***Early 1909 Driveshaft Cross Section***

[VowellArt]

Sometimes with illustration you can't see things as clearly as you can in a cross section. This is a 1/4 cross section showing both the outside and the inside of the 1909 driveshaft assembly.

I've got a few questions though...on the part 2535, it shows in the Ford parts book as one assembly (bushings and housing), which leads me to believe that the bushings are in fact babbit, cast into the housing and then line bored to fit the driveshaft. In which case there would be no outter flange on the back end and in all likelihood the rear one and the front one are just one whole babbit bearing, with a grease hole drilled into it for grease cup 2545 and a long groove that runs the length of the casting for lubricating the shaft. I've noticed from the Ford parts book that there is some sort of groove cut into the bearing face (where the Pinion Bear runs on it) on the top side inline with the grease hole, so that would mean that there has to be a longitudinal groove running from the hole to the faces groove. Does anybody know what this damned thing actually looks like? Because I sure don't, I'm only guessing.

Also Part number T193 is the only number I could find for this part. All pictures of it in the parts book show it as assembled to the torque tube, but the main difference is that in early 1909, it was riveted on and not brazed on as later in that year, it also didn't have a bearing spool as all the years after that did, so the flange/bearing housing I think was bolted right up to the rear axle pumpkin without the use of studs, and then lock wired. I've only seen one example of this in Bruce's Encyclopedia where he noted the same thing, I suppose it could've been somebodies fix also, does anybody know whether or not it had studs or did it have bolts like I show? Also does anybody know if this part is brass or not? I made it brass because it just sort of evens things out and it looks pretty, . But if it is steel, please tell me so I can make the necessary color correction.

The only thing I'm not showing, but the ear for it is front center of the 2 piece housing, is the radius rod threaded end with nut....do you think I need to show that? I'm afraid it might clobber the drawing and make things a bit more messy than need be. In truth, I wouldn't add the radius rod until I show the driveshafts assembly with the rear axles assembly because that's when you'd mount that if you were putting it together. I've tried to keep my drawings as if you were putting the assemblies together and in the order they'd be assembled to whichever assembly I'm drawing. For instance, Springs are not part of the axle assemblies, they are a separate assembly unto themselves, so if I'm going to show the rear axle assembly, I'll add the springs, shackles (because they're not part of the rear axle either, yet the perches are), radius rods and the driveshaft assembly...problem is unless I do an 11 x 17 fold out it is going (in all probability) really small in an 8.5 x 11 format, unless I do it is two different drawings, one adding the rear springs to the assembled rear axle and one the Driveshaft/torque tube and radius rods, connecting to the rear axle...still sounds muddy to me, but I guess I'll see what happens when I get that far....after Driveshaft comes Frames...yeah that's gonna be fun, there's a truck load of those, .

[RGould1910]

I thought there was
one large rivet at the end of the drive shaft to hold the pinion

[VowellArt]

Might be, I don't know myself, but that would be cheaper than a couple of small ones though and Henry always went with cheaper.

Do you happen to know what this rivet looks like? I can't find any examples of it in any of the books I've got.

[VowellArt]

Ok, seems to be a few corrections here, first off;

Richard, you're correct it is one big rivet, however since I don't really know (nor seen any examples of it) what it looks like, I'm using the generic form of a rivet here. If anybody has any picture of that end with the pinion gear installed please post them so I can get this correct.

Also seems that the forward bushing does not press into the ball, but into the 2nd piece housing and partially into the torque tube itself. The ball is machined to fit over the flange on that bushing, to help center the ball (as though the 4 mounting bolts wouldn't do that anyway), this I found out from a very nice photo from Steve Lang. Unfortunately he didn't have anything about that rear rivet or the bushing sleeve inside the rear of the torque tube, which is another bit of something I'm not quite sure what it looks like inside that housing...are there 2 bushings or is there a cast babbit bearing inside, I just don't know. If somebody has any details on that piece please post picture here and I'll correct that part as well.

[VowellArt]

Slight change, the rivet isn't like the normal rivet at the end, it is through the collar on the back of the pinion gear into the shaft.

[VowellArt]

More corrections as to that rivet I was asking about (still don't have a part number for it, but I now know what it looks like...sort of, lol).

Also notice that the word "Early" has been removed, since this type of pinion arrangement ended late in 1910.

Which of course meant that some of the 1911's also had this particular arrangement, but was offered as a "Recall" from the factory to change to the later style if it either sheared that pin and came in for repair or was requested by the owner (don't think Ford sent out any "Recall Notices" to his customers back then, so the customer either finds out from the dealer he bought his car from or didn't....which is probably why there are a few 1911's running round with this configuration rather than the later style as they should've had.

[Scott Rosenthal]

Hello Art:
Great illustrations. Regarding the 09-10 version, you show drilled hex nuts attaching the fluted rear shaft housing to the clam shell halves, where I believe these fasteners were studs with castle nuts. Gail Rodda's 1909 pictorial states that these castle nuts were very early locked with individual cotter keys, and later (6) castle nuts were secured with a gang wire.
Regards,
Scott

[VowellArt]

Ok, how about this? The illustration also had to change slightly because of what you said, the flange on the fitting would have to thicker and the woodruff key was too small also.

Came to find out that the flange of the bushing housing of the pinion side was set inside a counterbore on the torque tube flange. Given the size of the "Clam Shell" pumpkin, the studs would have to much shorter than later years

I wish I had Rodda's 3rd book, from what I read about it is would show me some very interest pictures of other things I've been looking for...like the 2 lever's linkage.

[VowellArt]

Reconfiguration on the ball.