Once I had the Michigan up the hill and on the street, Janet & I took a very short journey down the block.

Janet & Craig’s first & very short ride in the finished Michigan.

It was immediately clear that the clutch was not working well and was rapidly becoming inoperable. We quickly put the car into our regular garage and I sought out the problem.

Our 1914 Model T Ford and the 1912 Michigan in the garage.

Apparently the bolts holding the throw-out bearing pressure plate were unscrewing themselves, thereby lengthening the throw of the throw-out bearing. The clutch pedal went to the floor without anything happening.  So, I screwed the bolts back in and figured, that I simply hadn’t tightened them enough. Then reinstalled the heavy and greasy U joints. That should do it………………… wrong.  (At the time of this posting – Jan. 8, 2022, this problem was to revisit us several more times — until we resolved the problem — maybe? I hope!)

The next issue was one that presented itself when trying to get the car turned around to go up the hill from the workshop. (just prior to the video, above) The car made fine RIGHT turns, but LEFT turns were very restricted. I was really scratching my head trying to figure out what was wrong with the steering gear or front suspension. Had I broken something? No — I hadn’t.  It was just a small installation error. The pitman arm was hitting a nut that fastened the steering gear to the frame. I needed to reverse the ends of the bolts so that the bolt head (narrow) would be adjacent to the pitman arm (allowing it to pass by). The nut side stuck out too far and stopped the arm from swinging the necessary distance to allow a proper left turn.  Problem solved.

On October 10, 2021, we got the car back out started it up and took it down the street.   Same problem – shifting becomes very difficult when the throw-out pressure plate unscrews itself and gets loose. I barely made it back into the garage after a 3/4 mile lap around the neighborhood.  This issue clearly required more thought and a permanent fix.

This time I completely removed the pressure plate/throw-out bearing retainer. It was held on by 4 slotted bolts, that were made to be tightened with a screwdriver (not a whole lot of torque).  I replaced these with 5/16″ x 18 t.p.i. socket cap screw bolts with lock washers.  Close examination of the retaining plate revealed punch indentations adjacent to the four plate holes. Apparently I was not the first person to experience this problem. The original slotted bolts had been “staked” by a previous repair person. STAKING is a method (not a very good one) of stopping a bolt or screw from loosening. A metal punch is used with a hammer to put a dent in a bolt or the adjacent metal to use the burr created by the punch to keep the bolt from unscrewing. It permanently deforms the metal and sometimes works.

Dents adjacent to the 4 central holes in the plate show “staking” of the slotted (right group) bolts. Left group & lock washers for replacement.

The new socket cap bolts were inserted and tightened with an Allen wrench. This should hold a lot better than the slotted bolts.

The leaky rear hubs were the next issue. Gear oil from the differential was finding its way out the axle tubes to the wheel bearings and out onto the wheels and rear brakes. In the two brief rides we took with the Michigan, it was noticeable that the car did not really want to stop. This is a very not good condition. Oil and grease from prior use of the car (probably about 100 years ago) had saturated the brake pads (inside the drums) and the brake bands (outside the drums). New leaks from the axle tubes would not improve our stopping power.

Heavy gear oil from the differential flows down the axle tubes and escapes onto the wheel and brake drum.

The solution to the leaking oil is a set of seals. The inboard side of the hub has a rotting leather seal with what appears to be oakum packing (Nasty fibrous oily tarry burlap) providing packing behind the seal. This seal has failed. So we need to find a solution.

The old leather is tediously riveted in place with copper rivets. Because these seals are notoriously leaky, and replacing it would be a truly awful project requiring the creation of new tools to fit into the very tight dome area, we are going to try a work around. If the work around fails, this will be a future project.  What is also missing is several felt seals that go on both sides of the hub.

Inside of Rear Wheel

The next project was to cut felt seals of the correct dimensions. To do this I needed to create a set of cutting dies to be used in my hydraulic press. The felt is one half inch thick so scissors are not very useful. Dies were made from short pieces of tubing which I sharpened on one side in my lathe.  Then the felt was placed on a flat piece of scrap wood, the die positioned on the felt, and the ram for the press positioned above a chunk of  steel to spread the force over the entire circumference of the tubing section. Then apply pressure from the hydraulic jack.

Dies and cut felt seals

Ready to cut the felt seal.

Several sizes of felt seals were required for the rear axles.

While I was workin on the rear axles, it became obvious that I needed to work on the brakes. They were both (internal hand brake and external foot brake) saturated with old oil.  These original brakes were lined with what is undoubtedly asbestos, and – other than being oil soaked, were in remarkably good shape.

Royal Equipment Co. Duplex brakes with Raybestos brand lining – and a lot of grease & oil.

I cooked the brakes in bath of super degreaser that I have used previously for 36 hours at about 150 degrees (TASC – Total Aqueous Systems Cleaner from Green Power Chemicals). It removed a lot of oil, but unfortunately not all. I will get to revisit the brake linings at some point in the future, because they still are not as grippy as they need to be.

Cooking the brakes.

The week of October 24 – 31, 2021, Janet’s sister Sally and her husband Clarence Davis flew in for a visit…… and as always, Clarence got drafted to work on the Michigan. (He and Sally were custodians for the car from 2011 to 2013 and restoration contributors all along.)  We got busy working on the rear axles to stop the leaking. We installed new felt seals, new oakum packing behind the felts, an O-ring just because and a squirt or two of magic Ultra Black RTV sealant.  We will see how it all works…………………………….. or doesn’t.

Clarence cradles an axle while I prepare to commit modern automotive sacrilege with silicone sealant.

With the rear axles installed with new and non-leaky seals (we hope), the next order of business is to fill the differential with heavy oil. My horseless carriage consultants advised that if the SAE 140 weight stuff was moving out the axle housings and escaping into the brakes, I should GO BIG. Use SAE 1500 weight. This is seriously viscous stuff. Start pouring it in now and by next October, it should be in the differential. But seriously, we did heat it in a water bath before trying to pour it in. And we did get some lunch while the last glops got differentiated.

Clarence bides his time while the goop in the funnel slowly follows gravity.

After lunch, it was time to see if our work paid off. Let’s go for a ride!  BUT WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!

What’s that horrible grinding in REVERSE?

I hadn’t used REVERSE before. And that sounds like marbles in a blender. Oh dear. That is NOT good.  Put the car back in the garage. We have to figure out what that noise is about.  But not today.  If we cannot get a ride in the Michigan we’ll have to go do something else. Since we have been dealing with slow viscous fluids…….. we naturally needed to visit…

The LA BREA TAR PITS! Home of real fossil fuels – Pleistocene pachyderms among others.

On October 3, 2021, I added some gas, checked and rechecked the magneto, primed the priming cups and cranked it over. It started on the second pull. Our flight plan? Out of the workshop, up the hill out of the backyard, and into the garage.

(Click on the four way enlargement arrows in the photo, above, to fill the screen)

You have no idea how remarkable it is to have experienced this day. It has been a long time coming. But, as I will explain in the next few posts, once the car is assembled and is technically operating, it does NOT mean that it is running correctly.

On September 10, 2021, we put the finishing touches on the Michigan. (Well…… except for the top, but that is coming.)  It was a fully assembled vehicle, with more parts attached than when we pulled it out of Steve Dickie’s family barn back in 2011. Unfortunately Dad was feeling poorly and did not make the photo session.

The MICHIGAN is complete. (nearly)

Janet with Steve Dickey, Sept. 17, 2011. Both are great grand children of Michael Fleck – the original owner of the car.

Interior front.

Rear Interior

But can we get it started? And will it run?

As instructed by our upholsterer, Ernie Romero,  I created a missing rear seat support platform in the style of the original front seat supports.

Rear seat support.

On September 5, 2021, my Dad, Vince, came south from Fresno along with my sister, Susan, and her daughter, Amanda. The plan was to assemble all the fenders, splash guards, dash trim, hood sections, windshield and other bits into a restored automobile. And so we proceeded to do that.

Susan, Pop, Amanda, Me & Janet with the long selfie arm.

Dad unwraps the nickel plated dash trim.

Over the next few days, Dad & I put the fenders, splash guards and other bits & pieces that had been painted, plated, polished, or preserved back on the car.  And my cluttered workshop became somewhat more spacious.  One forgets that the most compact version of an automobile is the fully assembled version. (Oh….. and it suddenly looks like a real car instead of an exploded view of a car – filling the workshop.)

Dad tests the upholstery as I lock down the hood on a mostly assembled automobile.

Following the return of the newly upholstered body, I commenced polishing out some of the orange peel finish in the green paint. I blame the orange peel (bumpy texture) partly on my inexperience as a painter and partly on the $14 Harbor Freight spray gun that refused to shut off 3/4 of the way through the spray job back on July 27, 2020.  You move fast and carefully when the trigger is stuck ON.

I used several types of buffers and compounds to remove the orange peel.  Chief among the equipment was a 5.5″ denim (yes, just like Levi’s jeans) with Meguiar’s M100 Pro Speed Compound. This was on a Bauer (HF) dual action polisher that operates from 2000 – 6400 rpm. The denim & the M100 really cut the high spots down. The denim loaded up with spent cleaner & paint in about 2 applications of cleaner and needed to be cleaned out frequently. This was done with a soft nylon brush in warm running water.  My main complaint is that the adhesive for the denim to the foam disk was NOT up to repeated washings and soon started to delaminate. Another potential problem was that high areas had to be taped so that I didn’t scrub through the layer of green paint. That worked pretty well by taping the high spots with blue masking tape. I also did some block sanding with 1000 and 1500 grit sand paper that worked pretty well in big flat areas.

Sanded, buffed & polished.

The result looks pretty nice (not perfect) but, hey I’m new at this.

On August 10, 2021, I was able to get my crew together to go and retrieve our newly upholstered body from Ernie Romero’s workshop. Janet, Tori, Chris Presley & I all packed into the F-250 and headed South. Getting the body back into the truck was slightly more exciting than originally taking it to Ernie’s place. We had to remove the lifter pistons from the camper shell back window so the plump upholstery would fit in. It seems that during its visit to Ernie’s workshop, our body put on a few pounds (about 200+ in addition to the original 500+ or so) and bulked up a bit. We all exhaled, and the body squeezed in. No scratches, tears or ruptures.The drive home was uneventful but we had yet to extract the body from the pickup and take it down the hill to my workshop.  During our struggles to get the body out, one of our Scout dads from Carlsbad Boy Scout Troop 748 (Joel Tarman), happened to drive by and slow down to see what the commotion was.  “Do you need some help?”  Um….. Yes!  Next I went next door and drafted both Charles & Mary Essex to add their combined lifting power to the growing group of Michigan sherpas.  With 6 people hoisting and groaning, we got the now much heavier body down the hill without incident. We pushed the chassis out and prepared to walk the body on to the shop floor.

We walked the body in and set it on top of blocks and I inserted the specially constructed lifting bracket into the back seat area.The bracket was attached to my hydraulic engine hoist and raised the carefully balanced body up so we could roll the chassis in and lower the body into place.

It soon became apparent to us all that the hoist arm was bumping the top of the back seat and pitching the entire body up at strange angles that wouldn’t allow us to align anything.  The chain needed to be lengthened. After several tries, we got the chain long enough and the body lowered into place perfectly.

While most of the restoration process is fairly solitary work, this particular operation required a crew. And I’m very happy we were able to have ALL their help.  It was time for a well deserved malted adult beverage…….. Whew!

I have added some contemporary literature from Shapleigh’s Hardware catalog that has a concise listing of Stromberg carburetor parts for the “B” carburetors.  Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge the information. https://michiganmotorcar.com/nuts-bolts-2/carburetor/

In the last week of September I got a call from Ernie Romero. He had the slot open in his shop for our body. We agreed that I would bring it down on October 2, 2020. But first I had to get it loaded into my pickup. I’d taken measurements and it appeared that, yes, it would fit.  Snugly and with the back end hanging out over the tail gate. But that was MUCH more convenient than trying to get a trailer down the narrow little road to Ernie’s shop. So I drafted my daughter, Tori; her boyfriend, Chris; our housekeeper, Juana to all help transport the body on temporary 2×4 skids with lifting poles up the hill from my shop to the pick-up.

Transporting the body

Pallbearers

Ready to offload at Ernie’s shop.

Once we had the body on the work cart, we left the body for Ernie to do his skilled magic. That means I needed to seriously get to work on the hood, the wheels and other sundry parts that still need work. All before the body is finished.  The plan is to immediately install the body on the car when the upholstery is finished.

Once we had the paint on the doors and the body, it was time to get the upholstery installed.

No upholstery

I checked with my advisory counsel at the La Jolla Regional Group of the Horseless Carriage Club. The consensus was – “See if Ernie Romero is available. He’s very busy and usually fully booked for a year or more, but check anyway. He’s the best.” So I checked. And Ernie had a block of time coming up. But first he needed to see what the remaining upholstery and other bits looked like. So August 17th,  I took the remaining seat bottoms and thoroughly trashed seat backs, one door and the top bows (and remaining top fabric) down to Ernie’s place in El Cajon (about 45 miles away) so he would see what materials we had for patterns.

Old upholstery laid out with front seats & back seats in correct positions.

Top Bows extended

Back & sides of top

We talked a while and figured out a price for new upholstery using patterns that he would need to make from the old material.  We wanted to retain the original stitching style and use curled horse hair for the padding, not foam. We also spoke about what I’d need to do to obtain fabric for the top, which would be a separate project.  (I’ll go into more detail about the top in another posting.) While I waited for the slot to open in Ernie’s shop,  I’d needed to figure out how to get the body to him. He figured a slot would be available sometime around the end of September or early October 2020.

I have added the rather lengthy BUDA service Bulletin #422, under the Nuts & Bolts Buda Motor heading. This will be an invaluable resource for anyone doing work on early BUDA engines. https://michiganmotorcar.com/nuts-bolts-2/engine/