MTFCA Forum

Jack Putnam, in Ohio wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:17 am

The oil return springs on the axles can be installed by removing the outer bearing on the axle and sliding the spring onto the axle. It was not necessary to split the housings to install.

Wayne Sheldon wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:00 pm

That is what is commonly known as the 1913/'14 style rear end. They were actually used a bit longer than that. Many late 1912 models beginning about July of 1912 used that style, as did early 1915 cars. Both the earlier 1912/'15 rear ends like yours, and the later 1915/'16 rear ends were used randomly from the factory for the first few months of calendar year 1915. Years ago, original survivor cars built as late as June were sometimes seen with the earlier rear ends, however there was always some doubt that maybe the rear end had been changed at some time in its past. Back in the 1960s and '70s, most of the hobby felt a need to correct such "errors" and replaced what they perceived as anachronisms, even though in many cases they were originally manufactured that way. Because of that, a lot of those things mostly don't exist today.
I would suggest keeping it the way it was.
Original era photographs rarely show enough detail of the rear end to know which style the car had. In spite of that, I have seen a few era photographs showing the 1912/'15 rear end in early 1915 cars. If I can find one in the next several days (I have thousands of era photographs saved on my computer!)? I will try to post it here so you could have evidence to support your car as being correct. If I don't post it? I didn't find it (I lost nearly a thousand saved photos to a computer partial meltdown a few years ago).

Regardless how nice those 'Babbitt' washers look? DO NOT USE THEM! They were alright a hundred years ago. And if they did fail, at the speeds and on the roads of the day? One limped it home, no harm, no foul.
Unfortunately, the metals used in that 'Babbitt' mix, are seriously susceptible to chemical reactions over the years that have made the 'Babbitt" brittle. How brittle varies from one washer or rear end, to the next. There is no safe way to know if any one of them is marginally safe to use or not. So replacing them is the only right thing to do.

I put Babbitt in '--' because although the material is technically Babbitt, it is not the same Babbitt as used in a model T's bearings. And the reason "Babbitt" is capitalized, is that it was named after the fellow that invented the stuff back in the early/mid 1800s.

Wayne Sheldon wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 4:46 am

A January built body would be a very early 1915 open car. Bodies may or may not have sat at the factory for awhile, and most likely would have been assembled on a car by March at the latest assuming the body did not have production flaws that needed to be fixed. If I recall correctly from Royce (who has done serious research into the early 1915 models!), only about a thousand touring cars were assembled in January. So your car was likely a very early 1915 model touring car.

Allen, Quite a few USA early 1915 cars also had the riveted steering gear cases on them! Other odd things included the transition front fenders with four rivet brackets like earlier years, but the 1915 bill and beads. When I was getting started in this hobby, I met a lot of people with late 1914s that had early 1915 engines. Most of those were changed out to "correct an error" and replaced with 1914 or even 1913 engines. We now KNOW that the 1914 style runabouts and touring cars were being manufactured as late as April of 1915 and the early 1915 engines in those cars were likely correct from the factory.
A lot of early 1915s had the four rivet front fenders, most of those got replaced by the more common three rivet 1915/'16 fenders. Again, always said to "correct an error". Personally, I think a lot of honest history was destroyed by hobbyists a half century ago. I do hope people are learning to do better?

I looked through a few hundred photos so far, and found this one.

1915newearlychassis.jpg

From the look of the curves transitioning from the 'pumpkin' to the tubes, I am fairly sure this early 1915 chassis has the 1912/'15 twelve rivet rear end.
It looks to have the later one-piece steering gear case.

Retro54 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:22 pm

We prefer cage-less free range ball bearings. More natural that way.

speedytinc wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:09 pm

Retro54 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:22 pm

We prefer cage-less free range ball bearings. More natural that way.

Love to see a pix of it. Is that something you came across thru a T vender or your research?

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:36 pm

Thank you for the photo sequence. It really helps augment the written instructions.
I am about to tackle the similar, ' 26 axle with the Adjustable Pinion assembly..