Unusual T Ford hub cap found at Hershey

[DanTreace]

Got this cap at Hershey, unlike other ones, this one has a bulbous shape. Can you make a guess on this design?

[ThreePedalTapDancer]

Ice expansion?

[ThreePedalTapDancer]

Some accessory caps had a rounded shape and some tractors too.

IMG_1858.jpeg (144.91 KiB) Viewed 1358 times

[Allan]

Yours looks like brass rather than the alloy one in the advertisement. It looks like something got loose inside and it was rounded out in operation, destroying the octagonal end as it did so.

Allan from down under.

[John kuehn]

Dan , are the threads still usable or worn out. I have the remains of a T cap but it had a nail in the spindle that worked loose and did something similar but not as much as this one for sure.
One on the earlier Ford models before the T?

[Wayne Sheldon]

I took one off of a wheel and axle I had picked up from a swap meet like that one time. It had a big cotter pin inside that had only been partially folded over. I figured they folded it partway out, and then after the hubcap was put on it rotated/fell so that the round end of the head of the cotter pin pressed against the cylinder shape of the hubcap as the front wheel turned. It didn't expand it quite as much as the OP one, but in a very similar manner.
Look inside to see if there are wear marks or scratches inside?
I have one on one of my Ts that the cotter pin was poorly bent around, and the sharp end was trying to cut the "Ford Made in USA" out of the end. It wasn't allowed to run quite long enough to finish cutting through, and otherwise was a nice brass hubcap for my brass T. So I very carefully using a blunt punch and after annealing the hubcap flattened the cut back down nearly flat. After painting the background black like the 1913 through 1916 Ts are supposed to be, it looks pretty nice. Although if you took it off the wheel and looked inside? It still looks nasty. That sharp end of the cotter pin really chewed up the inside!

[DanTreace]

Thanks, those are all good comments, I too thought at first water got in and froze, but how could it... the threads are fine, and no cracks.

Allan has the better rational.

If you note the 'high F' in the Ford script , that is a give away of an early hub cap, and during those early years the front wheel bearings were round ball.

So one or more of those 3/8" diameter balls got loose from the cage and then, caught up against the castle axle nut, the ball or balls presented a perfect storm.

Rounding that cap in a concentric fashion, bulging out as the wheel went round and round

[KWTownsend]

Dan,
Is that 1915 high F, or 1913-1914 hubcap?
Keith

[Original Smith]

I saw that hubcap. When it was new, it was a 1913. Not much left to restore!

[Joe Bell]

I have one just like that on my unrestored 12, thought it was a fluke now wondering?