aa-fords.com

OK, I may have mentioned before, I'm working on my 1930 AA grain truck, known as Dr. Frank. As in Dr. Frankenstien.
The clutch was not working to say the least, so while you got it apart you rebuild the transmission and rebush the rear suspension.
The clutch area was full of dirt, maybe been under water. Fly wheel clutch face BAD. throw out, pilot bearing, and clutch parts, throw away.
Fly wheel and pressure plate from donor truck all good. All new parts bought, and old parts cleaned up, ready to start reassembly.
Now for the learning part
Heres the plan, 1" pipe U bolted to my tranny jack, slip the fly wheel on the pipe and put under truck. Cut off 2 long bolts for lineing pins in the crank flange, line the fly wheel up and push it home.
What the heck? it slides on my home made lining pins, but will not go all the way on the dowels, it hangs up on the bottem and binds up. I wiggle, push, beat on it with a raw hide hammer, all I do is knock skin off my nuckles. After about an hour of fussing and cussing, I deside on giving it another try tomorrow.
Oh well, I'll get it back on my jack and it will be ready to drive me crazy tomorrow.
By now all you older Model A mechanics probley know where I'm going with this.
I'm under the truck wiggleing the fly wheel back and forth, trying to pull it off my pins and onto the pipe, and I notice the famous "Henry Ford cotter key through the fly wheel housing to keep the drain hole from plugging up" wiggleing around as I try to get the wheel unstuck
Any how, get the wheel on the jack, take the cotter key out, line the holes up, push the wheel forward, CLUNK, put the bolts in, torque to 65 ft. pounds, wire em up, go in the house and have a beer
Lesson? PULL THE DAM COTTER PIN OUT before you try to put the fly wheel in place Bill James

Bill:

Thanks for the laugh, Buddy!

-- Drew

Good story Bill - thanks for sharing. I think I know the feeling, rather like getting it all assembled, crawling out from under, and there's the damn cotter pin on the workbench...
You could have used a couple of donor heads studs instead of cutting off the two bolts- Best of luck with the rest of the job.
fb

Bill James wrote:OK, I may have mentioned before, I'm working on my 1930 AA grain truck, known as Dr. Frank. As in Dr. Frankenstien.
The clutch was not working to say the least, so while you got it apart you rebuild the transmission and rebush the rear suspension.
The clutch area was full of dirt, maybe been under water. Fly wheel clutch face BAD. throw out, pilot bearing, and clutch parts, throw away.
Fly wheel and pressure plate from donor truck all good. All new parts bought, and old parts cleaned up, ready to start reassembly.
Now for the learning part
Heres the plan, 1" pipe U bolted to my tranny jack, slip the fly wheel on the pipe and put under truck. Cut off 2 long bolts for lineing pins in the crank flange, line the fly wheel up and push it home.
What the heck? it slides on my home made lining pins, but will not go all the way on the dowels, it hangs up on the bottem and binds up. I wiggle, push, beat on it with a raw hide hammer, all I do is knock skin off my nuckles. After about an hour of fussing and cussing, I deside on giving it another try tomorrow.
Oh well, I'll get it back on my jack and it will be ready to drive me crazy tomorrow.
By now all you older Model A mechanics probley know where I'm going with this.
I'm under the truck wiggleing the fly wheel back and forth, trying to pull it off my pins and onto the pipe, and I notice the famous "Henry Ford cotter key through the fly wheel housing to keep the drain hole from plugging up" wiggleing around as I try to get the wheel unstuck
Any how, get the wheel on the jack, take the cotter key out, line the holes up, push the wheel forward, CLUNK, put the bolts in, torque to 65 ft. pounds, wire em up, go in the house and have a beer
Lesson? PULL THE DAM COTTER PIN OUT before you try to put the fly wheel in place Bill James

Great Story!

Glad you saw the cotter pin doing the hula, otherwise we all would have missed a good story.

I once new 4 fellas that spent 2 hours "finding" Henry's infamous pin. Sad to admit, I was one of them.

vtwinsideways wrote:I once new 4 fellas that spent 2 hours "finding" Henry's infamous pin. Sad to admit, I was one of them.

Ha Ha! The visual is scary...