VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1916-1922 - Model 490 thickness of the bronze clutch collar 21 490

I will soon take some pictures of the spare one I had made in Sweden, so you may see what the copy is like.

When you are steadyly keeping an eye on having enough oil in the reservoir on top of collar, you will have very little wearing. I believe the wearing in older days mainly came from dried out reservoirs. Removing the foot plate was timeconsuming and oiling often forgotten. Also troubleing the system when the owner used sand/dirt to reduce the clutch leather from slippery. Use only Fullers Earth and you are safe.

Here are the pictures of the newmade collar for my 1916, four-ninety.

http://s889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/solan1916/490%20clutch%20collar%20newmade/

I have a width of a new collar @ 1.470.

If only one part could be reproduced for the 490, this would be the part.

I am restoring a Model D. It takes the same clutch collar you're talking about for the 490 and I needed one. I got some oil lite (sp?) which is pretty expensive material. I got more than one collar out of the piece of stock I had to purchase, The theory is that as the material gets hot it bleeds oil. My car is a long ways from testing the efficiency of the theory but cutting it caused friction and oil came bleeding out. If this works as well as it seems to promise then no more reservoir to keep full and no need for wooden dowels (Soft Maple according to my parts info.) These collars come to about the same $400 stated earlier in this thread to repair and/or machine a bronze collar . I have more than the one I need if anyone is interested. I also now have the ability to make more if there's any interest.

Thanks for the input!
I would think more people here could be interested in having a copy of the clutch collar made for their own cars. The collar is a vital part of the driving line and when in order, gives me a nice ride and pleasure when driving. But it needs oiling.

Is it possible for you to put a message about this nice possibility in G&D asap, too? As the making is time consuming due to all the handling, as well as the material is expensive, no one here should be refusing to buy one, if they really need one.

I kow there are continously small leaks through the wood in my collar, but I have never noticed the metal to be hot, and therefore bleeding more or a lot when driving. Any comments?

My only concern with the oil-lite material is that it is very brittle , and i believe that it may fracture prematurely.

I have heard the brittle thing before but it sure didn't machine that way. It cut very nicely on the lathe and mill. It took forever to cut through with the automatic band saw, though. Do you think brittleness and fracture come into play as much as plain old wear in the clutch collar application? I don't .know

Hot may have been too big a word. The oil coming out was just during the surface milling. It was more like the rubbing that would occur in regular usage to my thinking. I repeat, though, that I have not tried it yet because my car is still very much in the basket case coming together sort of stage. We'll see!

I tried to use a oil lite bearing out of a water pump for something else once ,and was trying to file it and it broke in half. I think there is a lot of leverage force on the collar ,and that the oillite wont be up to the task. The Spring which returns the clutch to the flywheel is a very thick coiled and heavy spring.

Well, I guess we'll see but a solid 1.5 inches of material under compression not shear compared to a relatively small amount of material for a water pump washer being torqued with filing doesn't seem quite the same to me. I sure had no problems on the lathe or mill with any chipping, cracking, or even chatter.

Even the pivot bolts for the collar on mine are worn flat/oval on mine.

I am not so familiar with all the technical words here. But I would think it might be possible to use kevlar material instead of bronze to make the collar. I know someone in Norway installed a same-sized kevlar band on the clutch cone instead of the cow? leather in a Minerva 1912 with big engine power. It works very well and without any oiling. But of course the kevlar is likely to be much more expensive than the original type of material.

I decided to try the original method once more, and with right thickness of leather and right pressure on the 6 springs I have no problem with the clutching now, when I also oil the collar sump.