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Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:26 pm
by nikkinutshop
I have an ALLAN SYNCHROGRPH distributor machine. I called my old friend who was a Ford mechanic from the 1950s and 60s. Sadly he is no longer with us, but, his son has taken over the business. He specializes in points distributors. He will be getting the machine.
As soon as it is safe with the covid19 event, I will deliver the Synchrograph.
On a side note. this person has all of the training and machinery to rebuild Ford Flathead engines. This includes babbit bearings.
I am pleased to have this machine go to a place where it will be appreciated, understood and used. I think it is important to support this trade. It is nearly impossible to find a shop that can do this old work.
I am going to go through my parts cabinets to collect all of the vintage distributors. I will include them with this Synchrograph, no charge.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 9:10 am
by WEW51L110
Last week saw me in my shop working on my 51. After 6 years of having an air ride system under my truck I arrived at the decision to take it off and install coil-over-shocks. As time has passed it became increasingly bothersome that any time I wanted to go somewhere in my 51, I had to wait 10-15 mins. for the compressor to fill up the system. The concept of an air ride system is attractive, but the reality is that leakage from the system gets to be an annoyance that I could no longer tolerate. Reliability became more of a concern, and I was beginning to wonder when I might be left stranded somewhere due to inability to keep air in the system while on the road. Therefore I contacted Fatman Fabrications and ordered QA-1 coil-overs as direct replacements for the Ride Tech Shockwaves, front and rear. The coil-overs are now installed, adjusted and giving me a greater peace of mind. The two hour trip to Leesburg for the 2021 ATCA Truck Show was their first outing and aside from not being able to lower my truck for a show, no one was the wiser. One young man had seen my truck on display at the Gatornationals and noticed it not sitting as low and asked about it. He even had pictures he’d taken there. So now it rides about the same height as before but stays that height all the time and I can get in, start it up and not have to wait for an air tank to get full.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:12 am
by cornbinder89
I live with air suspension all the time, but on heavy trucks, the air is needed for the brakes as well.
Air is overrated in my book, it has a few advantages and some drawbacks. 1st all vehicles for road use in the last 100 year "ride on air", they are called tires and they don't do a whole lot of dampening.
In a tandem drive truck, most of the dampening comes from spreading the load between the two axles.
A 4 spring suspension loaded correctly can be every bit as smooth as one on air bags.
Coil spring can have a large movement for load change making very smooth. air alone has a rather stiff spring rate, in that it compress little as load changes. It has the advantage that the rate can be changed for different static loads by the pressure in the bag, once set for a static load it doesn't change how much it compresses over a bump tho. Best riding in my book are air over spring, where air and steel carry and share the load. Hendrickson air ride is one of the best and was used in some form or another by most heavy truck mfg as "corporate air ride".
Citroen was the first car I saw to have air suspension from the factory.
I think you will be happy with your choice.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:52 pm
by nikkinutshop
In the U.S., General Motors built on its World War II experience with air suspension for trucks and airplanes. It introduced air suspension as standard equipment on the new 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham.
I do not know if this was before Citroen.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:11 pm
by cornbinder89
I know the "Crackerbox" GMC trucks had it early. I don't know when Citroen started using it. It was just the 1st one I saw. It was not air assist but full air and would "squat" when the load changed and then return to ride height as the level valve adjusted the amount of air.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:50 pm
by Harvey
General Motors built on its World War II experience with air suspension for trucks and airplanes


just imagine an airplane without air suspension ... :P

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 7:45 pm
by nikkinutshop
An oleo strut is a pneumatic air–oil hydraulic shock absorber used on the landing gear of most large aircraft and many smaller ones.[1] This design cushions the impacts of landing and damps out vertical oscillations.
The "air" in the suspension is most likely nitrogen.
It is undesirable for an airplane to bounce on landing as it could lead to a loss of control,[2] and the landing gear should not add to this tendency. A steel coil spring stores impact energy from landing and then releases it, while an oleo strut instead absorbs this energy, reducing bounce.[3][4] As the strut compresses, the spring rate increases dramatically because the air is being compressed while the viscosity of the oil dampens the rebound movement.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 8:37 pm
by cornbinder89
Yes, they were charged with dry nitrogen, there was a valve like a tire used, but it had a cap was the primary seal. It was/is like a modern shock absorber, somewhere I have a breakdown drawing of them.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2021 7:16 am
by WEW51L110
When I was a boy, a couple years back(1958), my Dad bought a ‘56 Packard Clipper. One of the neat features about it was that it had a load leveling system on it that relied on an air compressor and I suppose air bags to compensate for the times when lots of people and luggage were in the car and of course would raise the back end up to level automatically if the system was turned on. (Moonshiners probably designed similar systems long before Packard ever thought to include them on luxury cars.) As I grew up and used that car to learn to drive, my buddies and I would stand on the back bumper and let the car raise up and once it topped out we’d jump off and I’d turn the switch off so that we could drive around with the car jacked up in back as was popular at the time. Not sure time wise how that relates to Citroen or GM air ride systems, but I know for a fact that Packard was putting a type of air ride out in ‘56.

Re: WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:45 am
by cornbinder89
Air Shocks were a hot item with the younger crowd in my day. It allowed the "family car" to have the rear jacked up to look "cool" and the returned to normal when mom drove it. They were hard on the mounting brackets however and rode like crap when jacked!
Air suspension has been around for a very long time, and outside of trucks where the load can vary a whole lot, hasn't really proved to be enough of an improvement to used widely in cars.