VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1937 Master Deluxe Knee Actions

Hey everyone sorry if I posted this question a long time ago I can not find a thread I went back 20 pages and nothing. I have my grandfathers all original 17880 Mile unrestored 4dr sport sedan. I am replacing the leaking original Knees with a set of NOS GM ones grandpa had in the attic. My question is has anyone rebuilt their Knee actions. I would like to rebuild my original ones so if the gaskets start to leak on the NOS ones I have my rebuilt ones on the shelf ready to go.
Just trying to get any tips or suggestions from anyone that has tackled this or warnings of what not to do.

Hello 63novaandy,

I was lucky that mine had been rebuilt by a previous owner. The original design has the cross shaft supported by needle bearings that fail due to poor maintenance in the past. There is a cap side facing the center of the car that you can remove and see if it has needle bearings or a bushing, you will also be able to see damage due to no lubrication and the needle bearings will be turning to powder. The bushing is an up-grade to a rebuild. If there is a bushing and it appears to be okay and it is leaking from this cover, a little RTV around the inside edge should take care of it. If the leak is coming from the spindle arm as it passes into the knee you may be able to stop the leak 2 possible ways.

1, loosen the set screw and tighten the collar, reset the set screw. Clean up the area and fill the knee with weight of the car on the tires. I was told you can use jack oil to fill them with.

2, If #1 doesn't work, back off the set screw again and turn the collar all the way off and add packing rope to the inside of the collar. Screw the collar back on and tighten the set screw.

Hope this helps.

A couple years ago, my '37 Dubonet shocks were rebuilt.
The other day, I finally got to the point of putting the full weight of the car on the wheels and noticed that the front end is sitting rather low ...
The shocks are topped out with hydraulic fluid. I raised the car to extend the shocks and lowered the car - that did not make any difference.
I have read thru some articles but do not find any mention of how to adjust the shocks if they allow the car to settle low (perhaps I read past this adjustment if it was mentioned).
Is there an easy adjustment that a novice can make to get the front end raised a couple inches?
In advance, thank you for your help / suggestions.
rgds Jim VCCA 51601

Jim, The fluid and shocks have nothing to do with the height.
There is an adjustment on top of the unit that can be truned down to put more pressure on the coil spring..............see shop manual.

Andy,
Replacing the knees is rather straight forward, Would suggest getting a king pin set first. Top off or fill the units wih hydraulic jack fluid.
See you next year.

I actually reused the original King pins dad being a mechanic for 35 years has been helping me. He said they where the easiest set of Kings pins he has seen come out I have not had to use the torch for anything (I'm sure you remember the car from years ago) being such a low mile original car that has been in great storage since at least 1952 that we know of. I was using a new old can of shock/knee actions fluid Grandpa had to. I'm just trying to figure out about rebuilding the originals so if I ever need to swap them out due to the nos ones starting to leak as bad as the ones I just took off

Tighten the big packing nut that is behind the big arm where it enters the housing.
Originally there was a cork packing in this location. Your original ones possibly could have been tightened to prevent leaking. Your new ones may have cork or if rebuit some other type of packing.

Thanks Tiny, but I would like to rebuild them myself. Dad has knowledge on shocks, (has done his own on his 31's 37 truck,and 48) I am figuring they are more complicated than the regular shock, but just looking for anyone that has done their own before and if they have any pointers

And thanks Gene I will keep that in mind I would assume these would still have the cork as they are NOS GM still with the GM tags attached and sticker partially on Grandpa found them in a closed down dealership in the 70's when he used to clean dealerships out

GM sold only rebuilts.....I will send you info on resealing.

Hi Andy,

I was just re-reading through this post. You are getting lots of good advice and I hope the work goes well.

I caught a point that you might want to re-consider. Gene suggested that you replace the king pins. Your response was that your dad was recommending that they can be re-used. He said that they were good because they came out so easy.

I had the a similar experience with my straight axle '37. I was surprised at how easily the kingpins came out of the axle. I had read lots of posts about how difficult they were to remove. What I discovered is that how easy or hard they remove is not relevant to wear.

There is no relative motion or wear where the kingpin is retained. In fact there is a special tapered pin that prevents the kingpin from moving vertically or rotating in the axle itself. All the motion and wear occurs between the portion of the kingpin that rides in the bushings in the spindles.

Your Knee Action has a similar design with respect to how the kingpins are installed and retained. It uses floating bushings in the spindle like the straight axle car.

You might want to check the bushings and ends of the kingpins for wear. That is where mine showed looseness which contributed to steering play.

Thanks I have done that it is all very tight like it should be (joys of having a car that is an original 17,880 mile car that it did not get abused and neglected )

Andy,

Thanks for the response. With that mileage it seems logical that the kingpins and bushings are fine, especially if the car was not driven much in its early life on dirt and gravel roads.

In my car most of the wear was in the bushings. That makes sense because they are the softer material in that joint.

The wear was very visible if you watched the movement between the spindle and axle when the car was on the ground and someone turned the steering wheel. You could see the spindle move laterally before it started to rotate.

Great news finally got some other things done (fixed original sending unit as one item) and got to drive the car it is so nice not bouncing up and down like a ball and leaking like crazy, but I do have to say it seems to ride rough now. Is there any adjustments I should know about on them. I only drove it about 5 miles yesterday as I drove it to the gas station to take advantage of cheap fuel and since I just emptied the tank It cost less then $30 to fill the car up with 94 octane (figured it is cheap enough so put higher octane this round)

There are no "riding adjustments"....just what was alll done with the knees? Did you install old stock replacements? Thr shock pistons or? may be stuck.

You all are overthinking this thing. The knee actions were rebuilt and now they are performing the best they can. Thus it stands to reason that the ride is what you get for owning a 37/38. It is not a 41.

Nonetheless, one could always sell another pig or two and convert it to a straight axle.

I remember my dad had a 37 sedan way back. He only kept it for a couple weeks. I remember driving it with my buddy and two girls. The girls wanted me to open her up. I did and it registered 70 mph wide open. I only held that speed for a short spell. I didn't want to throw a rod or something. Both girls dumped me for better pickings. It wasn't me: It was the car. No one has ever been able to successfully propose to his heart throb whilst doing the proposing in a 37/38. Just wasn't done. After the 41s came out, they waited until they could borrow a 1941 Chevrolet SD coupe. Worked every time. Stars got in that little fillies eyes. Did too!

If anyone knows of a successful proposal whilst in a 37/38, I like to know what the proposer and the proposee were smoking, or drinking or chewing or dipping.

Best,

Charlie

BTW: I do hope that Nova Andy, get's his car to ride better, as futile a quest as that is. Do too!

Years back a local/friend/VCCA member had the same problem. He installed a rebuilt unit that was probably done 40 yeears back and it was as stiff as a board. He removed the big arm and found the inner bushing froze to the arm. I gave him a new 1929-1936 wrist pin bushing and it fit perfectly and worked like a charm.

Coming late to the post, Gene I would really like to see your information on resealing, it's been on my list of things to do for some time now. Thanks in advance.