With our mostly sealed transmission and thoughts of getting the car truly road-worthy, we started taking little jaunts around town.  On December 2, 2021, we took Janet’s high school buddy, Gina Ensalaco, on a ride that was revealing of a weakness in the drive-train.

Gina and Craig at Tamarack and Pacific Coast Highway. Note the Carlsbad Encina power plant with no smoke stack thru the windshield.

What became very clear as we got closer to home was that it was becoming more and more difficult to shift the car in ANY gear. I thought we were not going to make it, so I left it in first gear for the last mile or so and rolled a couple of stop signs where there was no traffic. This was a problem I’d experienced earlier.  The hex head bolts I had replaced with socket head bolts & lock washers for the throw out bearing pressure plate were UNSCREWING themselves again – damnit. (See original problem explained at: https://michiganmotorcar.com/so-many-things-to-adjust/ )  So here we go again.

I’ve had the throw-out bearing and front universal joint out so many times that I welded up a jig or cradle to hold the piece in place on my hydraulic floor jack. Let me tell you how unpleasant it is to stand on your head to while trying to get 12 bolts removed or installed while holding 18-20 pounds of universal joint in one hand and a wrench in the other. Try aligning twelve little holes with a greasy floppy U-joint trying to slip out of your grasp. The new tool support changed it from a hateful exercise to a merely tiresome one.

U-joint support tool helps make alignment less onerous.

With the addition of Locktite® red thread locker goop, we will see if the fix is at least MOSTLY permanent.  ( Cue the bright uplifting happy soundtrack – Zippity Do Dah or similar.)

On December 1, 2021, we received a shipment we had long been awaiting. Christmas came early – and from Acton, Massachusetts.

Janet displays the custom top fabric, just arrived from Haartz Corp. It’s pinstriped and a near perfect match with our original fabric.

I had first contacted Eric Haartz in December of 2014.  Eric, grandson of the company’s founder, was intrigued by our Michigan’s family story and our original pinstriped fabric. And, Eric has been a very long time active member of the Horseless Carriage Club, which probably goes a long way towards explaining his interest in our project.

First, a bit about the Haartz Corporation which grew out of a top fabric company started in 1897.  It is now a world wide company with operations in Massachusetts, Michigan, Germany, China, Japan, India, and Mexico. They supply both interior and exterior (convertible tops) fabrics for the most exclusive brands of automobiles as well as other specialized applications.  Eric was both enthusiastic and super detail oriented in all our communications which required sending him swatches of our original (faded and aged) top fabric. As I write this, we are anxiously awaiting our trip to Ernie Romero’s shop to start the transformation of this beautiful fabric into a one of a kind Michigan top.  For the un-initiated. Most tops for cars of the Michigan’s vintage no longer have original tops. One hundred year old fabrics seldom survive. If they do, typically they remain folded up and mostly unseen for fear of shredding into brittle bits if the top is opened up. Additionally, most tops were either BLACK or some flavor of beige. And almost NONE were pinstriped or otherwise decorative.  Eric told me that his recollection was that his grandfather sometimes got inspired by men’s suits and adapted some of these patterns into automobile and other fabrics.  Very few of these patterns for automobiles survive on antique cars. They have typically been replaced with BLACK.  We believe our car’s top will be simply outstanding.

Pinstripping is best seen in the folded section. CLICK TO ENLARGE

On November 27, 2021 we started the car up. This has been no real problem so far. It is starting remarkably easily -usually 1/4 turn of the crank, once the engine is primed. And drove to the nearest gas station for a fill up. Reverse gear out of the garage was a bit noisy with a distinct whirring, but there were no horrid crunching munching grinding noises. That’s good. However when stopped to fill up and on looking at the ground wherever the car was briefly stopped. There was a little puddle of oil – specifically – transmission oil.

Look for the line of little shiny drips under the car. That’s our transmission fluid.

So, back to the garage where I would investigate why we were losing so much fluid so quickly. On our way, Janet & I delighted in the smoothness of the gear changes – with or without a transmission full of oil.

Inspection showed that the transmission output seal was not doing its job – at all. There was wear on one of the surfaces that simply didn’t want to seal with a felt washer.

Output shaft seal plate was scoured and rough. The single felt seal was not adequate.

So I made a large brass washer on the lathe and put that in.  It seems to have slowed the drips.

Brass washer installed with thicker felt washer and an O-ring on the U-joint side.

On November 5, 2021, I wrestled out the transmission and took it down to my workshop. While it is only held in place with 4 long bolts, the combination shifter and hand brake shaft  requires some finesse to wiggle it free, even after the front and rear universal joints are detached.

Shifter and cross shaft removed.

Transmission ready for transport.

Once I opened up the transmission, I inspected the gears. Although some were rounded on the leading edges of the teeth which meshed, they weren’t badly worn. Nor were any teeth missing. The Hyatt bearings on either end of the drive train were in very nice shape. This was all observed by fellow HCCA member Bill Ottemann who brought by some bushing material and drill rod for building a new shaft and bushing for the Reverse idler gear.  The photos below show why this might be important.

Reverse idler gear & shaft. This is what was jumping up & down.

So – what do you think? Does the shaft look smooth? Is the bushing tight? Is 1/8″ clearance considered a fit?

Ugly – no matter what the angle of the photo.

Good grief!  No wonder reverse gear made a noise. I drove out the bushing and put a new 1″ chunk of drill steel in the lathe to turn to the appropriate diameter for a new bushing for the gear.

Exploded view of the transmission. Reverse idler in lower right. Click to enlarge photo.

On November 13, 2021, we drove up to Fresno to visit family and pick up my Dad for a trip to Carlsbad and work on the Michigan. The shaft was turned, drilled for tapered pins and the new bushing was put in the gear.

Reverse idler gear & shaft — old and new.

Dad & I inspect shafts and fit.

During the process of getting ready to re-install the transmission gears, shafts and bearings, we discovered that 1) the main drive pinion, and 2) the bushing inside it and 3) the front portion of the main drive shaft that the main drive pinion turns on had heavy wear.  This needed to be addressed and ended our hope that we would be able to get the Michigan back on the road while Dad was visiting.  The most straight-forward way was to turn the front 3.5 inches of the main shaft slightly and replace the bushing  with one that was slightly oversized to match the turned shaft.

Annotated exploded transmission, showing main drive shaft & main drive pinion

Turning a few thousandths off the Main Drive Shaft was fairly simple. Getting the bushing turned both inside and outside to the correct size was a bit more effort. But the greatest effort was trying to get the old thrashed bushing out.  I tried heating, a hammer puller and finally resorted to a hack saw and screw drivers to bend and crush the bushing to the center. What a hassle.

After all else fails — hacksaw the bushing

Pry the bushing out in chunks.

New bushing ready to press into Main Drive Pinion.

Pressing the bushing in.

With the main problem components of the transmission refurbished, it was time to re-assemble.  The troublesome reverse idler shaft and gear were taper pinned into the newly painted transmission housing (interior was coated with red insulating varnish).

Reverse idler gear with new shaft installed in lower transmission housing.

And then – I re-assembled the transmission. It will be noted that none of the meshing gears are pristine.  They all have leading (meshing) edges on their teeth that are a bit munched, rounded and tapered. My colleagues in the Horseless Carriage Club that have viewed the gears commented that “they really don’t look too bad”. So back in they go – munched and nibbled teeth notwithstanding. I’ve attached a partially annotated photo of the transmission below.

Annotated Michigan transmission photo. CLICK TO ENLARGE

By November 26, 2021, I had the transmission back in the car. It was time to test my handywork. (Cue the ominous background music.)