Story and photos by Mark Wing

With so many active projects right now, Larry held a record breaking 4th consecutive Saturday work day at his garage! Joining us for the first time was new club member Gwenevere Johnson’s father (Jeff) who lives in Seattle. Jeff was in town to help Chris Otto and Gwenevere move into a house that they purchased in the mountains southeast of Albuquerque.

Projects on this day included Frank Lewark fine tuning the fit of his rods to the crankshaft. He was using “Timesaver” abrasive to lap in the rods to the proper 0.002″ clearance.

Phil Lance continued cleaning parts and began assembling a rear differential for his speedster project.

Mark Wing brought around 16 coils for testing. These coils were both the conventional style as well as 8 “red brass top” coils. Out of the 16 coils, only 4 tested as good or excellent on the ECCT (Electronically Cranked Coil Tester). The ones that were still viable were tweaked to optimize performance. Many of the failing coils had non-working or low output capacitors and will have to be rebuilt.

Al Schwanke and Larry continued working on Al’s 1926 touring car engine. Tasks included aligning the transmission shaft and honing the drum bushings.

Kirk Peterson brought several timers from his collection to select one for his 2020 Montana 500 race. These timers were of different types and he and Larry will select the most promising one for the race.

Jeff Richards heard a “clunking” noise in his rear differential/Ruckstell and trailered his 1925 Model T coupe to Larry’s Garage to have the noise checked out. The noise wasn’t subtle – and it sounded serious (and expensive). Club president Paul Duncan and other club members assisted Jeff in removing the rear differential and disassembled it. A piece of metal was lodged between the teeth of the ring gear and another piece was found on the floor where it was taken apart. The ring and pinion gears were examined and they looked good. This differential also had bronze thrust washers – and indicator that this rear end had been rebuilt. At the end of the day, no source for the small metal chunks were located. Jeff was going to follow-up on a subsequent work party by taking the Ruckstell entirely apart and carefully examining each part. With a bit of luck, no problems will be found and Jeff can reassemble the differential/Ruckstell without having to install any replacement parts. Is it possible that the previous rebuilder forgot about a dropped washer or other piece of metal? Good luck Jeff!

Thank you Larry for another productive and rewarding work day at your garage in Corrales, NM.