Straight axle hubs

[Dennis_Brown]

I have never seen a straight axle hub for sale on the parts. I know they might be fairly scarce and worth a dollar or two more than a rear tapered hub. Just wondering.

[KimDobbins]

They were made is 5.5” and 6 “ sizes. They’re very rare and wore out fairly quickly. If I had a good pair for sale, I’d ask $600.

[Aussie16]

Pretty rare to see the early straight axle hubs anywhere. Only made on T's for a couple of years, and most early cars were retro fitted with the tapered style in their early years of life or later during restorations for safety and reliability reasons.

[TXGOAT2]

If the axle shaft is the same except for the hub portion, a repro axle manufacturer might be willing to sell an axle with the outer end unmachined, which you could then finish as needed.

[Les Schubert]

Boring the taper out would be pretty easy if the rest of the hub is correct. Making straight axles should be easy, as doing the taper is the hardest part of making axles. I have made axles over the years including the wide track version!

[Wayne Sheldon]

The "straight axle" early rear hubs are quite different from the common later rear hubs. The primary and most obvious difference is that the early hubs are longer than that later hubs. The early hubs can often be spotted in era photographs by how far out the hubcaps sit from the wheel center.
In years past, people have faked the early hubs by using common later tapered axles and hubs, then brazing an extension onto the hub surrounding where the castle nut will be to mount the hubcap farther out. Some people used the outer end of a front hub brazed onto the rear hub. An issue with this trick, is that the cotter pin for the castle nut is difficult to deal with since the castle nut is surrounded by the hubcap threads. The nut itself must be installed by a socket wrench as the nut sits down inside the added hub length. Proper torqueing might be a problem if enough care isn't taken to keep the surface of the hub flat and clean for the castle nut to seat properly. Done well, this can look good on the car, to those that expect an early T to have longer rear hubs.

Beyond that obvious difference of the length of the hub? 1909s and most 1910 built Ts, the hubs had smaller flanges. If I recall the size correctly, the early flanges were five and one half inches in diameter, while at some point late in 1910 calendar or early 1911 model year the size of the flange was increased to six inches. I actually do not know that the hub bolt spacing was changed or not? I never had one to compare them myself. I think the bolt spacing did change.
The common later flanges can be cut down. Changing the bolt spacing is not so easy.
The straight axle hubs with the larger flange were only used for a few months early 1911 model year if I recall correctly.

The rear hub shows fairly well on this early tourabout. Note the gray color, making it very early and likely an added rear seat rather than factory installed.

[Les Schubert]

I suppose if someone is motivated enough I have the casting patterns that I used to make wire wheel hubs. The patterns could be modified and new correct castings could be made. A person would need some good pictures and dimensions (which I don’t have)

[KimDobbins]

Original straight axle hub and real nice repo.

[Wayne Sheldon]

Now, that is a great look at these rare hubs!
Thanks Kim D!