VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1916-1922 - Model 490 NEXT 490 QUESTION, PLEASE

Hi All -
I am missing the speedometer cable on the ol' 490. Could someone please tell me the correct length of the cable for the 1920 Four-Ninety. Thanks very much! - The Ol' Coach

The Ol' Coach,

While I'm not sure what length cable you need, your speedometer cable should be on the transmission if it's still original setup (my '17 is on the left front wheel). You could run a piece of rope taped to the speedometer head and then down to the trans. routing it so there are no sharp turns. Then remove the rope and measure the length. You can get reproduction Stewart cables from Lang's Old Car Parts. You can look up the cables on there website and see a picture. The cables come in brass (you can paint it, I suggest using an etching primer first) and are pre made in lengths of 4', 5', 6' etc. I would think you would need a length of about 4'. Mind you these cables come without the core cable inside and that will have to be purchased separately and cut to length and inserted (not hard to do, it comes with instructions). Hope this was of help.

Cheers,
Gary

It is indeed a great help, Gary! I'll go to work on it. Thanks so much for the information! - The Ol' Coach

I have a 1920, so I took off my speedometer cable and measured it. The outside casing is 53.5" long, and the cable inside is an additional 3/4" longer. That is from tip to tip including the end fittings.

HI Bill , Welcome to the forum, thanks for contributing to the information provided here. I hope you enjoy the forums as much as we do. Looking forward to more of you posts, and maybe you can post some pictures of your 1920 sometime.

Thanks so very much for doing that, Bill! I really appreciate it! Look forward to hearing more about your '20 in the future! - The Ol' Coach

Hi all, how can I look up the year of my 490? The top of the head is stamped "P 407-4-1-2717", and the top of the block is stamped "11517"?

Thanks in advance.

Please ignore my previous post in this thread. My questions about the year of my 490 have been answered in a different forum.

Thanks again.

And now, where do I start looking for parts--like a radiator cap?

The coding on your Head tells you that it was cast at the Port Huron Foundry (the "P"), the "407" is the Part Number, casting # 4, and the 2717 is Feb. 7, 1917. On the Block this 11517 is simply a date code, which would be Jan. 15, 1917. With those dates being only 3 weeks apart, there is a good chance that both are original to the car, with a probable production date of March 1917. Do you know the Car Number, or the large serial number stamped on the outer edge of the Flywheel? Do you know which assembly plant built the car (Flint or Tarrytown NY most likely, that early).

I would be interested to know what other forum has people who are knowledgeable about early 490s - I have never found it. Or maybe it is the same folks that are in here?

I thought the head cast date was 1 27 17 making it 27th January 1917.

Commencing in 1917 , The assembly plant was included in the serial number, The following plants assembled the 490's in 1917
1 Flint Mi. 2 Tarrytown NY # St Louis Mo. 6 Oakland Ca.7 Fort Worth Tx. 9 Norwood Ohio.

I have a 1916 490 handbook dated 4-15-16 , and it is from Chevrolet Motor Company Of St Louis. St Louis Mo. So 1916
490.s would also have been assembled at St Louis. Mo. Tarrytown was also used , and exported worldwide from there , as well as Flint for the first 490's .

I don't know where the car might have been assembled. I will look for other numbers (like the flywheel number) this afternoon.

We had this car running in the late 60s or early 70s, so I'm hoping to coax it back to life once again.

I will need to find someone that rebuilds or new-builds wooden- spoked wheels.

You are right of course, Jack. I was thinking "late 1915 / early 1916 production" instead of "late 1916 / early 1917 production" with that statement about Tarrytown or Flint.

I took his Head numbers to read "407-4-1" and then the date as " 2-7-17" because the way he had it hyphenated, and the fact that the early February date would match up with the January date on the Block.

There are many wheelwrights that can build the wheels for a 490 - the Amish guys do a great job and are inexpensive. If there are concerns, new would be the way to go, and probably about the same money.

So where was that other forum that was knowledgeable about 490s?

I have a number from the outside of the flywheel of the 490. The number is A86920.

There is also another small metal plate on the firewall inside the car almost directly ahead of the transmission stick. This may or may not be the original firewall as this car was cut down into a truck at some point.

Anyway, that plate says "Prov. of Saskatchewan" and directly underneath that it says "Serial #1081". Saskatchewan is the province where the car was found, so I suppose this could have had something to do with the registration and/or licensing process in those days.

I may have mislead on the formatting of the top of head number. It looks like this P
407-4
1 2717

OK, that clears it up and yes, that would be a Casting Date of Jan. 27, 1917 as Jack stated. Which is even closer to the Block Casting Date of Jan. 15, 1917, only 12 days apart. We typically see a lag time of 5 to 6 weeks between the casting dates and the production dates, where it is possible to identify all the factors. That would give the car a build date of early March, 1917.

The Flywheel number is the sequential car number. (I think I am remembering this next correctly) After 100,000 units, the first digit became an "A" - so car number 121,400 (for example) would get "A21400" - and at 200,000 it becomes "B" and so forth. I need to check what I am saying here before I go further. I'm not remembering exactly about that "A" I am afraid. This would put the car out to Car # 186,920, which is a late 1917 number. Let me find my notes before I commit on that number.

With respect to the Saskatchewan tag and the #1081, that is almost certainly simply a Provincial registration number, and not to do with the car itself.