VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Some felts questions --- no, no, not THOSE felts

As I put my '32 chassis together, I have the replacement felts for the brake system, so that is not what this is about.

I see that the idler arms for the rear brake rods have what appear to be felts in them, but the idlers are riveted together. Is there an advantage to drilling them to separate and install new felts or just go ahead and oil the old ones up? Sure looks like a lot of work for little benefit to take them apart.

Secondly --- the felts in the spring shackles --- how thick should they be and how wide should they have to be cut? I assume that there should be no metal-to-metal contact between the pin and the pockets in the shackle arms. I also have figured out that the side with the oil fitting should have a hole in the felt to allow oil to get to the far side. I'm asking because when purchased, my car had all replacement shackles and I am going back all original. I have all 8 pins installed in the frame and spring eyes. That was an adventure in and of itself!

Thanks. Tom

If the old felts in the idlers will take oiling that is what I would do. If the felts are junk I would remove them with a pick tool and install new felts-oil them and put grease on the pins. I just installed new idlers on my 32 and I oiled the felts and then lubricated with Lubriplate #115 which is the water pump grease as I am hoping it will keep the water out . I don't believe there should be any felts on the shackle pins-metal to metal and lubricated with grease. At least that is how mine are set up.

I don't believe felts were originally installed on the shackle arms either. However I didn't like the way my shiny new pins were exposed to the elements so I made up my own felts and filled the small gaps on either end with them. Don't know if it will prolong their life or anything but I feel better.

I believe water pump grease is water based (so as not to contaminate the cooling system) so it is probably not very good at keeping the moisture out of your pins. You probably should use a grease that does not mix with water (oil and water don't mix).

Water pump grease uses calcium soaps that are not water soluble. Regular chassis grease uses Sodium or Lithium soaps which are water soluble.

Those felts sure look good. My understanding is the original felt in those shackles were buttons that were at the ends of the holes in the pins.

I do not see any mention of felts listed in my 29-32 parts book (Feb32) under the rear spring attaching parts section. My 29-38 book list a cork washer being used from 34 and later but nothing other than a tension washer for 29-32.

Like other assemblies not all individual parts were available in Chevrolet parts distribution. Assemblies, sub-assemblies and frequently needed individual parts were the bulk of what was available in the parts system. I am sure that Gene who has much more experience with the parts system will have a comment or at least hope so.

I have read the same thing in some of my 1930-32 literature.

Thanks for the responses. I'll make up some small felts to go at the ends of the pins and might do as hardagrond has done with felts on the outside also.

I also realized today as I was shooting primer on a lot of the small chassis fittings that I had made a mistake in my original post. I asked about the felts in the brake rod idler. Those are actually very easy to replace.

It's a case of my fingers typing while my brain was disengaged. I really meant to ask about the felts in the brake cross shaft. Those look like they are hard to service. Has anyone done that?

Thanks again. Tom