Oddball socket size?

[JayJay]

I'm about to tear into a Model A engine to check bearing clearances, and I have a vague recollection that some of the nuts (rod cap nuts?) are an oddball socket size - 19/32" or 21/32" sticks in my mind. Am I imagining things? If the size is 19/32" (0.5938"), will a 15 mm (0.5906") fit?

Thanks, all.

[ursus]

The originals were 21/32. I bought one in 1/2 inch drive size from Sears (Craftsman) years ago. I see that various 21/32 sockets can be found on Amazon for 4-5 bucks.

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by ursus

The originals were 21/32. I bought one in 1/2 inch drive size from Sears (Craftsman) years ago. I see that various 21/32 sockets can be found on Amazon for 4-5 bucks.

Thanks, Ursus. I ordered a cheap one off Amazon, supposed to show up Wednesday.

[old ugly]

try a metric size that fits nice.
OU

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by old ugly

try a metric size that fits nice.
OU

I ran that to see if I could make it work. 21/32" is 16.669 mm. A 17mm might work, but I'd hate to have it slip while torqueing. For $4.32 I got the right one. Besides, don't we always need a good excuse for a new tool? Or even a poor excuse?

[CarlG]

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I always thought that owning a Model A was just an excuse to buy more tools.

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by CarlG

I always thought that owning a Model A was just an excuse to buy more tools.

I got started into Model As as a teenager in the late 1960's. I went off to college, got married, bought the house, had kids, etc. and got rid of all my Model A stuff. For many years my cars and motorcycles were European/Japanese, and even the US cars I had after about 1990 were metric fasteners. So I accumulated quite a selection of metric tools.

Fast forward to about five years ago after my last metric restoration (1973 BMW motorcycle) when I decided to go back to my roots, and began poking around for my SAE tools that had not seen the light of day for 50 years. I found quite a few I'd forgotten I had, but have had to supplement those a bit with more. So far I've been able to avoid a second roll-around toolbox for metric tools but I suppose that day is coming sometime.

[Gene F]

When I took my 1928 apart to check bearing clearances (way back when) the mains were 4 point nuts. 9/16" These were the ones that were nuts inside the engine . The car still had the multi-disc clutch, that dipper tray that Ford only used a couple of months, and stuff like that.

[redmodelt]

Rods are 30-35 FPT, so you are not really reefing on them.

[JayJay]

Well, all the discussion was for naught, but I do appreciate y'alls feedback. The rod nuts were a solid 5/8", not 19/32" or 21/32". And the main nuts were 3/4". Bolt heads on the mains are 9/16" square. I have lots of 5/8" and 3/4" sockets and wrenches. The engine is 0.040" overbore so perhaps the rods got replaced when the engine was rebuilt.

BTW, I found some cheap 11 mm bolt thread protectors on Amazon (they were like $5.50 for 20 of them) and these fit the 7/16" rod studs perfectly.