MTFCA Forum

Has anyone tried to use the Scandinavia transmission bands that are to short? I believe the correct length should be 24”. Like others I have a set or two I picked up at Swap meets that are 23 1/4 “ or 23 1/2.
I got these in a lot of other parts and they are the later Scandinavia but not the “tarry” ones.
Leaving the two ends of the bands uncovered concerns me but I’m thinking they can be used OK.

I have Kevlar in my 24 Coupe and they are OK but my 1919 Roadster have been in light use over the years but I may change them because they have been in use about 20 years but still OK.
I have Wards, Allstate and some Ford bands and those are 24” and those are OK.

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

You might cut them in two and leave a gap at bottom center. That was a "trick" back in the day, supposedly stopped chattering.

$$ to donuts, if you ran them through a set of rollers, you'd get the length back

Yes I’ve thought about that but I was wondering if it worked OK. Maybe someone has experience doing that or leaving the metal band end uncovered.

Originals were 24 and I’m not sure they were cut short. I’m thinking they were cut short to begin with but I’m not sure about that either but what I’ve heard. The originals I have aren’t short and neither are the Wards or Allstate.

Original Scandinavia linings are 23 & 1/2" in length. Herman K. (RIP) advocated segmented pieces of lining as the CANTEX Corp. shortened their product to 22 & 1/2" later in production prior to the "Tar Babies" being introduced. The bottom photo are CANTEX linings with the same, original weave pattern AND 23 & 1/2" in length.

You want the ends covered well. Better to split & leave a gap @ the bottom.
Rolling them out to lengthen is a good idea. Ill try that.

Would cotton bands swell if soaked in oil for several days? Would they shrink if rolled before attaching to the metal bands? I would be concerned about shrinkage once installed. I have 2 boxes of Cantex bands with big length differences.

Herm Kohnke was a proponent of cutting a segment out at the bottom of the band material for better contact, cooling & conformity. I’ve tried it with short bands and it works well in fact to me better than full coverage on the band but you will need to coat / soak the cut ends in a spray insulator or glyptal so you don’t get any threads unraveling from those cut ends. Attached is a fantastic thread on transmission rebuilding by Herm and about midway through you’ll see his technique & rational. Others may have a better way to seal the ends, when that discussion was posted some of the bands were not sealed at the ends when bought new. Best John
https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2114

I have used this method with no known issues on other motors out in the wild.
The shorter scandia band require a pretty wide gap @ the bottom to get good cover under the top ends.
More gap than I would prefer. More gap than pictured here with the kevlar bands.
I think a little stretch rolling coupled with a smaller gap, say 3/8", would be ideal.

Lot of information in that thread posted by JTT3!

Or, you could on-sell your Scandinavias to the true believers, and fit Kevlar bands. I have never found these to be too short.

Rolling the Scandinavias may well increase the length, but it will reduce the thickness somewhat. That combined with worn original drums may compromise the amount of adjustment available later.

Allan from down under.

Allan wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:39 pm

Or, you could on-sell your Scandinavias to the true believers, and fit Kevlar bands. I have never found these to be too short.

Rolling the Scandinavias may well increase the length, but it will reduce the thickness somewhat. That combined with worn original drums may compromise the amount of adjustment available later.

Allan from down under.

All true, but, I have a policy of not installing kevlar into customer motors. At least not a first set.
Newbies dont understand the unforgiving nature of them.
One blown low drum & redo plays havoc on the builders reputation regardless of who's fault it really was.
I do run kevlar in all my own T's

As for thin linings, I have added a strip of quality fiber gasket material between the band & the lining as needed. This allows for a full length of adjustment which = longer band life. The later scandinavia lining is already too thin, new out of the box.

The last time I looked the Kevlar bands are now 167.50. But they do cut them 24” or at least the ones I bought for 65.00 a few years ago were. Maybe the Kevlar material has gone up for a reason like everything else. Hopefully the prices will settle back down and the Company will start making the Scandinavia type bands again.