In automotive history it's often said, if there were two cars made, then one of them will be in New Zealand somewhere.
Today we feature our first video attempt to make a record of a damper we are rebuilding: a beautiful Lincoln Continental from 1966.
And on YouTube we find an original commercial from 1966 of the latest Lincoln Continental and all the latest fab up-to-date features.
Our aim in the future on our YouTube channel is to share with you a few of the secrets, joys and heartaches of rebuilding and remanufacturing harmonic dampers and crank pulleys from the many and varied parts that cross our work bench.
Currently on the rebuild shelf we have a 1917 Studebaker harmonic damper. We aim to show you how we work on a rare and precious part like this to bring it back from the dead, to make it into a functioning part which the owner can fit with confidence to his vehicle.
We bought a 1950s Ford V8 flathead engine assured it was ‘a good one’ so Damperdude began disassembly
to discover that this was the first time this engine had ever been taken apart:
it was a virgin. It really was a good one.
To explain: a standard flathead in used condition from
this era would be worn out completely. There would have been at least one
rebuild in the life of the engine. Many of the nuts and bolts are spoiled where
spanners and sockets have been used to force them undone. Threads of many of the
bolts will have been damaged. The piston bores would be badly worn, the pistons
on the thrust side would have the worst wear, which is why the old flatheads
burn oil.
The mystery is that our flathead has clearly never been
taken apart, ever. The whole engine is stock standard. There is thick black mud
as the remains of engine oil in the block and sump. The valves are original
Ford valves, the valve seats are un-burnt, not recessed, they are mint. The
valves had never been adjusted, but still had clearance. The crankshaft is worn
and has slight bluing because of lack of lubricant on the journals, especially
the mains. The piston bores are worn but look as if they will go to 10thou
oversize and the pistons are in quite good condition although the ring lands
are a bit sloppy. The original gaskets are present throughout the engine. The
original Ford bearing shells are in situ, the distributor is in really good
nick but the water jackets are quite corroded and the engine shows obvious
signs of never having been serviced nor used a great deal.
There are no markings on the engine to identify it, to
say what year it is, or where it came from. The Inspector’s stamps from the
Ford Factory are the only marks on it. The only clue there is as to year of
manufacture is 1BA cast into the crankshaft, this, according to the numbering
system, indicates manufacture in 1951. The mystery is why would a 50s Ford flathead
be treated like that? What was it’s history that it arrived in New Zealand as
literally an un-cracked egg.
A conversation this week has likely resolved the mystery
of the history of this beautiful old engine and why it is in such good
condition.
The sound of those things I find either terrifying or exhilarating, I can't decide which.
Now a little history. Post World War II US communities
felt they needed an emergency warning system should a Nuclear war be
declared, so Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler factories were commissioned with
producing hundreds of thousands of air raid sirens, complete with engines to
run them. These sirens were mounted on public buildings, towers and poles throughout
the USA. According to the information I’ve found, many thousands of these
sirens remain where they were put 60+ years ago. However in many communities
they are being removed as urban development progresses.
Modern communications networks mean that, in theory anyway, danger alerts can best be conveyed by mobile phone networks.
A customer this week shared with us that his father was a
mechanic in a US city. He was charged with making sure all the warning sirens
worked during the 1950s and 60s. The sirens were fitted with Ford, Chevrolet or
Chrysler 6 cylinder, V8 or hemi engines to run the fans to create the siren
howl. The mechanic would travel around the siren sites, once or twice a year, top up the fuel tank, start
up the engine, let it run for a couple of hours, top up the oil occasionally,
then switch it off. No other maintenance was ever done to these engines. Now
the engines from dismantled sirens are entering the world market as viable
flathead engines for restoration.
We are investigating the possibility of building harmonic
dampers for these 65 year old engines as when they were made they were only
made to run at 3000 rpm or less. Modern hot rod owners can have these
engines running to as much as 7000 rpm and this means damaging harmonics are
affecting the life of the engine, wearing them out faster than they would if an
efficient harmonic damper were fitted.
We can also source custom made Ford Model A harmonic
dampers for those who need to run the engines faster than they were made to go.
Why can't you fix my broken damper, crank balancer?
There are some jobs we just cannot make a custom repair for, and there's a lot of reasons.
COST:- The design of the damper means that when it is worn out, it cannot be re-manufactured by hand without enormous cost to you, the customer. If cost is not an issue for you, we can put the time into our best effort at getting you a newly functioning damper. Because John is an aircraft fitter he can create all new parts if the damper is in such poor condition that it cannot be re-used.
DESIGN:- Like a lot of mechanical parts, automobile and truck harmonic dampers were not created to be dis-assembled and re-manufactured.
MANUFACTURE:- Manufacturing processes used to make them aren't conducive to repairing them. Parts like crank pulleys/dampers are made to a designated price; cheap and fast is the way they are made in the past 50 years. Recent dampers are made in temperature controlled robot factories using techniques humans cannot replicate.
Making parts disposable and only replaceable with new OEM parts protects manufacturers from law suits. It also guarantees that consumers must buy newer vehicles when old vehicles become obsolete.
Catch with this? Once all the old parts are sold your vehicle is off the road for lack of one small but crucial part - the crank pulley or harmonic damper.
That is where we can usually help you.
1930s Packard damper
What is it like inside?
So what are our specific difficulties?
Time.
Many of our customers need the part yesterday. This is because they checked the harmonic damper last in their maintenance schedule. We cannot make up for time our customers have lost by not sending the part to us in a timely fashion for repair.
Unforseen glitches in the repair process can take a lot of time to resolve.
At HDR we take the time to give you a great result.
Dis-assembling the part to find out how it was made without breaking it.
Often the majority of time spent on a new job will be this seemingly simple task. If the delicate cast iron of the hub or inertia ring is broken it is really hard to repair so we don't break it.
Complex dampers with flimsy light parts and large areas of rubber molded around internal metal components are almost impossible to dis-assemble without damaging the parts.
Parts are too worn out.
Some dampers are so worn out that there is no regular fix and the worn or broken parts must be repaired by hand. Cast iron welding, keyway cutting, new springs, inertia rings and hubs can all be made but at a cost of time and money for you the customer.
Unusual manufacture:
We see crank pulleys from 100 years of automotive history. From Bugatti to Packard and Rolls Royce; GM and Ford to Hyundai, Renault, Datsun and Skoda. And everything else in between.
Because each crank pulley has been designed to dampen the vibrations from one particular style of crank shaft they are all unique. Functionally they do the same job, but the reality is that for every engine there is a different damper designed by a different group of engineers to solve specific harmonic vibration issues with the engine in the development stage.
So unless we get a run of dampers to repair from the same year, make and model of engine, every job is very different and requires different skills.
It's a dual hazard and joy of working in a custom rebuilding industry.
Successful difficult rebuild: Renault 05
We can't duplicate the way it was made to re-assemble it so that it works the way it was designed to work for your engine.
Sometimes there is no alternative way to assemble it.
Over the past nine years we have developed a lot of different techniques using new rubbers, special bonding agents and the like to solve re-manufacturing issues but there is a limit to our ingenuity when it comes to re-assembling some crank pulleys.
Some components fail to:
Balance
Weigh the right weight
Have the inertia ring run concentric with the hub
Include all the components they are supposed to contain in the space they were designed to occupy.
Run the pulley belts in the correct alignment
Have the timing in the correct place;
Whatever the reasons for these issues, if they cannot be resolved it means we can't begin or complete the job.
Toyota boat special before repair
Toyota boat special after repair
If we say we can't fix it we really mean it.
It means that in our experience it will be uneconomic, or simply not possible to repair.
If you want us to go the extra mile, it's your call: feel welcome to have a discussion with us about your needs.
Making a completely new damper or a prototype damper for an engine which has never had a damper
If you can afford the time and cost for us to put the time into hand crafting a completely new damper by making a new hub, inertia ring, rubbers, springs and other parts, most worn out crank pulley/dampers can be repaired so they work or alternatively completely accurately reproduced.
This could save your special engine from death in the back of the shed.
Contact us damperdude - at - gmail.com and send some photographs of your crank pulley.
Or give us a call, we are friendly and keen to learn and share information. 00 64 7&863 3350
Check out our featured book http://quintessence.papertrell.com/id003678303/Lets-Fix-It
So your crank pulley is broke and you are shopping around for another one and the wrecker has a second hand one from the same make and model of car.
If your car is 10 years of age or older, there's a good chance that the pulley is as close to munted as the one you just took off the crank shaft.
Why?
Because RUBBER is why.
Rubber is the part that most often fails in a crank pulley, crank balancer or harmonic damper.
Rubber is an organic substance that breaks down with heat, water, oil, use and simple age.
All rubber parts of your automobile are going to die a slow sad death at some stage and require replacement.
When the rubber dies it usually does one of two things:
It cracks, shrinks, dries out and gets hard as a piece of wood.
It melts into a soft gooey jelly that is very messy to clean up.
So replacing your harmonic damper with a second-hand damper that may cost you just as much as a rebuilt damper means that it is inevitable that you will have to replace it again soon.
It also puts your precious automobile's engine at risk of catastrophic failure.
Check out our other blog posts to find out why.
We are totally happy to repair and re-rubber any second-hand or original OEM damper for you before you put it on your vehicle.
Care for your engine by buying it a re-manufactured damper/pulley or a new damper.
