From September 28 through October 24, Janet & I were on a road trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania and beyond.  For those unfamiliar with “HERSHEY”, yes it is the home of the candy bar……. but it is also the home of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Fall meet. The Fall meet in Hershey is also the venue for the super duper largest in the world antique auto parts swap meet & flea market. Miles & miles of swap meet booths numbering in the thousands. And auctions and shows and oh my goodness — car geek overload.  YEAH!!!

We had a laundry list of things we were looking for, including Detroit brand demountable rims (27″ diameter to accommodate 34 x 4 inch tires), any sort of hub cap of the Michigan style circa 1912 and, of course, the mysterious missing radiator cap.

On our way East we stopped day 1 in Tucumcari, New Mexico; day 2 in Memphis Tennessee and day 3 in Bagdad, Kentucky where Janet’s brother Jeff Ewen and sister-in-law Gail have a new house & farm. Jeff is also a great grandchild of our car’s original owner, Michael Fleck.

Gail & Jeff Ewen, Oct. 1, 2016. New house on the Bagdad KY farm.

Next stop, Hershey.  Three days of massive a car parts Easter Egg hunt.

Some Hershey plunder, minus Janet’s several hats.

We got some leads on Detroit demountable rims, but there wasn’t one here.

I refer to this photo as a rim shot.

Nestled in the middle of the photo is….. THE MISSING RADIATOR CAP! The photo shows the cap installed on a piece of PVC pipe I sized and threaded to match our radiator. We tried hundreds of “about the right size” caps over 3 days at the swap meet.  But Janet found this one.  It is the correct Bakelite material with indentations for finger grip and with the cap already drilled for installation of a Boyce Motometer temperature gauge. Hooray Janet!  You win the egg hunt!

The missing radiator cap is FOUND.

A tiny piece of the Hershey swap meet taken from an overpass connecting sections.

After Hershey, we headed to New York to see our son, Eric and wife, Kristie. We spent a day down town at the 9/11 memorial museum and then went to the sea shore and the Fire Island lighthouse.

Craig, Kristie & Eric – Fire Island Lighthouse, Oct. 10, 2016

From New York City we went to the Finger Lakes region where the wood wheels for our MICHIGAN were made. Specifically, Shortsville, where nothing remains of the factory or any local recollection of the factory.

This is the Downtown Shortsville intersection of Main St. and the Lehigh Valley railroad. Somewhere within 100 yards of this intersection, our Michigan’s wheels were manufactured.

Next, it was on to Niagara Falls – Canada (the most scenic side of the river).

Janet viewing a description of the falls.

Next, to DETROIT – and the Ford Piquette plant.

Ford Piquette factory — very scary part of Detroit.

Inside the Ford Piquette Museum

Around the corner from Piquette.

Next we went to the Benson Ford Research Library which is adjacent to Greenfield Village. There we found some information on BUDA engines, Sheldon Axles, Gemmer steering gears, and an interesting fire insurance inventory of the Kalamazoo, Michigan factory for the Michigan Motor Car Company.  Kalamazoo Michigan was our next brief stop to see if the library and Western Michigan University had any MICHIGAN related materials. They did. An extensive collection of advertising for MICHIGAN cars collected as Exhibits to the company bankruptcy.  I will add a complete listing of all the advertising in the ledger at some point.

Western Michigan University – Zhang Library

Bankruptcy Exhibits ledger

From Kalamazoo we journeyed to Hobart Indiana to see Janet’s sister, Sally & husband, Clarence and then to visit Janet’s farms in Benton and White counties. Harvest was in full swing and one of our farmers, Brad Hamilton had promised Janet she could run the combine and harvest soybeans.

Harvest on Gravel Hill farm

From Hobart we did the following in order on our way home.  I may elaborate on this later, but not now.

Old Salem Village, Lincoln Museum in Springfield IL, Lincoln’s Tomb, Hannibal MO, Monks Mound (Cahokia Mounds) IL, Steamboat Arabia Museum Kansas City MO, Correll Homestead – Kay Co. OK, Citizen Potawatomi Nation HQ – Shawnee OK, Las Vegas NM, Chaco Canyon NM, Durango & Silverton RR – Durango CO, Monument Valley UT, South Rim of the Grand Canyon AZ — and finally ….. home.

Choo Choo Janet

While this restoration isn’t really a race, the reassembly of the running gear was aimed at actually attempting to start the engine.  All to be accomplished before taking steps to put the body, fenders, and other parts back on the car.  To that end, I needed to come up with some sort of temporary frame to support the dashboard – firewall on to which the starting coil and steering column are attached.  When the body is on the car, this is not a problem.  Without the body, the dash just wants to flop around. Probably NOT a good thing.

I made lots of measurements and came up with some temporary wood brackets that would accommodate the floor boards and pedals as well as making room for a temporary seat, should I actually get the engine started.  By September this is what it looked like.

Temporary dash & floor board support frame.

On August 22, 2016, I picked up the finished BRIGGS Magneto from Carl Bloom and started re-assembly of the car’s components in preparation for trying to get the engine started. But all that had to wait until after a much anticipated trip East to attend the gigantic auto parts swap meet in Hershey Pennsylvania.

In August, I visited our Michigan’s magneto (Type C, BRIGGS MAGNETO COMPANY of Elkhart, Indiana) that was being repaired by Carl Bloom in Orange, California.  Carl has a really interesting shop filled with vintage testing machines and many antique magnetos on workbenches in various states of meticulous repair. Carl had already replaced the old intermittent unreliable coil with a modern coil. The old coil was a solid block of hardened resin of some sort surrounded with insulating mica sheets. The wiring was seriously decayed and brittle.

Old magneto coil with connections and mica sheets.

It was much better for several reasons to enclose a modern ignition coil in the original box and remove the 3 or 4 pound chunk of mystery resin and crumbling wires.

Modern magneto coil in ignition switch box

On the tester, our magneto was working and nearly ready to go.  Then there was the matter of the oil channels & oil supply tank unique to BRIGGS brand magnetos. These, Carl told me, needed to be by-passed as too clogged or damaged. A shorter, direct oil line with felt wicks near the armature shaft would be installed.

Briggs Magneto on tester. Ignition switch & coil box in foreground.

Magneto automatic oiler tank.

I gave my approval to Carl to remove the tank and shorten the lines leading to the armature shaft. I would just have to remember to put “Oil the magneto” on my start-up list.

The January 25, 1912 edition of MOTOR AGE gave the following description of the BRIGGS line of magnetos, at pages 74 & 75:

“The Briggs magnetos are of the primary armature type, having a single low-tension winding on the armature shaft, whose current is transformed into high-tension by an auxillary dash coil. The arrangement of the high-tension distributor over the circuit breaker at one end of the machine is conventional; and a feature of the construction is the enclosure of the magnets and rear end of the machine in a metal dust and water-proof case… The magnets are large and carefully fitted to the pole piece. The distributor is made of hard rubber with a secret compound added, which gives it a reddish brown appearance and renders it peculiarly impervious to heat. The circuit breaker is of simple and sturdy construction, the parts are heavy, and the cam is made of steel case-hardened, and operates a case-hardened roller on the striker arm. The circuit-breaker parts are lubricated by means of an oil cup which feeds oil to the cam by means of a wick. Contact points are heavy pieces of platinum iridium with positive means of adjustment, and a shield is provided to protect them from oil. A feature of the model C magneto is an oil tank placed in the arch of the magnets which holds six ounces of oil. The oil feeds automatically from the tank to all bearings and this tank should hold sufficient oil for 15,000 miles of travel.”

Ad from Automobile Trade Journal, Feb. 1912

June 11, 2016 our daughter, Victoria (Tori) took time off between quarters at U.C. Santa Barbara and helped me with some reassembly.  First to go back on was the rear axle & differential, which got grease in all the cups and various friction points.

Tori fills grease cups prior to assembly on springs.

Next up was the front axle.

Tori steadies the front axle before installation on springs.

By June 17th, we had the car starting to look sort of like a car again.

Springs, axles & wheels back on the frame.

Next the transmission went back in.

Transmission back in.

In the process of attaching the transmission to the universal joint that goes to the drive shaft, I discovered a plug on the universal with the logo or monogram shown below. We are pretty sure that the transmissions were nearly unique to the MICHIGAN company. It appears that the transmission was manufactured by the FULLER company ( for more about this, go to Nuts & Bolts, Transmission – ). But that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the universal joints.  There are three in the car. Two from the engine to the transmission and another from the transmission to the drive shaft.  All of which allow the component to be varied and the use of longer or shorter wheelbases or other tweaks between model types. Anyway, we will be on the lookout for any such logos that may lead us to the company that produced the universal joints.

Logo on universal lube plug. CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Our differential and rear axle were removed along with all other running gear when we sent the frame out for powder coating.  That gave us an opportunity to clean it up, look it over from all sides and really  inspect it.  We found some interesting things. But first we got it cleaner.  Eric & I scrubbed and scraped with Simple Green and then power-washer it.

Eric is ready to power wash the differential. May 21, 2016

The result was mostly grease & oil free.

Scrubbing and scraping.

And here’s what we observed — casting dates: Feb 16, 1911 D1, and Jan 27, 1911

Differential housing – casting date: Feb 16, 1911 D1

Axel housing, Casting Date: Jan 27, 1911

While we had easy access to the rear end, I opened up the back of the differential to see if it looked nice or nasty.  Actually, it wasn’t bad at all.

Differential open. Ring gear on right side — Which is BACKWARDS. It should be LEFT side.

While the oil was not golden, it wasn’t gritty dirty nasty either – so I count that as GOOD. What was odd, was that the ring gear was on the right hand side of the differential. This is the opposite of what is depicted in various line drawings and brochures that exist for our car.  I have attached page 15, of the “announcement” of the “Michigan Automobile 1912” also referred to as “The Michigan Through a Microscope” brochure.  Interestingly, the steering drag link shown on page 15 is on the left side, which is the reverse of the actual right hand drive set-up for Michigan’s in 1912. (The 1913 cars did have left hand drive and the gear shift was mounted in the center of the car.) This leads me to believe that perhaps the images on page 15 have been reversed which might explain why our car has the ring gear in the opposite position from what is depicted below.  Confounding this is the image of the Sheldon Jackshaft from the Motor Age article at the end of this post.  That image has the ring gear on the left side.  Is it possible that when Phillip Dickey was going through the car that the axle sides got flip flopped the wrong way?  I’m not sure, I’ll have to ask Mike Howard which side his ring gear is on. [UPDATE, January 7, 2017– our ring gear is on the WRONG SIDE. Note the notch in the housing where the ring gear is supposed to go. For further info on this go to my Post of May 31, 2017.]

Perhaps the illustrations have the axle & differential images REVERSED from what they are supposed to be? NOPE – The image is correct.  Our car had the ring gear on the wrong side.

While we cannot definitively state that this rear axle and differential were made by SHELDON AXLE COMPANY, the indications are pretty strong.  The front axle is marked: SHELDON AXLE CO.

SHELDON Axle Co marking on FRONT axle.

This hidden marking on the front axle (back side on the left) prompted me to see what I could find out about SHELDON AXLE CO. also known as SHELDON AXLE & SPRING CO. (It changed its name to add the word “SPRING” in 1914.)

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Sheldon Axle Company advertisement, The Automobile Trade Directory, Apr. 1911

Apparently the company did lots of leaf springs too.  Maybe our car has SHELDON springs. I did find this marking on one of the REAR half springs. Is it year of manufacture? Location of manufacture or destination?

Marking on REAR half spring. KALAMAZOO 11

I also found this on the FRONT spring mounting bracket (holds spring to axle). It appears to be a monogram with the letters CBW.  It is distinctive, but I have yet to connect it to anything and it is not the trademark used by Sheldon Axle, which is a sort of horizontal double anchor logo. {-o-}

CBW spring bracket stamping

SHELDON trademark at top of advertisement

The differential had no other distinguishing marks. But research into descriptions and diagrams of SHELDON differentials and rear axles seems consistent with the diff on our car. I found the following description of a SHELDON rear axle & differential in the Jan. 25, 1912 edition of MOTOR AGE: Progress in 1912 Axles FULL

SHELDON 201-D axle

This ad from Motor Age, February 1, 1912 shows our rear axle & differential, even though the casting is stamped “D1” rather than “201-D”

With the frame stripped of everything, it was time to take it for sand blasting & powder coating at North County Powder Coating. My son, Eric, and daughter-in-law, Kristie, were visiting from New York and were promptly drafted to assist in getting the frame loaded into our trailer for the trip to the powder coater.

Eric & Kristie helped load the frame for transport to North County Powder Coating.

Once there, Kirsten Weik & Ricardo Delvillar got us set up with a black semi-gloss color selection and we marked the various “be gentle on this area” and “don’t coat here” portions of the frame. These were things like bearing surfaces and the frame serial number stamping.

Marking, taping and plugging frame prior to sandblasting & coating. 

Two and a half weeks later we picked up the completed frame and brought it home. It looked really nice.

Finished frame – ready to go.

With the last shackle pins removed we had nothing left on the frame. We drafted Janet to help us lift the frame up and over the differential and out of the workshop. Next stop, the top of our yard and then on to North County Powder Coating.

Frame heads towards the street.

But where did our Michigan go?  All that is left is the hind quarters.

Even the dog knows something is missing.

In looking at the front spring mount for the rear wheels / differential / rear axle / it was apparent that it was considerably more complicated than the other (unscrew the nut) mounts. Not being familiar with this sort of mount or fastening method, we looked at it and finally came to the conclusion that the pin was driven into the mount, through the spring and retained by another threaded pin. This was NOT completely obvious, as the retaining pin was camouflaged by grit, grease, dirt and detritus, besides being a half inch down in a hole. The clue was a screw slot, revealed after cleaning the hole out. But the screw wouldn’t budge.  Applications of Kroil penetrant, were without success, so out came the “heat wrench” propane torch. We heated and lubed several times and then re-lubed with more Kroil.

Heating the spring mount

Finally the screw loosened a bit. More Kroil. Half turn out. Half turn in. Repeat. Full turn out. Full turn in. Repeat.  Eventually the screw came out. That’s nice. There was no way to bang the actual shackle pin out. The threads looked like and felt like 3/8 x 24 fine thread, but a bolt threaded in got very tight and started to strip.

Rejoice – a loose screw – left side photo.

Time to call on someone that may have actually done this operation — Mike Howard (another Model K owner). On the evening of May 12, we got a call from Mike. He suggested a slide hammer and a gear puller arrangement. Good news. We were on the correct path to extracting this pin.

On May 13, Dad & I got another (unstripped) 3/8 x 24 fine bolt and an all thread connector nut at the hardware store and welded up a tool for the end of my slide hammer. BINGO! A few hard smacks and the pin gave up and let loose. The rear end was now detached from the frame.

Having removed the body of the car presents you with a fairly uncluttered view of the running gear and drive train.

I ain’t got no body

It also sets your mind to worrying about corrosion hidden in little nooks and crannies.  And then you decide to take it all off so you can RE-assemble on a solid rust free protected frame. Well….. that’s the thought.  Surface and other rust was evident. Peeling paint was significant.

Rust never sleeps

Peel is real

What should we do? Sand & wire brush? Blast & paint? What was cost efficient?  Yes, I have a sand blasting pot and a big compressor, but the last outside blasting job that I did used multiple bags of sand, was messy, and took forever. (My blasting cabinet is a different story and I use it all the time, usually with glass beads as the preferred media.)

After long consideration and discussions with others, I’ve come to the conclusion that while not perfect, the best route is to remove everything from the frame and send it out to be blasted and powder coated.  Here is how we removed the engine, transmission, front and rear axles over the period May 9 through 13, 2016.

Motor in a sling

Dad steadies the motor as it is lowered into a custom cart.

Transmission leaves the frame.

Empty frame with wheels

After the shackle pins are removed, the front end rolls out onto the grass.