leather as a rod bearing

[freak]

I remembered a story my friends dad told me years ago about an A that he and his friend drove. They had another friend at a gas station who would let them drain the hoses at night into their tank. One day the A started knocking at the station and they dropped the pan, figured out which rod was loose, one of them cut a piece their belt and placed it in the cap, rebolted the cap and went on their way. How long that lasted I have no idea. Sadly he is gone now. Wish he was around to tell more A stories.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by 1930 coupe

It will get you across town to the used car lot.

That's about it. An old timer was telling me a story about a car in the New London to New Brighton Run that did the same thing. He said the guy had to replace the leather about every 20 miles.

[freak]

Darn... I was hoping to do that instead of babbitt some day!

[Bader]

I've also heard of people using pork rind or bacon! I don't know if I believe either!

[darrylkmc]

I have heard this story dozens or more times, it's like the three brothers from Ireland story. I have never seen any evidence of the leather bearing in any of the engines that I have seen, and not all Ford engines.

However, I do have a 1926 Chevrolet and the #4 connecting rod babbitt went out on, they melted out the rest of the babbitt, carefully formed an upper and lower bearing out of copper and ran it. I'm thinking it was only for a few minutes, because the crank pin doesn't have much copper on it, and they didn't destroy it.

Darryl in Fairbanks

[Joe K]

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Wasn't this methodology described in the book (and maybe movie) "Grapes of Wrath?"

I checked this and it seems that Wilson's car required a replacement rod from a local junk yard. Known as a Tom Joad repair though. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=513083

I think Mary Moline in her Model A Miseries and Cures describes a field expedient repair to the Ford engine using bacon rind or some other porcine part.

Joe K

[Afordman31]

Years ago my cousins had a 1949 Plymouth, which was known for having a soft crankshaft. They had a rod knock so my Uncle Gene put a piece of leather in for them. They drove and drove that car with the leather bearing. You could hear it knocking for a block away (you also knew it was them coming). Before they got rid of the car they tried to knock the leather bearing out but couldn't. The car was sold that way. That was 50 years ago. Afordman31

[modeleh]

I can tell you from experience that a engine will run with a leather piston ring and a leather head gasket.
I had a two cylinder 1974 Johnson 650 snowmobile that broke a ring. No compression on one hole with thumb test. It would not fire up with only one good cylinder, and I was stuck on the mountain. I pulled the head and jug off the bad hole and found the broken ring. Using my leather wristwatch strap and a pocket knife, I fashioned a strip of leather and packed it in the piston groove. Slid the jug back on and bolted everything up, gave it a pull, and it fired up and got me back to the truck. I wasn't able to get it to start a second time though.
Another time on a 73 Arctic Cat 340 twin, I had a head gasket failure after doing a top end overhaul and using poor quality aftermarket gaskets that turned out not to have a proper firing ring. Again stuck on the mountain, I tried unsuccessfully to fashion a head gasket out of stripped copper wire sandwiched between the head and jug, no dice. A pal of mine was wearing some leather gauntlet type gloves so he cut the gauntlet part off with a knife and we fashioned a simple gasket out of the leather, bolted the head on, and it fired up and got me down the mountain back to the truck.
After that we joked that we should wear a leather coat with all the engine gaskets traced out in pen on it, so if we were ever in a bind again, we could just cut the piece out!
Like mentioned by others, leather seems to be a very versatile repair material, however, its longevity is rather short!

[freak]

Originally Posted by darrylkmc

I have heard this story dozens or more times, it's like the three brothers from Ireland story. I have never seen any evidence of the leather bearing in any of the engines that I have seen, and not all Ford engines.

However, I do have a 1926 Chevrolet and the #4 connecting rod babbitt went out on, they melted out the rest of the babbitt, carefully formed an upper and lower bearing out of copper and ran it. I'm thinking it was only for a few minutes, because the crank pin doesn't have much copper on it, and they didn't destroy it.

Darryl in Fairbanks

It could have been a tall tale from him. He had loads of stories. One of my favorites was when they were building the Southwyck Mall (now demolished) in Toledo Ohio. He was a surveyor and his last name was Southwick. Note the spelling difference. One day while laying out the parking lot someone (I don't remember who) came up to him and was screaming at him for something (don't remember what) and he just stood there an took it because the the guy was wrong and he was going to take his turn yelling back when he was done. The guy then looked at his hard hat which had his last name on it and very sincerely apologized saying I'm sorry Mr. Southwyck, I didn't realize who you were. The guy turned and walked away and "Mr. Southwick" never had to say a word.

[Mike V. Florida]

Bearing knock, remove bearing cap, rub on the sidewalk to sand it down and put it back in again.

Right Tony!

[nhusa]

As I reached the top of was Mount Washington in the White Mountains of NH in 1954 my 1941 Ford coupe began to make strange noises and steam began to come out of the front

I didn't know a lot about cars but knew that something big was wrong so I let it sit for awhile and looked at all the scenery
As I walked around I picked up an old belt with a strange buckle that had been shortened

When the car was no longer steaming and seemed cool I started it and returned to the valley and found a place to get gas.
I told the old guy at the gas station about the steam and he said the I probably needed to add water to the radiator

When I told him about the belt he asked to see it.
He said that he recognized the buckle and years before he had used that very belt to fix a Model T bearing so they could drive it down the mountain

That's my story and I am sticking to it even though I would have been only 9 years old in 1954 and I once stopped a radiator leak with oatmeal

Did I ever tell you how I fixed a hole in an inner tube with a bandaid?

[freak]

You're lucky you didn't get caught driving at 9 years old.

[darrylkmc]

Originally Posted by freak

You're lucky you didn't get caught driving at 9 years old.

By 9 years old. you should already know how to drive a Model A.

Darryl in Fairbanks +32 bad temperature

[nhusa]

At 9 years old I couldn't drive a nail and was running my bicycle into cars.

By 12 I raced boats, drove my dad's model T (1922), was kicked out of Sunday School, and almost kicked out of school.

[Growley bear]

when I was a kid my dad told me how he and his brother used a piece of a leather belt for a rod bearing in a model T; also lining tires with canvas, filling them with feed corn and soaking them in the river so the corn would swell. Good thing they didn't drive very fast.
Chet

[Ted Duke]

Originally Posted by modeleh

I can tell you from experience that a engine will run with a leather piston ring and a leather head gasket.
I had a two cylinder 1974 Johnson 650 snowmobile that broke a ring. No compression on one hole with thumb test. It would not fire up with only one good cylinder, and I was stuck on the mountain. I pulled the head and jug off the bad hole and found the broken ring. Using my leather wristwatch strap and a pocket knife, I fashioned a strip of leather and packed it in the piston groove. Slid the jug back on and bolted everything up, gave it a pull, and it fired up and got me back to the truck. I wasn't able to get it to start a second time though.
Another time on a 73 Arctic Cat 340 twin, I had a head gasket failure after doing a top end overhaul and using poor quality aftermarket gaskets that turned out not to have a proper firing ring. Again stuck on the mountain, I tried unsuccessfully to fashion a head gasket out of stripped copper wire sandwiched between the head and jug, no dice. A pal of mine was wearing some leather gauntlet type gloves so he cut the gauntlet part off with a knife and we fashioned a simple gasket out of the leather, bolted the head on, and it fired up and got me down the mountain back to the truck.
After that we joked that we should wear a leather coat with all the engine gaskets traced out in pen on it, so if we were ever in a bind again, we could just cut the piece out!
Like mentioned by others, leather seems to be a very versatile repair material, however, its longevity is rather short!

Sounds like you should start a new business, Leather Gasket Jackets!

Ted

[Jim Brierley]

pork rind seems to work but the pigs complain about it!

[mot]

in 1961 a friend an i were driving into Yellowstone park
right at the entrance the studebaker silver hawk threw a rod
so we made a U turn in the park and drove to Jackson Hole Wy
the only repair shop didnt have a studebaker bearing of course but offered to fly one in at a cost of $80 plus his labor
since we were only making about$100 a month (we were in the Navy)
we opted to cut the tongue out of my shoe and use for a bearing
it lasted to the city limits(which was not that far)
so we took the spark plug out and he drove 65 mph for 180 miles to Pocatello Idaho they fixed his engine and there were no further problems

[wayne1953]

when I took my Truck apart in 1968 the center main was a leather strap no babbit and seemed to
be holding ok several of the shims were cut strips from Campbell's soup cans from the late 50's thats what great about A's some guy put it back togather like that and it still ran another 20 years lol

[Jeff in BC]

From August 1933 Popular Mechanics. See center of page.

Jeff