I started work on the chassis this week. I got the front wheel off so I can find bearings for the wheels. Once I got the wheel off, I was surprised to find the bearings were original and probably had never been changed.The brakes are worn down to almost nothing! So no new original bearings to be found. The bearings are a strange size and it looks like I will have to modify the hub a little to get bearings that fit. I hate modifying the hub but all I am doing is taking off .075 of a inch and then I can get wheel bearings easy and much cheaper. So back to Hoods I go. Maybe I should see if they need some part time help?. So the next thing to do is to strip both chassis and sort all of the parts. Then get the chassis sandblasted, primed and painted!Now if it would quit raining! 

I have been doing some finishing touches to the motor. I had my sister in law come over and help me with the safety wire on the bolts. This is where I thank my wonderful sister in law. First for her service in the U.S. Army. Second being a helicopter mechanic. Third having safety wire experience. Fourth for teaching me this tedious task. Well after we finished the safety wire lesson I got busy and put on the intake and exhaust and the carburetor. I found a small problem with my crank pulley but will be a easy fix. The next problem I ran in to was my oil pump. Not as much a problem with the pump but the tube feeding the pump. I removed the copper tube that feeds the pump while I was dismantling the engine in October. I didn't think much of it I figured that a little tubing and a new fitting or two and it would be easy! I thought wrong!! I spent the last month going threw books at work, asking shops, any thing from automotive comp., hydraulic shops and brake shops looking for the fitting. The tubing was easy half inch copper tube. I went to a pluming store to get that. There I should have stayed. I looked and looked and finally someone from work reminded me back in the thirty's all they had was pluming supply's. And the light bulb finally clicked on. So off to a pluming store I went to several and couldn't find what I needed, feeling like my I am on the right track bubble was about to burst I went to one last place. I went to Edge Supply in Springfield Mo. They laughed a little(I would have too) then proceeded to tell me that they have the local steam engine clubs come in all the time looking for odd ball parts. With in five minutes they had me all my brass fittings and they even had a ninety degree fitting so I don't have to bend my tubing! So now I am ready to put the oil pan on for the last time thanks to Edge!

Reviving/renewing old cork gaskets. I was finishing putting together the motor and some of my gaskets had shrunk. Given the gaskets are cork and 80 plus years old they are brittle. I looked online and found one listing on how to revive cork not much else so I asked several older mechanics and found out several ways to do it. Some of the ways I was reluctant to try. One way to revive the gasket was to soak it in marvel mystery oil that had been warmed. MMO is flammable so I wanted to try something a bit less hazardous so I had also been told to soak them in room temp water for a couple days, this seamed more safe. So I tried with one of my extra gaskets and it didn't do much. So on to what worked and quick! I was told hot almost boiling water was what works the best. So I first cleaned out a old parts wash tub to hold my gaskets. I boiled a large pot of water. I carried the pot out to the wash tub and carefully poured it in. I laid the gaskets in the HOT! water and used some tongs to turn and sink the cork into the HOT! water. I saw a immediate change to the gaskets as soon as they touched HOT! water. The gaskets sat in the HOT! water for almost two minutes and was back to normal.       

I got really tired of working on the floor, so I built a engine stand for the motor. Why build a engine stand? The block it self weighs close to two hundred pounds and with ever thing on it, it pushes the limits of my store bought stand. and I was a little worried it would break. So I had a little scrap metal laying around and why not!. So now I have the block, head and most every thing on the engine painted. I put the head on and torqued down. I mocked up most every thing to make sure that I have all the bolts I need and every thing is going to go back together properly. So far I like the way it looks.

Well I got my pistons in the block. Took the generator to Choate Electric in Springfield Mo. and had it completely rebuilt. and it looks good. So I put some blocks in the lifter cylinders so when I primed the block paint wouldn't get in to clog things up. I didn't get them sealed up enough so I had to clean a little paint out of there with a hone. This made me nervous, but I was told how to do it and had a little help from a machinist friend. I got the paint cleaned out and lifters in and crank and rods all done! I primed and painted the head and other parts that I needed to get done. So far so good!

I had taken the block to the machine shop and three weeks later they called my telling me that there was something wrong with my caps on the block. So I went to look at the block they had three of the main caps turned backwards. Luck have it we saw the problem bad thing they didn't want to finish the block. So off to find a new machine shop to so after some looking and talking to others. I was referred to Eagle machine in Buffalo Mo. I called them up and they actually new what engine I had and was excited to work on it. They asked me to bring the crank and the bearing to do it all by spec. I took it in on Friday and they called me Wednesday to tell me it was done! I went to pick it up and every looked awesome. The engine is ready finally! I have every thing in order to put the engine back together. Now if I can get a nice low humidity day to primer the head, water pump and hogs head. Now I need to get it done so I can start on the frame. I gave my self a goal at the beginning of this project to complete the engine by one year June 1st 2015. I am coming down to the wire! I want to have the chassis done at the two year mark. Then start on the body work that I haven't set a finish date yet.

Fixing a pot metal carburetor.

The carb top is fixed. I talked with a older gentleman that told me a way to fix the warped top on the carb. He told me it is a slow and tedious process and a lot of patience. I was a bit reluctant to try this one but I did it. First I had Hoods machine shop make me a piece of flat plate steel to put it on. They had to cut a hole in the bottom to let the carb top sit flat. Then I had to measure the gaps with a set of feeler gauges. Then here comes the hard and stressful part slowly using C-clamps clamp out .003 thousands of a inch then put the carb top in the oven at 275 F place it in a cold oven and let the whole thing warm up slowly. I gauged out each part of the carb and clamped out each part separately. I started out with .016 on the right side then clamped it down to .013 if you clamp out to much it will snap and brake the pot metal. So once it heated up to 275 F I let it set in the oven for ten minutes then pulled the whole thing out and let it cool slowly. When it got cool enough to touch I clamped out another .003 thousands of a inch. then put it back in the oven turned it back on to 275 F and did it all over again and again till it was flat. It took several clamps in several places and a lot of patience and a whole day to complete. but it looks like it worked. I couldn't get the .0015 thousands of a inch feeler gauge under any point. I let it cool over night before I removed the clamps and plate.