I found this axle today that was reportedly set in 1951. The gear is about 3 inches outside diameter, possibly somewhat less (the thing is heavily corroded) and I counted about 38 teeth on it. That's too many for a Model T axle, but otherwise the construction of the thing looks very similar. Can any antique car buff identify the model?
Oh, for the record (pun intended), the 1951 surveyor who set this called it an "auto axle with gear", which it certainly appears to be.
More Likely Farm Equipment, Than Auto
The straight cut gears put it in the open gear category, not the enclosed differential gear style. Probably a 90° transfer gear that mated to an equal size gear. Differential gears varied in size as they also did speed reduction.
Were I to speculate I would say it was the gear end of the cross transfer chain/belt that fed the bale chamber on a New Holland 75 or 76 hay baler, pre WWII, so easily worn out by 1951. The axle would have been 2' long an excellent corner marker. The early models had a chain drive that tended to jam with hay. My father, one of the first New Holland dealers began adding a belt to his customers baler's. The factory then adopted the belt in all later 76 models. With the 77 model they converted the cross feed to a long drum auger. A cross chain feed was also prevalent on all reapers and early combine heads. Combines also switched to drum type augers. A lot of farmers lost fingers in those open gear sets.
Paul in PA
Whatever it is, I've found quite a few of those through the years.
My favorite memory of finding one involved a renter who lived two houses away from the lot we were surveying in an older part of town. Once he found out what we were doing he became very helpful. He mowed the yard of the adjoiner on that side of our lot. He showed us the line he had always used. No signal. We then measured from a bar we had found earlier and arrived at a point seven feet further south. ZING!!!! Found the axle and gear about half an inch deep. The helpful renter was shocked to discover he had been mowing so much more than he was getting paid to mow. He promptly declared he wouldn't be doing that anymore.
Probably an early Ford V8
not Ford, obviously metric
I found two the other day in an old part of Hugo, Oklahoma.
A little more research...
Kent,
38 teeth is an oddity on Ford axles:
• 1928-'32 Model A, B, Commercial: 24-tooth, 32 1/8 inches
• 1933-'34 Model 40, 18, V-8: 18-tooth, 32 1/4 inches
• 1935-'38 Ford pass car, 1/2-ton and 1936-'38 Zephyr: 18-tooth. 32 7/8 inches
• 1939-'41 cars and 1/2-ton pickups 1939-'40 Zephyr, Mercury: 16-tooth, 32 7/8 inches
• 1942-'47 Ford, Mercury and 1/2-ton trucks, 1941-'48 Lincoln: 16-tooth, 33 11/16 inches
• 1941-'47 Zephyr (dimensions not available, however, these years do interchange)
However..I did run into some interesting info from an Obsolete Ford Collector's notes about early Ford rear gears and Texas :
REAR END GEARS: Many members of the Early Ford V8 Club are super sharp. But
I have to disagree with them when it comes to rear end ratios in early Fords.
Many say ‘48 and older Fords came with only 3.54:1, 3.78:1, 4.11:1, 4.44:1, and
4.55:1(?) ratios in 85 and 100 hp V8's. And they back this up with their Ford
manuals. While scrounging wrecking yards in south Texas in the early fifties,
I came across about a dozen or so early Ford rear ends with 3.27:1 gears!
I also found quite a few 4.33:1 ratios as well. All had gennie Ford lettering.
It was our belief these came as special orders for large customers. The 3.27's were
mostly found in Texas Ranger’s Border Patrol ‘46-’48 cars (must have needed more
top end). The 4.33 gears were in factory stripped down Fords made especially for
cross country patrolling the huge King Ranch (low end grunt was needed for
traversing washes and ravines). These were always in ‘34, ‘36, ‘38 and ‘39 Ford
Phaetons with truck 4 speed transmissions, butterfly fenders, no running boards,
with gun scabbards, and super wide (for the time) rims running fairly tall tires.
I’ve never seen, nor heard of anyone who has seen 4.55:1 Ford gears for an early
Ford car.
A little more research...
My question?
Where did all these axles come from anyway and seems to be a bit more cumbersome to carry around, rather than a rebar?
A little more research...
salvage yards.
Surveyors are good 'pickers' in searching for boundary monumnets.
It is said that the early 'iron' monuments in Lousiana along the Mississippi were salvaged iron parts from steamboats that had exploded and caught fire.
That's too many for a Model T axle, but otherwise the construction of the thing looks very similar. Can any antique car buff identify the model?
Keep digging, maybe you'll find the rest of the car!
A little more research...
I was a rear chain man, we were working a boundary of a junk yard, there were cars and parts everywhere.
The chief said we were looking for an axle, so I started poking around the piles of junk, looking for an axle.
YOU KNOTHEAD! GET BACK HERE AND START DIGGING.
We eventually found it, only then did I understand that the axle was the corner.
I see them every so often and have to chuckle.
A little more research...
> 38 teeth is an oddity on Ford axles:
Yes, the surveyor who set it was from Wharton County where there was a cotton gin, sugar cane mill, and a cotton oil mill. I suppose it could be scrap from one of those. The tooth count is possibly in error by as much as three teeth. My idea that it is a car axle was shaped by how the 1951 surveyor described it and the fact that my first impression was that it looked so much like a Model T axle (aside from the number of teeth on the gear).
More Likely Farm Equipment, Than Auto
I'd say from the photo that you are 0.04' off center with your range pole.
Axles
> My question?
>
> Where did all these axles come from anyway and seems to be a bit more cumbersome to carry around, rather than a rebar?
I'm collecting online PDH's/CEU's and took one yesterday from Red Vector about Natural and Artificial Monuments. Decent little online class. One of the many things that I took away from it was that for a very long time an axle could be had from a junk yard just for asking. This was obviously before they started breaking down the parts made of different materials for salvage. It also said that axles were more often used as "major corners" (like block corners or some where that wouldn't be disturbed) more so than as lot corners or meanders. I don't find very many around here, but I have seen them.
Carl
A little more research...
>The tooth count is possibly in error by as much as three teeth.
Ok, who are you and what did you do with Kent?
Now that's funny
😛
> I found two the other day in an old part of Hugo, Oklahoma.
Is there a new part?
A little more research...
> >The tooth count is possibly in error by as much as three teeth.
>
> Ok, who are you and what did you do with Kent?
hahaha....very good one.
let's see. 3 in 38 with 95% certainty, is a ratio of 1:13, (12.66666667 rounded).
Sounds like an rtk solution only not as accurate.
You're right; someone stole Kent's identity.
A little more research...
> >The tooth count is possibly in error by as much as three teeth.
>
> Ok, who are you and what did you do with Kent?
LOL. The point of the count was to determine whether it was a Model T axle or not, so I counted a 180-degree sector of teeth and multiplied by two to estimate the total. The gear appeared to have been damaged and 60 years worth of corrosion left the teeth looking like a meth user's smile. So there was an element of guesswork involved in the count.
Obviously, an RTK user would have logged it as "FD IP" and moved on. :>
A little more research...
> Obviously, an RTK user would have logged it as "FD IP" and moved on. :>
[sarcasm]FD IP 0.04'N/0.04'E of TRUE Corner[/sarcasm]
DDSM:beer:
