[SEL] Old vehicle questions. OT

[Alan]

I have an older friend, Bob, who's dad used to own a gasoline station 
and they also serviced vehicles.
Bob owned it for a few years after his dad did.
Then it was shut down and turned into an insurance office.
Well,,, Bob had the alignment tools along with all the rest of 
the specialty tools.
The station ran between 1948 and 1978.
I have seen Bob align a front end.
Picture two four foot or longer straight edges.
They had magnetic stand offs that slid to adjust for different 
wheel sizes.
They also each had a bubble on them for level.
Stick one on each front wheel and measure between them front and back.
Well,,,, It is hard to measure the back because there is car in the way.
So,,,, Have another rod under the car that had an adjustable part 
on each end. 
Those ends slid on the rod and could be locked in place with a thumb screw.
Each end had two 1 1/2" -- 2" long legs and a more solid bar coming 
up that he adjusted to the straight edges at the back of the wheels.
Then I grabbed one end and we tipped the ends over and slid the rod 
out from under the car.
We carried it around to the front and he had me slide my end up to the 
straighe edge and then he measured the gap at his end.

This did not look like something they had made.
I think the rod across the car came apart in three pieces and 
the ends came off.
Everything went into a nice box like it was a kit they had bought.

Are ya ready?
Start building.
Alan in Michigan



--- On Fri, 11/14/08, curt at rustyiron.com <curt at rustyiron.com> wrote:

> From: curt at rustyiron.com <curt at rustyiron.com>
> Subject: [SEL] Old vehicle questions. OT
> To: stationary-engine at oldengine.org, sel at lists.stationary-engine.com, slick at toltbbs.com
> Date: Friday, November 14, 2008, 9:36 AM
> Gentlemen,
> Engines have been on hold a while as we've continued to
> work on Devin's
> project vehicle. We are currently assembling the front
> I-beam axle and
> have a couple of questions for the experts out there.
> 
> 1) When setting toe in, where is the dimension taken from?
> At the OD of
> the tire? Or at the brake drum/caliper OD? ISTR most toe in
> specs are a
> 1/16" to a 1/8". Where this is measured makes a
> HUGE difference in
> resulting angle between the wheels.
> 
> 2) We are in need of dust caps to go on the axle ends. NAPA
> turned up
> nothing. These caps fit OVER the hubs, not inside like more
> modern
> vehicles. The Hub measures 2 3/8" diameter and the
> caps need to be about 1
> 5/8" deep. Anyone know of a source?
> 
> If helpful, a few photos of the front axle can be seen at
> the bottom of
> this page:
> <http://www.oldengine.org/members/holland/images/WillyOverlandRestoration/FrontAxleIbeamRebuild/Thumbnails.html>
> 
> The entire project is being documented here: LOTS of
> photos.
> <http://www.oldengine.org/members/holland/images/WillyOverlandRestoration/Thumbnails.html>
> 
> Thanks,
> Curt Holland
> Gastonia, NC