[Tom Endy]

Before you drive it too much, I would recommend you pull all four drums off and re-pack all the wheel bearings. You never know how much attention it was given over the years and you might find the bearings dry.

I recall a fellow club member a number of years ago bought a Model A in reasonable shape. A number of club members helped go through various things for the new owner, but they failed to look at the wheel bearings.

Sometime later on a Southern California tour we had just descended the Grapevine when the owner's wife was on the CB frantically telling everyone their right front wheel was on fire. When they reached the bottom of the hill smoke was pouring off the right front wheel. When we got the wheel and drum off, after it cooled down enough, we found the inner wheel bearing was welded to the spindle.

I thought we had a show stopper, but there were some really experienced Model A's on the tour. They used a hack saw and a chisle to get the wheel bearing off. Coming up with a hack saw and a chisle on a tour was impressive enough, but one member also had a spare set of used wheel bearings with him. Another member walked back to a gas station and came back with a wad of wheel bearing grease. In about an hour we were all back on the road. I was mighty impressed and have since carried a set of extra front wheel bearings.

Tom Endy