You’ve still got time to join the tour to the Occoneechee Speedway Trail coming up this Saturday! Click here to see all the details and sign up. This is a great event to join if you’re on the west side of the Triangle.

We are still looking for a club member or spouse to write an occasional column we're calling The View from the Other Seat. The idea is simple: your perspective on tours, events, and life with a Model A enthusiast, written from the passenger side. We're also interested in a period fashion column. If you know your way around a 1930 wardrobe and want to share that knowledge, we'd love to hear from you. Neither column requires a fixed schedule. Write when you have something to say. Email Colin at [email protected] if you're interested in either one.

Terry Burtz, whose "Burtz Ford Model A Engine" Facebook group has become one of the hobby's more technically rigorous forums, has announced a redesigned Model A water pump that uses a carbon and ceramic face seal in place of the traditional packing or radial lip seal.

The new pump mimics the late-production water pump housing (the one with the large hole below the packing nut). Burtz is not producing the early pump variant, which he says is only needed for judging early cars. The housing is based on a genuine Ford after-production casting that Burtz selected for its dimensional accuracy and original appearance. Externally, the bushing, packing nut, and grease fittings are all present, but they are decorative. The working parts are inside: three deep-groove ball bearings, sealed for life, and a face seal.

The face seal itself is not exotic technology. The concept is simple. Two flat, highly polished rings are pressed together at right angles to the shaft. One ring, typically made of carbon, rotates with the shaft. The other, typically ceramic, is fixed in the housing. A spring holds the carbon ring against the ceramic face with just enough pressure to maintain contact. Water stays on one side; air stays on the other. Because the sealing surfaces are flat and lapped smooth, the contact area is very small, friction is low, and wear is slow. There is no packing to compress, no nut to adjust, and no grease fitting to maintain.

Ford first used a face seal in the 1932 V8 water pump, and even offered a face-seal Model A replacement pump (see above photo) through its parts counter in the late 1930s. It’s a meaningful improvement over the Model A's original packing arrangement, which requires periodic tightening and will eventually leak regardless. It is also an improvement over the radial lip seals used in some aftermarket replacements, which press a rubber lip against the shaft and wear as the shaft turns.

The pump is not yet available. John Lampl, who produced the CAD files and a 3D-printed prototype, is currently in China working with a factory that specializes in automotive water pumps for a final design review. The next step is a production sample for approval. Burtz says the new pump will be priced competitively with existing water pumps that use packings and radial lip seals.

A new small business is doing its part to keep Model A’s on the road – literally. Model A Steering is contracting with the Argentinian firm that made steering shafts, worms, and sectors for many years to restart production.

CEO Kevin Duffy tells the origin story on his blog:

Rebuild kits and shaft/worm kits for the 2-tooth column only will be available next month. 7-tooth kits will be available later this year, followed by individual parts sales. Bert’s Model A Store has expressed interest in reselling the kits, but for now you can only buy direct.

Randy Gross, noted vendor of rebuilt brakes and F-100 steering columns, reported on the Ford Barn that reproduction spark and throttle rods for the 28/29 steering column are completely sold out across all suppliers. Some supplier web catalogs still show them as available, but Gross says none of the suppliers actually have stock, and none are expected to restock in the near future.

If you need a 28/29 steering column rod, send an email to the club list. Another member may have one they would sell.

Three listings from the April newsletter of our neighbors to the southwest, the Queen City Model A Club in Charlotte:

Chet Butcher is selling a good used bell housing, asking price $275, and a 1930 radiator shell, asking price $175. Contact Chet at [email protected].

The main leaf of every Model A spring includes a pair of bushings, one at each end, that go around the shanks of the spring shackles. These bushings each bear ¼ of the weight of the car, so keeping them in good health is important. While original springs came with steel bushings, reproduction supplier A-Springs used to outfit theirs with bronze bushings that had a spiral grease groove cut into them. They claimed this reduced noise.

I reached out to Brent Terry of Vintage Automotive to get his take on the subject. He writes, “I was using a self-lubricated bronze called Oilite, but it was a little too soft. I just went back to steel inserts.” Brent says a more important factor than bushing material is the clearance between the bushing and the shank. Reproduction shanks can be thicker or thinner than originals, and the bushing should be reamed or honed to fit. Too much clearance will cause the grease in the shackles to migrate out. “On my personal cars I use a hone for about 1 thou total clearance (-1/2 thou per side),” he writes. “This gives the most support.”

Have you ever dropped a bolt on your gravel driveway and just could not find the thing even though you knew it was right in front of you? Lost a button on your area rug? Well, you can use one weird trick to give your eyes temporary super powers: the Tetris effect. Simply find another object that looks as much like your lost object as possible and look at it for several minutes. This primes your brain to recognize that shape, much as obsessive Tetris players begin to see the game’s shapes in the real world. Then look for your lost object again. It really works!

Friend of the club Frank Warf writes in with this tip: “When removing a stuck head on a seized engine, I like to weld a square of plate steel onto a head nut and put one on each stud. This keeps the head puller from deforming the top of the studs as it presses on them. I also find that plastic tree felling wedges have a bit more oomph than wood wedges (and they don’t splinter).” Thanks Frank! Keep ‘em coming.

We’re proud to have Snyder’s Antique Auto Parts as one of the sponsors that keep the Tar Wheels rolling. If you’ve got a stuck cylinder head to remove like our friend Frank, grab a head puller kit from Snyder’s for just $70. This puller design is a “Rainmaker Ron” creation. Ron Cloat operated Rainmaker Restorations and Standard Auto Parts from 1982 to around 2010. He designed and sold tools that are now Model A standards, and Snyder’s helps to pass on Ron’s legacy every day.