Our Model A Adventures

On the road again! 3/25/2011

2011-03-25T22:31:00.001-07:00

Summary:
Dennis came over again tonight and after a couple of hours, we had the engine purring right along. Still has some noises and knocks, but Dennis thinks this is from the loose wrist pins and possibly piston slap. I'm a happy camper!

The details:
Over the past few days, I'd tightened up the connecting rods and cleaned up the oil pan. However, the tightened connecting rods prevented the engine from turning. I really wanted the engine to turn, so I had taken the car off of the jack stands and tried to push it a bit with it in gear and could only get the engine to turn about 1/4 revolution, then it stopped. So Dennis brought over his hand crank to see if we could break it loose. Well, it helps if the guide bracket lines up with the crank shaft... We had to loosen up the bracket so the crank could access the crank shaft. But it still wouldn't turn...

When I was tightening up the rods, I had noticed that only having #4 tight prevented the engine from turning, so we loosened the cap on #4 and sure enough, we were able to turn the engine even with the other 3 tight. I had kept a couple of shims we had removed from the other rods, so we found the best one and inserted it on one side of the #4 cap. Once that was in place and tightened up, the engine would turn. The next step was to hook up the battery and see if the starter would turn over. It struggled a little, but it worked!

We were on a roll, so it was time to put on the oil pan gasket. I had ordered a couple of those new oil pan gasket sets from Snyder's and they looked pretty nice. So we put in the square gasket which goes into the groove in the rear main seal. It was a rubberized gasket, it stayed in place and was easy to cut to size. I had forgotten to soak the small asbestos gasket overnight, so when Dennis arrived, I threw it in some oil to at least get it a little soaked. We inserted the cloth gasket into the oil pan and trimmed it to the right length. Instead of attaching the two gasket strips to the block, we sprayed some adhesive to the pan edges and attached gaskets to the pan. This should hopefully allow the gaskets to stay with the pan when it is next removed. It took a little bit of work to get the pan onto the block because the oil pump with it's spring was putting pressure on the pan, and also the holes didn't want to line up nicely.

Oh wait, the oil pump, can't forget about that. I had also ordered one of those special oil pump holders from Snyder's and it worked quite well. We lined up the slot in the oil pump shaft, slid in the pump and hand tightened the special bolt to hold the pump in place. No mess, no fuss.

Once the oil pan was in place I removed the special oil pump holder and put back in the original plug. I also tightened up the front bracket with the crank in place so the next time, I won't have to loosen it up just to turn the engine.

We tried to remove the distributor so we could pour some oil down the shaft to make sure there was oil to the rear main, but the cable to the distributor was attached to the head and we didn't want to take that head bolt loose. So it stayed on. We put the spark plugs back in and I poured 5 quarts of oil into the engine.

At this point, we were ready to try to start the engine.

The starter really had to work to turn the engine, it took a few tries, but the engine finally started. What a relief! There seemed to be fewer noises from the engine, but after it warmed up a bit, some of the noises returned. However, because we knew there was a lot of slop in the wrist pins, Dennis believes that and some piston slap are the cause of most of the engine noise. We let the engine run for a few minutes to make sure everything was in order and that no oil was pouring out anywhere.

I'm really looking forward to motoring down the road soon, weather permitting.

Kudos to Dennis for all of his help and support during this exciting connecting rod replacement endeavor.

Connecting Rods - 03/20/2011

2011-03-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

As I was leaving the safety seminar a couple of weeks ago, Dave Jones stopped me and asked about the knocking noises coming from my engine. I didn't have much to say other than the engine was very tired and would need a rebuild soon. But I did notice that as I drove away, Dennis Rinaldi had a very concerned look on his face. The next day Dennis called and strongly suggested I not drive the car again until we had a chance to take a closer look at the engine because it sounded like I had a connecting rod problem. And so began my connecting rod adventure.

I dropped the oil pan to see if there were any bits and pieces of babbit from the rods or main bearings in the pan, luckily there wasn't anything obvious. There is some braising in the dip pans where there may have been rust spots or holes previously drilled in the pan, but that's it.

The oil pump stayed up in the block, so I left it there for Dennis to see. When he came over a few days later, the first thing we did was to remove the pump. Well, we both looked at it and we noticed it didn't look right and sure enough, the top 1 inch of the pump stayed up in the block. Luckily because it was only the top part of the pump and the spring was holding it in place, oil was still getting into the engine just fine. My dad gave me a bunch of extra engine parts when he gave me the car, and among them was an oil pump with the screen cover missing. Ted Kafer was kind enough to donate a cover for me so I now have a complete replacement pump.

It's a little scary seeing my engine with it's bottom exposed, wondering if I'll ever get it back together again. The engine was nice and clean inside. My dad had dropped the pan when he rebuilt the car and cleaned it out really well.

We worked our way through the connecting rods for pistons 1, 2, and 3. Taking them loose, inspecting them for cracks or missing bits of babbit. Each had a single shim which needed to be removed. On a couple of the caps, we had to file them down to get the proper clearance on the crankshaft when we torqued them back on. I now know how to use plastigauge, I'd heard about it, but never used it. One of the many things Dennis has shown me.

For all the pistons, we did notice a bit of slop in the wrist pin bushings. This could very well be the source of some of the engine noise I'm experiencing. Well, since we were on a roll, we continued onto cylinder #4. As soon as we removed the connecting rod cap, Dennis noticed a large chunk of babbit stayed behind on the crank shaft from the connecting rod side. That pretty much put a stop to any more work that night, and we were making such good progress too. We decided the next step would be to remove the rear main bearing cap, if that was busted up, then it would be time to rebuild the engine, if not, then we would proceed with replacing the connecting rod from below, at least that would be our goal.

Fast forward a few days and Dennis came back to help check out the rear main bearing. He brought along an original Ford wrench designed for just that purpose since it's a very tight fight for modern torque wrenches. We took off the cover plate, then removed the nuts for the rear main - the decisive moment where I either rebuild the engine, or eek a few more miles out it was at hand.

We pull off the bearing cap and.... it's fine and in good shape. No cracks, chips or missing pieces. Whew! No shims though, so it's nearing the end of it's life.

Now to tackle that pesky #4 connecting rod. It's a tad bit easier with the rear main removed, we don't have to worry about breaking off the oil tube.

Dennis kept reassuring me that it's possible to drop the piston low enough, without exposing the rings, to remove the keeper snap rings for the wrist pin, then slide out the wrist pin, and remove the connecting rod. Sounds doable, but would my car cooperate? We turn the crank into just the right position to gain maximum access to the wrist pin. Pull out the keeper rings and start working on the wrist pin. Over time, a shellac builds up on the wrist pin in the exposed areas which makes removing the pin difficult. After much coaxing, stuck fingers and no so gentle persuasion, we managed to get the wrist pin out. Success!

Look at that, no wrist pin or connecting rod in the piston!

A side note: While we were busy getting the wrist pin out, every once in a while, a drop of water would hit the floor. We finally tracked it down to a potential small leak in the head gasket at cylinder 3. There's no water in the oil, so I'm confident I don't have a cracked block. A bit of radiator stop leak will hopefully fix that.

As I mentioned earlier, my father sent along a bunch of extra engine parts, included in that list are two crank shafts, 4 pistons, and 8 connecting rods. We mic'd out the crankshaft from my engine, then measured the other two other crank shafts. Well it turns out that one crank is almost an exact match and it had 3 connecting rods still attached. We removed the rods and after inspecting each one, found one that looked pretty good. It measured out to be within 1 -2 thousandths of the original. Talk about lucky.

Because of the slop in the wrist pins, Dennis suggested we remove one from an extra piston and see if it was any tighter fit. We took one out and yes, it was a better fit in the connecting rod, but when we attempted to push it back into the piston in the engine, it was just a bit too tight, so we went back to the original wrist pin. The new connecting rod did fit a bit tighter on the original wrist pin anyway. The keeper rings for the wrist pins were a bit of a challenge to get back in, but perseverance paid off.

We torqued up the connecting rod and it was a perfect fit with no shims, just like the rest of the rods. I now have a 4 piston engine again.

When I dropped the oil pan, most of the gasket stayed up on the block. So the day after we got the rod back in, I spent a couple of hours under the car cleaning the old pan gasket off and scrubbing the gasket surface clean in preparation for putting the oil pan back on.

Today (20th), I decided to plastigauge out the rear main, Dennis is busy, so I'm on my own. The problem is that I don't have the special ford wrench and it's a tight fit for modern wrenches, but here again I lucked out. The rear main cap for my engine is one of the 'thin' boss type, which makes it easier to fit wrenches in. My 1/2" torque wrench with a standard 3/4" socket JUST fits inside the opening. I torqued it all up to 75 lbs, took it off and it measured out to 1.5 thousandths. Almost perfect. I shined up the surface of the cap, oiled the bearing and torqued the cap back on. The castle nuts even lined up with the hole in the bolt for the cotter pins. I'm almost there.

So what's left? I need to torque up the connecting rods, put in the cotter pins and make sure the engine still turns. Once that's done, then it's a matter of putting the oil pan back on, oh, and add some oil too. I'm definitely past the hard part. I should be back on the road soon!

Even with all this tightening up and the replaced connecting rod, I know I haven't eliminated the need for an engine rebuild, but I've hopefully delayed it for a few more miles.

I can't thank Dennis Rinaldi enough for his help, patience and support during this whole ordeal!

Niles Essanay SIlent Film Museum tour 8/14/10

2010-08-19T08:26:00.001-07:00

The SCVC Model A club took a tour on 8/14/10 to the Essanay Silent Film Museum in downtown Niles. It turns out that from 1913 to I believe 1923, the Essanay movie production company was based in Niles. This is where Charlie Chaplin filmed 'The Tramp' which was his breakout film. The company was founded by George Spoor and Gilbert Anderson, this is where the 'S' and 'A' (Essanay) name is from. (That's my green roadster in the picture in front of the museum).

The group met at the corner of Calaveras and Park Victoria in front of the donut shop. It took me about 45 minutes covering 17 miles of city streets to get to the meeting point. The tour to Niles was only about 12 miles, again over city streets. I had never been to Niles before, I really enjoyed walking around town. Lots of antique shops, restaurants, etc.

Once we arrived, we wandered into the museum for a couple of silent movies; "The Tramp" with Charlie Chaplin and "The Making of Bronco Billy" with Gilbert Anderson. The museum often has live music accompanying the films for weekend and evening performances, but we were there during off-hours, so they used recorded music. Still quite a fun way to watch movies where you're encouraged to talk, boo, hiss, clap, etc during the film.

We then broke up into groups and had a tour of the projection room (metal lined in case of fire...), were shown many old hand cranked cameras, and had a short lecture about the museum and the production company history.

Then one of our docents took us on a walking tour of Niles. She showed us the former location of the production company, along with several of the bungalos built for the actors and employees which were still standing. We were shown some older homes along with the old courthouse and jail.
I headed back home about 1:30 or 2pm. A successful tour, no car troubles, I didn't get lost, and I made it home safe and sound. The tour was just under 60 miles for me round trip. Now it's time to change the oil in the car.

Ever see a 1929 Model A Chevy Roadster? Now you have...

2010-08-04T13:34:00.001-07:00

Registering the roadster with the state of California was an interesting event. Not the hair pulling, nerve racking, scream at the top of your lungs experience I was expecting, in fact it was almost easy and pleasant. I downloaded and filled out the paperwork ahead of time for the title transfer. Drove the car down to the Los Gatos DMV, without an appointment mind you, waited in line a short time, was told I had to have the car inspected and went back outside and drove it to the inspection spot. The DMV dude came out, looked at the car, looked at the VIN number on the engine, signed his copy of the paperwork (ignored my filled in and signed copy) and sent me back inside. I stood in line again, got my assigned number, then waited. Luckily I only had to wait about 20 minutes before I was called. The nice gal at the counter took my paperwork, looked at it, looked at the inspectors paperwork, then threw them away and had me fill out something different, oh well. Unfortunately I could not keep the original title from my dad. She made a copy of it, but had to keep the original. I was then handed a new set of plates for my Roadster. I now could legally drive the car anytime, anywhere. And get this, it's exempt from smog inspections, which is a very good thing...

This was in mid August of '09. Months went by and in May I was randomly checking paperwork and while scanning through the titles I saw the Toyota, GMC, Chevy, and then another Chevy??? Turns out that despite me having filled out the paperwork correctly, the gal at the counter put down the car as a Chevy. I was the proud owner of a 1929 Model A Chevy Roadster, built by Ford...

Well, the next day I drove the roadster back down to the DMV, stood in line, again, with no appointment and when I had to describe the problem to the front desk person, he couldn't figure out how to fill in the paperwork he had to give me. Evidently they don't run into this problem very often and don't have the proper 'checkbox' on the forms. I then had to go back outside, get the car re-inspected (yup, it's a Ford...), then go back inside and get my special number. This time I waited a bit longer and had the displeasure of listening to some lady talking to her mother about her son stealing an iPod. Then she called her son and talked to him about it. The really sad part was how she seemed to accept this behavior and wasn't really all that mad about it. Anyway, I eventually got called and had the paperwork fixed, so I am now the owner of a true 1929 Model A Ford Roadster.

The moral of the story is to always check your paperwork from the DMV...

Major fixes

2010-08-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's been 1 year since we trailered the roadster out to California and quite a fun and challenging year it's been.

The car did require a few minor tweaks to get it so I could drive it around town. It had a pretty severe front-end shimmy which wanted to bounce me off the road if I hit just the wrong bump, plus it backfired and overheated.

But even before I tackled those problems, my dad strongly suggested I clean out as much of the rust from the gas tank as I could. This required emptying the gas tank, taking out the bottom shut-off valve, and with a wooden dowl, scraping and pushing large blobs of rust out the bottom of the tank. I managed to collect almost 1 full cup of rust from the tank. I also rinsed the tank with a couple of gallons of kerosene just to flush out any remaining large pieces. I then replaced the gas float so I had an accurate gas gauge.

The next problem was trying to figure out why it overheated. I could drive it about a mile, then Mr. Steam wanted to make himself known. I flushed the radiator/engine a couple of times and noticed some strange 'stuff' coming out of the drain spigot. It looked like hair or stuffing. Turns out that when I looked closer at the radiator, that there appears to have been a mouse nest built in there many many years ago which was clogging the tubes. Once I cleaned this out, I've no problems with overheating that weren't of my own creation..

So, the backfiring was scaring the neighbors. What to do, what to do. I didn't know, so I managed to drive the car to Alfi's house, a local club member, for him to take a look at the engine for me. He quickly diagnosed the problem which was the condenser wasn't properly grounded. I bought a new condenser and lo-and-behold, no more backfiring.

Then the last major problem was the front-end shimmy. To this day, I haven't completely solved the issue, but it's mostly gone. What I did find was that the radius bolts were loose and wouldn't tighten any more. Turns out they were stretched and almost ready to shear off. I replaced these, tightened up the tie rods, adjusted the tow-in, replaced the pitman arm, and tightened the front axle bearings just a tad. The only time I get a shimmy now is if I hit a big bump when I'm stopping, and that's because the sector gear in the steering box is very worn and needs replacing. Some day soon I'll get to it, but that puts the car out of commission while I wait for a new steering rod.

Oh, the brakes, they also needed pretty severe adjustments. With the advice and help from club members, I was able to adjust them to a usable state. I still need to have the roller bars welded and ground smooth to completely fix it.

Those were the major tweaks I did on the car during the first couple of months I owned it. The fix rate has dramatically decreased, but I'm sure there will be something big soon. Tiz the nature of the beast.

2010-07-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go. Time to start documenting our adventures with our '29 Model A Roadster.

First, a bit of history...
In the early 60's my father wanted to restore a Model A Roadster. In those days, Model A's were easier to find than they are today, but they were usually found out behind the barns or in the groves rusting away. He eventually found a sedan outside of his home town in Iowa from which he saved the frame, engine and drive train. Then he was fortunate enough to find a '29 roadster body in Minnesota. The woman who owned the car said her husband bought it new for their honeymoon. He then started collecting other body parts such as fenders, wheels, lights, radiators, etc. He eventually had all the parts, but his 'real job' as an Auto Body instructor kept him pretty busy. So it wasn't until he retired that he had the time to finish the car. Well, all except the top that is. There was a local apholsterer who claimed he could put the top on for him, but never got around to it. By the way, my dad did an excellent job on the restoration. Especially since he did not have the resources of a local Model A club to help him out.

He drove the car in local parades or around town, but probably only put about 50 miles on it in the 10 years he had it completed. During those 10 years I kept up my requests (begging and pleading...) that I would make a wonderful owner of the Roadster, and not turn it into a hot rod or sell it for parts. Then in 2009 he and my mother finally succumbed and allowed me the privilege of becoming the car's next owner, it's 3rd.

I had become a member of the Silicon Valley Model A Club (scvcma.org) in anticipation of owning the car. This turned out to be the best decision I could have made regarding the Roadster. The club members are extremely knowledgeable and willing to help, which made fixing and maintaining the car fun and a much less daunting task.

I've completed a number of mechanical updates that I will detail later, the sum of which is a car that is fun to drive and putter around town in.