Our first test drive with REAL honest to God brakes that work was December 4, 2022.
Come on. Jump in. Let’s take her for a spin.
Janet & Craig enjoy a ride in the Michigan that can now both go and stop.
We put 15 miles on the car and effective brakes really DO make a difference. The car works almost like new. Just a few more details and she’ll be completely done. Note however that the experts in the field tell us that “completely finished” is an illusive goal.
As the prior post indicates, our Michigan is actually driving around town and carrying passengers. Like a real car. Except the driving experience is not without some tension. The car does NOT like to stop on slight grades without really standing on the brake pedal and in some cases, applying the hand / parking / emergency brake. That last maneuver (using the hand brake) takes a slowly kind-of-slidy reduction in speed and makes it a grabby jerky skiddy inelegant sudden stop. On actual hills – not so much. It’s sort of a phone in your suggestion to slow down and stop and then see – belatedly – if that is actually going to happen. I haven’t wound up in the middle of an intersection — yet.
So how come these brakes don’t work? If you have been following along, back in October of 2021, I had worked on the brakes with my brother in law, Clarence Davis, while we put new seals in the rear end.( So Many Things to Adjust ) At that time, I had cooked the brake bands – both pedal brakes and hand brakes) in a degreasing solution to try and remove nearly 100 year old gunk that had saturated the woven – probably asbestos – brake lining.
Well, that attempt was pretty much a failure. The car, once set up to run didn’t want to stop. So, it was time to reline the brake bands. I ordered 2 inch wide high temperature woven friction material from McMaster-Carr (high strength brake & clutch lining – item #6224K345) which seemed to be the right stuff. I could not locate the “green gripper” material that I have previously used on our Model T accessory brakes. I also ordered 1/8″ diameter copper rivets to fasten the 3/16 thick material to the steel bands. (Item 97440A330 & long version 97440A340). The plan was to attach the material with original J B Weld epoxy (good to 550 degrees F) and then drill & rivet the material on.
November 26, 2022, I started the brake project by removing the axles from the rear end portals so the wheels could be removed. The wheels have to come off to get access to the brakes. The brake drum itself is bolted to the inside of the rear wheels.
Axle shaft on its way out. The axle itself is about 3 feet long.
Left wheel off and the brake drum is DRY! No oil leaks to be seen.
I was very very excited to see that the work that Clarence & I had done with new felt seals had succeeded in keeping the brake drum and backer plate completely dry. This meant that the brakes were not bad because of a seal failure. The problem was the lining material itself. And that was what I was in the process of replacing. This really was a relief. The right side was just as dry and I texted Clarence with photos so he could share our oil seal success.
Right brake drum and backer plate equally DRY. Hooray!
The evidence of the lining failure was a coating of black goop mostly on the outside of the brake drums and the edges of the lining.
Goop squished out of the old linings and on to the drums.
Every time the brakes were applied, the band heated up a bit releasing more goop and lubricating the brakes. More heat equals more goop equals less friction. That is a really bad combination. The more you need the brakes the less they work. Once removed I took them to the workshop to grind off the rivets and peel the linings out.
Up on stands, wheels off and brakes removed.
Grinding old copper rivets off.
After removing the old linings, I media blasted the rust and accumulated crumbly bits off the bands, sprayed the non-lined sides with self etching primer and glued the lining in place. Good contact was maintained by using many clamps.
Glued inner (hand) brakes and clamped exterior (pedal) brake with clamps.
The contrast between the old linings and the new linings is easy to see.
Old greasy oily linings and pristine new linings installed on refreshed brake bands.
And then, I installed them.
Mr. Brakejob installs the hand brake – expanding band on the right rear.
Does this man need a brake? Well, maybe for lunch. Ham sandwich and a coffee?
On September 25, 2022 we drove up to Fresno to pick up my Dad who was very anxious to ride in our nearly completed car. Remember, he came down in July, but the car wouldn’t start on the old magneto – so we only got a photo op – no actual driving involved. We had a nice visit with my sisters and headed home the next day. Dad & I worked a bit on adjusting the brakes and worried about the valve chamber plug leaks in preparation for a test drive.
Dad applies brake pressure and I check adjustment.
Then we were set for a test ride.
Testing for water and other leaks before a test ride.
Pop is ready to GO!
YIPEE!
Over the next couple of days we found out that the Gano water filter was catching enough goop to immediately clog up and cause poor circulation and overheating. So, we removed it and put a section of straight pipe in its place. As of the date of this writing, we have yet to have an overheating issue with the Gano filter gone. I may decide to put it back in simply to clear gunk out of the system — but only for short periods and no long journeys.
Our trip on October 1, 2022 was 21 miles up and down the coast with a top speed of 40 mph. That evening I added some new water pump packing material to slow the leak on the water pump shaft.
The next day we went on an even longer ride, 26 miles down the coast and back. The car is running remarkably good. It got warm once while idling, but otherwise stayed cool. Everyone was having a blast. Especially – Pop.
Janet, Tori, Pop, Craig & Chris visit the Smith’s in Cardiff.
On October 3, 2022, my sister, Mindy, came down from Fresno to retrieve Pop, but took her inaugural tour in the Michigan before driving the 6 hours back north.
Sister Mindy takes her first ride in the Michigan.
Generally speaking the car is running pretty good. It goes — just like a real car. But it doesn’t like to stop. Yeah…. it’s back to looking at the brakes.
The new tuned magneto has since behaved itself. The starting routine that seems to work best is as follows:
Normally that will start the car……. Except when it is warm. That routine has yet to be perfected.
On August 31, 2022 we started up the car and went out to visit friends. We picked up Bryan & Carole Gunner and then proceeded to visit Dave & Anita Trotta, where their son Nick, climbed aboard and we drove a short distance through the neighborhood.
Craig, Nick Trotta, Bryan & Carole Gunner get a brief ride.
We probably put a total of 10 miles or less on the car, but it was overheating at every stop.
When we returned home I set out to see if a Gano coolant filter I had installed might be plugged. It was. It appeared to be small fibers and rusty goop.
Rusty gunk and fibers in the Gano filter.
Clogged Gano filter – other side.
After cleaning the filter, I could see that there was considerable oil and water around the threads of the valve chamber plugs. A bubble or two was also present. So I removed them. This was obviously a compression leak and perhaps something more sinister.
Bubbles and oil around the threads of the valve chamber plugs.
Front 4 valve chamber plugs removed. Oily valve tops.
I decided to remove the water jacket cover as well and try to see if we had a cracked or leaking piston or a hole in the water jacket that might penetrate the cylinder wall.
Putty knife used to break the sealant and separate the water jacket cover from the block.
Water jacket cover opened showing tops of cylinders and coolant galleries full of water.
The height of the water was reassuring (indicating small or no leaks). I then re-installed the valve chamber plugs without the spark plugs and filled each cylinder with compressed air as I rotated the fly wheel to a “valves closed” position and looked for bubbles. There were none. On the compression stroke, the compressed air would push the piston down, rotating the flywheel part way. This was true for both “suspect” cylinders. Trapped air could also be released through the priming cups. All in all, this was a very reassuring result. No apparent leaks in the water jacket and reasonably tight piston rings. I suspect the culprit was the copper ring gaskets I made to replace the old flattened ones I had removed from the valve chamber plugs. Standard sized replacement gaskets were not to be had through any of the gasket resources available. They were either too large to fit in the recesses in the head or too small to go over the threaded plug. I had made solid copper wire rings and soldered the break. I think I will try stranded wire in the future to see if it seals more securely and crushes better than the solid annealed wire. The leaks prove that I’m not getting full power from the engine and that is a bummer. For the time being, I’m going to reassemble the plugs and gaskets as is, but with a bit more anti-seize paste and tightening the plugs a bit more. Maybe I can get them to seal up.
