MTFCA Forum

Tom Pilz and I have done a few upgrades to my '22 touring. New glass, tires and a radiator have been added. We did a valve job to get the engine running well. I reconditioned the upholstery and top. We also changed all the bushings and tightened the front end to eliminate a death wobble. I've been driving the car all over my corner of Long Island and have been having a ball.

The rear end has been calling for the two years that we've been working on the car. Have the thrust bearings been changed? What condition are the parts? Yesterday we tore into the problem and took the wheels off and separated the rear components from the car, then took it apart. We will probably change out the two axles and some other parts to upgrade.

But the biggest discovery was that the thrust washers, (pictured), were made of babbitt! We are so happy that we found this and can change them out to the bronze ones when we put it together again. Now de-greasing, cleaning and ordering the parts that we don't have at hand. So glad we opened her up and found those old thrust bearings.

We are wondering how much work has been done to this T in the past. Not sure if this rear end has ever been opened up before? Any idea when the Bronze thrust bearings started to appear? Hints for de-greasing?

Usually the 2 axle bearing sleeves (inner) don’t necessarily have to be replaced as it’s the outer axle bearing sleeves that are worn the most and catch the most wear. But of course you can replace all four if you want. Once you clean up the large ring gear and pinion you can see how much wear your differential has. The ring and pinion gears usually tell the tale about overall wear.

Putting it all together on Friday. Has been days of cleaning and preparing, painting and getting parts for the reassembly. While it's apart I took off the rear fender with some dents etc. and am ready to finish it and then bolt it back to the car. Been hard, but fun.
Will also add auxiliary brakes while we are at it.

I use a home depot bucket with kerosene to clean my car parts. You can find or make a long brush that you use to wash out the axle housings, sort of like churning butter. Use same bucket with a rag to clean the axles. Let most pieces soak overnite. You could use gasoline like they did in the old days, but it tends to catch on fire and burn your eyebrows.

Kerosene or diesel will do a good job of cleaning greasy parts. Either one is much safer than gasoline, and either will prevent flash rusting.

Look carefully in the grease grooves of those thrust washers. You may find Ford script in the grooves.

I didn't see it in the comments, so if someone already mentioned it, I apologize. Those thrust washers look like old babbitt washers (possibly Ford ones as someone stated). I would recommend replacing those with new Bronze ones. The Babbitt ones tend to come apart and it would be bad if it did that after that axle was assembled and installed.

Lang's has them: https://www.modeltford.com/item/2528.aspx

Yes, that was one of the main reasons we decided to work on the rear end. We will also be able to put on the AC brakes. I’m on the way to Tom’s compound right now to put it all together.