Folks, I am new here and would like to ask your help in identifying the different types of friction shocks that were produced in the early years. I am ***isting in the restoration of a 1930's vintage Model A/B rail frame sprint car which has the commonly used 'Hartford' friction shocks up front but the rears that came with the car I have never seen before. They are an arm attached to a housing which would remind you of a go-cart type centrifugal clutch drum with sort of similar internals. Springs with 4 shoes applying pressure to the inside of the drum. The drum is attached to the frame and the arm with a link to the rear axle housing. Regards, Ralph Stevens
Come on man, show us some pictures! How about the kind that is an arm with what looks like some washers and a bolt and a thing that looks like a star washer and it's hooked to the axle with this thing that looks like a rod and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Welcome to the HAMB! Yes, photos would be great,what you discribed sounds unusal. Is this a restoration of a do***ented race car or a current build of an old lookalike? Hartford shocks came with single and double arms, back in the day guys used whatever came along.
The Hartford Friction shocks and sercice parts for them are readily available. You can learn all about them at... See http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/en/list+andre+hartford+shock+absorber/ The arms or blades are made of a thin spring steel to allow for movement that can occurr in various driving and mounting situations. My arms are 3/32" thick. My shocks are the two blade into one used on lighter cars. I bought mine NOS and had the arms yellow zinc chromate plated for corrosion protection along with some other suspension pieces and the whole tube ch***is.
Is that an original Dreyer spring setup? Bugatti used the same setup only 180 degrees swapped. I've still got the front springs from a Dreyer wiggle front end that was on his "Catfish" midget.
This may be a bit OT, but maybe not- I'm thinkng about making the frame rails parallel on my '28 Chevrolet ch***is, but was encouraged not to because of the resulting side-to-side wobble in the suspension... 1) is that something that I really need to worry about? 2) will the friction shock help in any way with that? Thanks, Bill
Just sitting here trying to understand why a tapered frame would handle differently from a parallel set of main rails. I can't see why one would induce wobble and the other not!
Yankee, How fast do you plan to go? you could always add a panhard. or a Jacobs ladder for side to side control. A shock is usually used to dampen up and down movements not side to side, Saying that, I remember having a model T with a shock on the steering link. Norb
No, not to my knowledge. This is a set-up that was part of the roller I restored and is pictured in my avatar I'm aware of the front 1/4 ellipticals he used on a big car I saw at the Justice Brothers Museum. I am unaware he did it or similar on a midget. Will have to re-read my Pop Dreyer when I get it back. Would love to see apicture of what you have or a Dreyer utilizing it. These are a 1" wide leaf that are loosely contained, and bear on a pad, that is all a part of the rear radius rod mounting that swivels around the axle housing. Kurtis also built a small number of front 1/4 ellipticals and rear was also an option though I have never seen a picture or a car with both. The "28 Dreyer" comes from a previous sold car.
In the case of the Kurtis midget, I don't believe there was a Panhard Rod. Perhaps that's why most were changed over to cross spring or parrallel bar. My car has a Panhard Rod. There would be no positive transverse axle location from trailing or splayed springs until you got to a near cross spring situation. The Ford and all other rear or front cross spring cars are really just a one piece pair of 1/4 elliptical springs.
Don't know how well these photos will look, but that is a stock t axle with the two Dreyer springs. What he did was cut the axle ends off and weld or forge eyelets on them to attach the springs. No solid axle, just two springs, on a light Harley knucklehead powered Midget it would have worked I think.
Rich, The way it was explained to me was that with a tapered frame, the angle of the spring is more/less than 90 degrees and that angle helps keep the springs from wobbling... 'Course I think of all the parallel ch***is I got to work on at the restoration shop- Packard, Stutz, Simplex... and maybe I've answered my own question. Duh!
The car is a period car not a new build but certainly has no pedigree. I do not have any pictures as the owner only asked if I could identify them after pulling them out of the trunk of his car last night. I have never seen a friction shock of this configuration before. I will try to get the owner to send me some pics before I continue. Thanks, Ralph
Ralph, Thanks again for starting this thread- can't wait to see the pics and I apologize for the thread steal!
<TABLE cl***=tborder cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD cl***=tcat> Preview </TD></TR><TR><TD cl***=alt1><!-- icon and ***le --> Re: Friction Shock Types <HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and ***le -->Here's a picture of the Panhard Rod under the Quick Change... The left side (in the photo) is anchored to a spud on the frame, the right side mounts to a specially formed mounting bolt extension of the lower shock arm bracket on the axle housing. Notice the bushed mountings on both ends as well as rubber bushed or "Metalastic" mountings on the Hartford shock arms. This is the reason the steel shock arms need to flex, no swivel joints. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
No sh.. Had no idea. This then would have been an Independent Front Suspension exactly like what the old Fiat Topolino had I think in the rear. Those parts were used post WWII by John Cooper first with his Formula III Coopers front and rear, (rear motorcycle engined, chain drive, push start, 4 speed transmission) road racers and I think later into some of his early Formula II cars. Presume Pop did this in the 30's. Yeah it would have worked at least on pavement. Cooper is testament to that. The first Topolino's were built in 1936
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