Waking up a Sleeping Beauty, 1934 5 window

[The Art Doctor]

Originally Posted by alchemy

Those kingpins sound like poorly manufactured parts to me. I wouldn’t trust them. Can you find another pair?

Also, you will need a large tanged socket to work on the tie rod ends. Might as well start looking for one now. Then it will make it much easier to take them apart, as well as adjust them.

I "won" a shelf worn old stock replacement set on eBay this morning, I will report if they are better.


Do you have an image of this socket? I could get the nut off but I had no way of introducing a puller. The gap between the steering arm and the rod end was filled with a hard plastic seal and there was no gap what soever to grab on with a two jaw puller or any modern style ball joint puller. I tried to rap two hammers simultaneously on the steering arm's socket to no avail and a pickle fork didn't fit in the non-existent gap to even try (was last refuge), so I gave up and unwound it.

[Terry,OH]

if you unscrew the end of the tie rod held in place with the cotter pin the entire tie rod end will come off without additional tools. Count the number of turns to remove so you can install in the same place.

[The Art Doctor]

While waiting on fuel system goodies from Bob Drake (I know, he actually had what I wanted in stock) I got going on my electronic fuel gauge project. I picked up what was listed as a 1936 truck gauge and proceeded to cut and blend it with the housing and face from the 1934 hydrostaic gauge. If I was to do over I'd make a few different cuts, but I am happy with the look once installed. I'd say my fabrication is a 7.5/10 and the finished results once installed a solid 9/10. I have no idea if it will work, but I plan on installing the new tank this weekend and hope to find out.

[al's28/33]

Looks really good, appears the needle may have settled a bit, please let us know how it registers. My mechanic had some issues to manipulate mine, something about the OHMS reading. All that stuff is way over my head, but at least I don't have to note down how many miles I can go till the tank is empty and I don't need to stick the tank. Good job you did it yourself. You might still have to tweak the inner gauge plate depending on how the needle registers with your new parts compared to amount of gas in the tank.

[The Art Doctor]

Tonight's little project, radiator cap repairs. The car came with three caps. One a Vintique that was complete and on the car (on right in comparison image showing slight differences in profiles), another unmarked one that I assume is another reproduction that was missing the seal bits (on left in comparison photo) and a worn but presentable greyhound with stripped threads and a broken tail tip. I ordered a Bob Drake cap rebuild kit and between that and the spares that came with the car I assembles the two extra caps. I got a cheap stainless threaded insert kit off amazon and with some trepidation over-drilled, tapped and put in a threaded insert into the greyhound. I used stainless hardware instead of the brass screw in the Drake kit on the greyhound as I needed more threads and the oversized washer I put in the retaining part helped line up everything. I test fitted it a few times to make sure it was properly centered, tightened it all down real good and now it has a proper mascot. I'm trying to decide what to do about the tail tip. It bugs me and there is not a spare grand laying around to get on of JD's extremely fine replacements. Any advice? Epoxy putty will last one trip so that is a non-starter for me. I was thinking of trying to build up a bit of solder and shape that or just round off the jagged end but its a bit short. Ill keep one of the plain caps in the car for any overnight excursions so my dog does not run off while I'm not looking.

[cas3]

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Stainless seems to be more sensitive to other metals (electrolysis), I would stay with the brass screw as original IMHO

[Mart]

Looks great. I wouldn't worry about the dog's tail.

Mart.

[Newc]

FYI the electric Ford guages work with King-Sealy sending units- those pulse 36-48 Newc

[The Art Doctor]

Originally Posted by cas3

Stainless seems to be more sensitive to other metals (electrolysis), I would stay with the brass screw as original IMHO

Brass bolts are not so common here since the "10,000 Items" renegade Ace Hardware closed. They had all the obscure stuff the corporate stores do not. They have their Handy Hardware location 15 miles from me but in Atlanta that might as well be in California for how long it would take to get there. I will keep it on the list of stuff to look for when out and about.

Originally Posted by Mart

Looks great. I wouldn't worry about the dog's tail.

Mart.

Thanks Mart, we all often get mired in the small details of individual parts that once fully assembled do not really stick out. I enjoy your YT channel. I'm not a regular consumer but when I'm pooped after a long week I do occasionally sit in front of the boobtube and watch.

Originally Posted by Newc

FYI the electric Ford guages work with King-Sealy sending units- those pulse 36-48 Newc

I hope to test it this weekend, going to finally put some gas in it and try for a test run. Worse case I just use the trip odometer as I have been accustomed to, but it would be nice to actually have a functioning gauge in one old car.

[The Art Doctor]

Anybody have an image of a 32-34 that clearly shows the front brake actuators in place? It all seems to only go back together one way to be functional (I tried swapping sides, putting them before and behind the perch, upside down and backwards) but I want to double check to make sure it is right. The factory exploded diagram is not very clear on orientation. This car has been messed with by someone who got a few things wrong that I have found so far so I want to make sure I put it back together correctly. Thanks in advance.

[The Art Doctor]

Probably too much in one post but here it goes.


To answer my own question above I did eventually find an image of the front assembly, and yes I have to correct. Image below is 32 but the same and I got it right.


To come full circle on the king pin issue I wound up buying a NORS set off eBay. They were no better in roundness than the currently available stock. It was not a total waste as it did come with new brake rods and I needed one as my had been welded on and was too long. I checked them with machinist dye and they too had high spots. I did not bother filing one of them down like I did the current stock items because once I got that one to round it was too small for the bushings as properly reamed. If I had an adjustable reamer or a machine shop hone new bushings could be sized to them and the correctly rounded and thus somewhat undersized pins used but I am not going to do that. So in the end I put the old Ford script stamped king pins back in and they fit perfectly with the prescribed thumb press fit in my freshly reamed bushings, go figure genuine Ford parts fit and are perfectly round. I'm going to keep an eye out for used Ford pins to put in my spares pile for future need though I know of a hard driven '32 with 150,000 on a set of king pins and no wear at all. The originals did not have shims under the bearings nor lower washers/felt seals. I did not know to check bearing play before I took it apart. The new upper bearings take two shims but I still have bearing motion by hand underweight but if I put in three it is locked up solid with no weight on it. I left two in, this is correct? Now I am second guessing and thinking I should scrap the new bearings and I just use the old Ford bearings and no shims. What would you do?


My new issue, its always something, is with the king pin locks. I damaged the threads on the old ones getting them out but I can still fit them in for test fittings for shims and bearings and they fit great. The new ones barely will go in even with an 8lb mini-sledge hammer smacking. The originals were 1/8" out from flush one one side and fully flush on the other, I can barely get the threads to stick out the backside on the new ones and they sick out about 1/2". I tried to pull one through by putting on the nut and tightening it up but simply pulled the last 3/16" of threads out of the nut and off the end of the pin. The holes in my axle are either too small (unlikely) or the pins must be too big or ???? Are the new ones sized for worn old axles and mine is too good??? They look similar but there are slight differences in the machined angles between original and new (I do not have tools to measure the circumference and ID of the hole that accurately). I ordered some old stock from Southside Obsolete, hopefully they will fit better. Super frustrated on this.

[jimTN]

You should be able to fine some NOS on ebay they are often on there and the Moog sets are as good as Ford.

[The Art Doctor]

As I am the youngest member of the EFV8 RG#24 I get quite a few hand-me-downs from the older generation. They are usually books, magazines or clothing but sometimes parts and other memorabilia. One of our oldest members, at 93, is moving himself out of his home and in the process came across some things to give to me. The items included three commemorative shift knobs and a 1940 Georgia glove box sized folded road map. The knobs are one from the 45th Grand National, a repro of the worlds fair souvenir knob, and one from the 2012 Hiawassee, GA eastern regional meet that our RG put on before I joined up in 2015. I quickly replaced my plain black knob. It matches the wood graining so well and a good reminder of the good friends my Wife and I have come to know through the old Ford hobby.

[John R]

I had the same problem with repro king pin locks. No way they would work! I had a few used originals and reused them. Had to carefully dress them a bit, but they fit perfectly.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by The Art Doctor

As I am the youngest member of the EFV8 RG#24 I get quite a few hand-me-downs from the older generation. They are usually books, magazines or clothing but sometimes parts and other memorabilia. One of our oldest members, at 93, is moving himself out of his home and in the process came across some things to give to me. The items included three commemorative shift knobs and a 1940 Georgia glove box sized folded road map. The knobs are one from the 45th Grand National, a repro of the worlds fair souvenir knob, and one from the 2012 Hiawassee, GA eastern regional meet that our RG put on before I joined up in 2015. I quickly replaced my plain black knob. It matches the wood graining so well and a good reminder of the good friends my Wife and I have come to know through the old Ford hobby.

[The Art Doctor]

Originally Posted by John R

I had the same problem with repro king pin locks. No way they would work! I had a few used originals and reused them. Had to carefully dress them a bit, but they fit perfectly.

Thank you for this! I sometimes wonder if its just me and that I am inept and need to find a new hobby. I have the NOS ones coming from Southside but to double down I found a used set with caps and some extras on eBay for $7 that claims good threads and they are on the way too. This is why I keep telling myself its OK to stockpile good consumable parts and that good money spent now will reap rewards a decade or two from now.

[alchemy]

Never pull the lock pins through with a nut, as you have found out. Most common reason they don’t fit right is the kingpin is not rotated correctly and you are hitting the notch in the wrong angle. Or even the wrong height. After double checking the kingpin is located correctly, use a punch to tap the lock pin into the hole.

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by alchemy

Never pull the lock pins through with a nut, as you have found out. Most common reason they don’t fit right is the kingpin is not rotated correctly and you are hitting the notch in the wrong angle. Or even the wrong height. After double checking the kingpin is located correctly, use a punch to tap the lock pin into the hole.

DON'T over tighten those cotter pins that lock in the King Pin. Yes, they are cotter pins which are different from split pins.
If you get too enthusiastic tightening them, you will likely stretch the eye in the axle and your king pins will never be tight.

[The Art Doctor]

On the kingpin/bolt ongoing issue. To retell I wound up reusing the right side previously installed Ford factory kingpin I took out with new bushings. I was able to get the new lock bolt in but its not deep enough for my liking and I am going to take it back out. On the left side I just tried to do the same thing, new bushings and reuse the existing Ford kingpin but I discovered eventually that the kingpin was marked 48 and that explained why the actuator on that side was worn out, it was a 35-36 kingpin with the wrong angle on the ball head. Two different kingpins, what a mess, another reason it was reported that it never stopped properly. I much more carefully this time filed the high spots off one of the NORS kingpins and using a bushing from that kit that did not require reaming carefully fit the pin using machinist die. Blue die on the pin and slid the bushing on and off and where the dye was rubbed off filed a little bit and repeated till a perfect if a tiny bit tight fit. On this side I used the previously used lock bolt I got off eBay and it fit perfectly. I am going to punch out the lock bolt from the drivers side and use another of the used eBay lock pins. Both spindles are play free, finally. This should wrap up the kingpin/lock bolt saga, hopefully.....


I'm working on front brakes now. I got lucky and found a NOS left side actuator to replace the damaged one on eBay for cheap. I then discovered that the actuating rods that go through the kingpin on both sides were different lengths and much longer than stock due to welding at the tips that was not very pretty. I had new ones in the NORS kingpin kit. Now when assembled I do not have enough swing at the actuator arm before it hits the shackle. The new rods are the correct 7.75" but I now need to add a few pill shims into the wedge to get the swing I need for full application. I have some on order and should be here next week. Each thing I fix shows something else that was done wrong that requires a new delay for another small part. Cant wait to see what I find in the rear brakes......I need to get a proper puller from Vintage Precision first.

[The Art Doctor]

Plugging away on smalls while waiting on more parts. I put in an old stock Airtex 6V low pressure blow through electric fuel pump. It has a built in anti-siphon one-way valve. It is mounted using an existing running board bolt with compression fittings on the existing copper coated steel fuel line that I cleaned out earlier when I changed out the fuel tank. I know not everyone will agree but I have an electric pump in each of my old cars. Most are set up like this as an accessory to a mechanical pump to fill evaporated carb bowls and to thwart off vapor lock on those 95* deep south days that I get stuck in traffic. Modern fuel has such low vapor pressure, as its engineered for closed loop modern cars' systems, that a hot engine will evaporate the fuel out of a carburetor in the time it takes to stop and get a cheeseburger and milkshake. I will run it through the ignition via the 6v left side lug of the ballast then the small switch on the lower left dash rail that is normally used to turn on and off the dash lights will be the actual energizing source, so no new holes or switches and no power drains or accidentally leaving it on with the ignition off.


I did receive my rear NOS brake rods from Southside Obsolete. Amazing this stuff is still around sitting and waiting to be finally installed on car 90 years later. My rods were bent and nearly half worn through from the support bushings that attach to the rear radius rods not to mention the loose fitting pin holes. By comparing the new to old I figured out that someone had cut the rear rods down and then welded on the extensions to the clevises to make up for them being too short. More hackery righted. I have more NOS smalls coming from Southside as well. I got the surface rust off the new rods and painted them and new clevises from Mikes A-ford-able, which is around an hour north of me. Wish I knew I needed the brake pills when I went and picked up a small order a few weeks ago. I really like the one-part epoxy spray paints from VHT. One part epoxy is basically what they used to call appliance paint. It is either UV cure or moisture cure depending on formula. I use their Roll bar and Chassis spray paint a lot and can highly recommend it. Primer is optional as all epoxies are DTM "direct to metal" compatible and once cured is hard as a rock. It will be dry to touch over night but full cure takes a good 7-10 days in my experience especially moisture cure in the winter with dry air.