Re: Don’s 1937 (120) 138CD Deluxe Touring Limo

Posted by Don B On 2024/5/25 20:43:16

More good progress. Yesterday, I started looking into the bit of steering wheel play that I still had….notice I said “had”. Allen had gotten it much better as most of the issue was the steering gear box. I suspect I had a hand in destroying the gears as kid. With car never moving, the whole neighborhood would play gangster in the car and someone was always cranking away on the steering wheel. Years of that could not have been good for it. But, we had fun.

Anyway, I disconnected the pitman arm from the drag link and was able to determine that there was no play from the steering wheel down to the pitman arm. So, I reconnected the pitman arm to the drag link and then noticed that much of the play was now gone. The socket at the drag link just needed tightened a little, not much. I now have very little play in the steering wheel and everything feels very smooth. I will still replace the center crank bearing before too long as I need to replace my coil springs and the lower - inner bushing are pretty rough. I’ll replace the bearing when I do the springs and the bushings.

Today, I decided to tackle the timing chain replacement. I had a nice discovery. The existing chain is “new”. So, that means it is one of the things that must have been done back in 2004. But, it appears the gasket was re-used and the cork seal was not replaced. I’ll replace the gasket and the seal tomorrow. So for the excercise, I learned how to replace the chain, even though I didn’t end up replacing it. I’ll have the cork seal and gasket in good shape. And, I have some piece of mind of knowing that the guy who worked on the car for Dad back in 2004 didn’t take advantage of him and clearly did a bit of work. I still wish Dad had kept some records.