn't care one whit about what it looked like. He probably had a cracked oil pan arm that he'd just welded up and was making and installing the belly band to prevent it from happening again. (For what it's worth, the engine that this belly band was supporting did have a cracked and repaired arm.)

I don't know exactly how far I've driven it since the belly band installation, but it's not an insignifant amount and I haven't noticed any need for a pad.

Yes: I install a pad on all my belly pans. I found an old truck dually thick rubber rear rock shield alongside the road while I was looking for a T oil filler cap. I’ve been cutting a 4” diameter piece out for years for a pad. Then I use a bottle jack on the oil drain plug (15/16”) to lift the engine off the chassis front springs and adjust the belly pan nuts to support some of the engine weight.

Does anybody have a spare frame hook for one of these slings kicking around? I have one sans one hook I'd like to use.

Is the sole purpose of a belly sling to offer added support and insurance? Or do they help reduce vibration and side-to-side movement? My '26 did not have wood blocks behind the pan ears when I got it. There is evidence that the left pan ear had been pounding against the frame for a long time. I installed the blocks but I still have a lot of vibration above 25 mph.

Shane, after all of the fantastic construction that you have done on your speedster, can't you just make another one? Just kidding, but I do think you can handle that. Dave