MTFCA Forum

Originally a hex leather washer. You might find an o-ring that would work.

You make the leather washers yourself.

The leather should be proud of the bottom of the nut.

I posted some photos of NOS dust covers and nuts in this 2017 thread - they will show you how thick the leather should be.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/70 ... 1488150190

Also worth mentioning: not too long ago my dad made new leather washers for the dust cap nuts on his touring.

The rim nut washers were originally felt for the hex style. I suppose you could make a leather one easier. I make the round washers for the early rim nuts from leather, and stamp them out with an 11/16" punch. I think I use a 3/8" punch for the center. If I was to use leather for the hex style I would find a hex nut that will fit inside the rim nut and trace it. You could use a flat chisel to cut the flats.

The rim nut washers were originally felt for the hex style. I suppose you could make a leather one easier. I make the round washers for the early rim nuts from leather, and stamp them out with an 11/16" punch. I think I use a 3/8" punch for the center. If I was to use leather for the hex style I would find a hex nut that will fit inside the rim nut and trace it. You could use a flat chisel to cut the flats.

I have some NOS dust covers and nuts as I mentioned earlier pictured below.

The washers are definitely leather, not felt. This makes sense as it would be very easy to mass produce leather washers by stamping them out from a sheet of leather, similar to how leather shoe soles are stamped out.

Be aware that there is also a stamped metal collar that is press fit into the nut before the leather washer is installed.

The thickness of the leather washer shown in the photos is 5/32". The thickness of the washer and the collar together is 3/16".

If the leather washer is missing, sometimes the collar is still inside the nut. In your photo at the beginning of thread, your collar is missing. I don't believe that is a deal breaker as the leather washer alone should suffice.

You can cut the leather with an Xacto knife. The holes can be punched with a hollow gasket punch or hollow leather punch as Larry mentioned. You can also carefully drill holes in leather with a spiral bit but in my experience the inside of the hole will not be smooth/clean like using a punch.

If you are a purist, be aware that the dust covers both you and I posted are not correct for Model T Fords. The correct inner tubes have shorter and narrower stems and, therefore, the nut should have a smaller diameter and the dust cover should be shorter. Unfortunately, the vendors do not sell inner tubes with the correct metal stems. To get around this, some folks buy tubes with rubber stems, remove the stem an install the correct metal stem.

I’ve got quite a few NOS washers with leather as Eric stated. I’ve never seen a felt one, but I sure haven’t seen everything.

...some folks buy tubes with rubber stems, remove the stem an install the correct metal stem.

Or install the incorrect metal stems because we happen to have covers that fit them.

All the repo dust covers are oversize.

The dust caps that screw onto the hex nut are much quicker to screw on and off than the knurled dust covers that screw directly onto the stem which require MANY turns to screw on and off.

Here is how 2 dealers list them: It looks to me like the one you show is correct. There is much to learn.
Rich

...just what would the correct stem and cover be for a 1923-4, 30x3 1/2 demountable rim?

The correct stem would be the Shrader 777 that Larry uses. You would have to find original covers to fit them, because all the new covers are the larger size to fit the larger stems used these days. I'm not sure which original covers are correct, as there are many different styles. I don't aspire to be 100% pure, so I would just look for four matching ones that fit.

Schrader 777 stem and hardware pics. Early cars used round, knurled rim nuts, whereas later cars used hex shaped rim nuts. Note the two piece bridge washer in the illustration - some bridge washers have the sealing ring stamped into them rather than the ring being a separate piece.

Schrader 888 stems will work as well as 777s, they are just a little lighter because they are 1/4" shorter. Schrader did make a 1/4" shorter dust cover for the 888 stem, but a 777 dust cover will also fit.