The work party at Larry’s garage on Saturday, February 20th was more lightly attended than usual.  Our club member in Amarillo, Texas, (Les Hayley), had just finished his 1924 engine/transmission rebuilding project destined for a 1916 chassis and body.  Larry and Less had worked on this project for approximately nine days spread out over three separate trips to New Mexico by Les. When Les did drive back to Texas with the completed engine/transmission, he managed to install it the same day with the help of his son.  Congratulations Les!

Another frequent work party attendee missing this day was Art Gebeau from Milan, New Mexico.  Art had been working on his Rajo head speedster engine for couple of years and recently finished the project at Larry’s garage.  At a previous work party, Art and fellow club members installed his engine/transmission onto a chassis and he trailered it home.  We hope Art is making great progress.  We’re anxious to see his speedster!

Phil and his daughter Danielle continued working on dismantling an engine for their speedster project.  At this work party they removed the main bearing caps, crankshaft, and camshaft.  Larry measured the rod journals and found they had been ground previously.  As the babbitt was still in good condition, these surfaces were reusable as is.  The main bearing journals were a bit out of round and the crankshaft was bent approximately 0.006″.  Larry has a technique of chucking the crankshaft in his large lathe, accurately centering the ends of the crankshaft, and using a small bottle jack to bend the crankshaft to within a 0.001″ runout.  Larry trained Danielle on the crankshaft straightening procedure as well as how to measure using a micrometer.

Mark continued on his 1925 transmission rebuilding project.  He bought a new transmission shaft, to replace one that was slightly bent.  That, combined with the new SCAT balanced crankshaft, and runout is no longer an issue.  The next step was to check the ball bearing 4th main to see if it would fit the pan hole pattern.  Sadly, the pan is a bit bent (approx. 1/8″) and will need some straightening so as not to pull the 4th main off it’s centerline.  Bob Ross and Larry positioned the hogs head on the Bridgeport  mill in preparation to bore out the pedal shaft bearing areas to accept new ball bearings.  Kirby assisted Mark in installing the pan to check the fourth main.  Thank you fellow club members for your help!

Thank you Larry for another great work party!