While waiting on the block to come back from the machine shop with the new valve seats, I got the counterweights welded on the crankshaft. The first two pics are checking the crank for straightness after welding. Center journal is slightly out but will be straightened at the crankshaft shop before balancing.
Indicating crank.
The ball on the radius rod or wishbone was badly worn out of round by 3/8 of an inch. This is the main cause of shimmy in the Model A. They sell a kit with rubber bushings or a cup shaped washer to make up the wear but these both change the geometry of the front end and don't really fix the problem. The only thing to do is to build it up with a welder and grind it back round to 1-1/2 diameter as original. Here I am using a washer with the correct size hole as a go - no go gauge. As you can see it is almost done but still a little large. I will hand file to the exact fit. I had to do the same thing with the ball on the end of the shifter and will have to do it on all the balls on the steering linkage as well.
Radius ball.
Next is a pic of the original instrument cluster. In 1928 and 1929 these were smooth, but in 1930 and 1931 they added the ridges and made the speedometer round instead of oval.
Original dash panel.
If you were a smoker these ridges were the perfect place to strike your matches although it burned the chrome off your dash. They make a repro replacement but they don't fit very well, so for my birthday Walt and Linda gave me an original in much better shape.
Better dash panel.
Here it is with the ignition switch and ammeter installed. The gas gauge is in the tank which is the dashboard so the gauge just sticks through the top hole in the cluster.
Better dash panel with inst.
They also gave me a set of Ford wrenches for my tool kit and a valve spring compressor for the A. Flywheel pics next week.
Ford tools.
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