Anyone know what this is????

This was held in place by the front spindle nut on my 51 Merc and was covered by the dust cover for the spindle nut. It is made of br***. I wonder if it might have something to do with arresting static electricity. It was on the right front P*** SIDE wheel only. Click on photo to enlarge.

 

Used to be pretty common, they were used as a static ground so the bearing surfaces wouldn't pit from the static discharge. They would have been installed on both front spindle nuts and the 'spring tail' would have ground out to the inside of the dust cap. Guess they figured out somewhere along the way that it wasn't needed. I haven't seen any used since my 66 Chev.

 

Rob, Thanks for the detailed info. Guess I'll just put on the shelf.

 

Also, on all early FOMOCO, radio install called for a whole kit of anti-static parts: These, extra grounds, condensers for regulator and generator, secondar wire ends...I even have a little Ford script bag of graphite, 1947 vintage, that was to be dumped into the tries to help transfer static yo tread apparently!