Freeing The Clutch On the 1915 Standard Eight

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Once the motor was running fairly well and everything had come up to operating temperature work moved to seeing if the clutch could be freed from the flywheel.

Up to this point the clutch has been firmly planted to the flywheel after sitting for many years of storage. The clutch type is a Borg and Beck dry twin plate clutch:

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1915 Standard – Borg and Beck Clutch

The first attempt at freeing the clutch was to see if stabbing  the brakes would free the clutch. With the rear axles up on jack stands and the engine was started with the transmission in 2nd gear. No problem getting the engine started in 2nd gear, and the transmission and the rear end sounded good while running in gear. While the brakes had ample grabbing power the clutch could not be freed after repeated stabs of the brake.

When method number one fails try reading the operating manual. And one of the Standard operating manuals did have a section on adjusting the clutch. This clutch has two arched slots which are 180 degrees apart. The instructions were to loosen the two lock down bolts, press in the clutch, and move the plate left or right as needed:

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1915 Standard Eight: Adjusting the clutch

The locking bolts were loosened and the clutch adjusted. Before the new clutch adjustment setting was tried there was the last paragraph in the clutch section of the manual which needed to be followed. While a little earlier in the clutch instructions is was clearly called out to make sure no oil got on the dry clutch plates, the very last paragraph indicated that if the car had been in storage for an extended period and there are problems with the clutch to then remove one of the lock down bolts and add 3 tablespoons of oil through the bolt hole.  This was done as directed.

With  the adjustment to the clutch and the addition of the oil the car was started in 2nd gear again and with some stabs of the brakes the clutch immediately popped free.  Alternating between applying the clutch and applying the brakes helped to let things heat up and get loose. We could then use the clutch to shift gears within the transmission. The car is now mobile!

The clutch adjustment still needs some finer adjustments but this will wait until the runs car for a while with it’s own full weight against the clutch.

Firing The 1915 Standard Eight For The First Time

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This weekend we got back to working on getting the Standard started.

Late last week I received the new points and condenser for the distributor and had them installed and the gap set for today’s work.  Again my brother came over to help with the Standard.

We left the water out of the engine until we could determine if we could get it running (easier to  work without the leaks).  We re-attached the battery turned on the ignition and hit the starter button.  Nothing, the engine would not even turn over.  As we were pondering the issue we could see the battery cables were staying hot and the starter button was staying really hot.  So we concluded we had a short some place (it is good to have an electrical engineer as a sibling).  Next we removed the cable to the starter so that we could isolate the starter.  Using battery cables we directly applied current to the starter but it would not spin.  So we pulled the starter from the engine.  My brother could see that at least one of the brushes was stuck (always easier to have your EE handy).  So we cleaned and dried the brushes, re-attached the battery cables, and then the starter spun easily.

We re-installed the starter and then checked the spark at the plugs.  Finally good spark at each of the plugs.  It appears the starter may have been our starting culprit.

Next was filling the cooling system with water again.  We are down to three leaks 1) the packing nut on the water pump, 2) a small weeping leak on one of the cooling tubes, and 3) a small leak on the surface of one of the intersections on the diamond pattern radiator.  The packing nut should not be a big issue so we did not spend any time today adding more packing.  The radiator leak and the cooling tube leaks are very small and thus allowed us to continue to try and start the engine.  Here is a photo of the cooling system topped off again and how an EE fixes a cooling tube leak:

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1915 Standard Eight: Getting the engine running for the first time

 

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1915 Standard Eight: Our temporary fix for a weeping leak

Success!!  We got the motor started and it sounds great.  Here is the maiden firing:

We probably ran the motor for a good 45 minutes.  We had good oil  pressure with no leaks, the water pump was working great (it actually  would bubble/foam the water in the top of the tank), the water temp  stayed even and good, and even the water leaks were manageable.  We made  a few carb adjustments during the 45 minutes.  At the end the motor was  running really smooth and when pulled 7 of the 8 plugs were a nice  clean white.

Here is the motor running at the end:

A great day with the engine.

First Full Leak Test For 1915 Standard Eight

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Last weekend was the first leak test for the entire cooling system on the ’15 Standard and all in all it went pretty well.

All of the cooling tubes are re-installed, the radiator was re-installed, and all the hoses and clamps were installed new.

These are some pictures of the engine with the radiator, all the cooling tubes and all the related hoses installed.

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Adding water to the cooling system for the first time:

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We found that we have a small leak in the radiator. It appears the crimp connections at the intersection of four of the honeycomb cells are open and thus leaking. This is also the section of honeycomb where the radiator emblems studs pass through:

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The only leaks we found thus far on any of the cooling tubes was two small weeping leaks on the driver side tube. For now these are small enough to let us get the engine running so that we can put the cooling system through a few heating and cooling cycles.

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After some additional tightening (we had only snugged things up to start) none of the port/flange connections on all the cooling tubes was leaking! Other than radiator leak and some tube weeping the first leak test went pretty well.

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Radiator Back On The 1915 Standard Eight

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It took several trips to the various local auto parts stores and the purchase of several test radiator hoses until we were able to find a hose that could be used as the lower radiator hose for the 1915 Standard.  The lower radiator hose had to have a 90 degree elbow which could then be slid onto the curved output of the water pump so that the remaining straight length of radiator hose would align properly with the lower radiator outlet.  While it took a few hoses and a few test cuts the results worked out nicely.

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1915 Standard Eight: Lower radiator hose from seaching inventory at local auto part store

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1915 Standard Eight: 90 degree bend in lower radiator hose slid onto water pump

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1915 Standard Eight: All three water pump hoses connected

And a picture we have not seen for a while: the radiator back on the Standard

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1915 Standard Eight: The radiator back on the car again

All Of The New Cooling Tubes Installed On the 1915 Standard Eight Roadster

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Today was a good day in the garage.  All of the new cooling tubes for the 1915 Standard Eight are now installed.  The only item remaining item left before starting the motor is to re-install the radiator and radiator hoses.

Below are some pictures of today’s work: