Ruckstell Patent Plates

[Original Smith]

Ruckstell used three different styles of patent plates that I'm aware of. The two rectangular issues are to my knowledge early and late. The first ones have a raised area in the upper R.H. corner for a patent date, and the serial number is at the top L.H. side. Mine is serial number 6,345. I'm sure there are earlier examples out there? When the current type sold by the vendors was introduced, I have no idea. The one that is considered to be 1926-7 is not that at all. This is the style that Eaton used when Ruckstell sold out to them, with the clipped corners. The best thing that Eaton did, was they arranged with Ford to buy backing plates from them. The most obvious reason to me is Ford had a removable cam bushing, and Hall Scott did not. I have an example of this type of housing on my 1925.

[speedytinc]

Ruckstell used three different styles of patent plates that I'm aware of. The two rectangular issues are to my knowledge early and late. The first ones have a raised area in the upper R.H. corner for a patent date, and the serial number is at the top L.H. side. Mine is serial number 6,345. I'm sure there are earlier examples out there? When the current type sold by the vendors was introduced, I have no idea. The one that is considered to be 1926-7 is not that at all. This is the style that Eaton used when Ruckstell sold out to them, with the clipped corners. The best thing that Eaton did, was they arranged with Ford to buy backing plates from them. The most obvious reason to me is Ford had a removable cam bushing, and Hall Scott did not. I have an example of this type of housing on my 1925.

You might talk to mike Spaziano, A ways back he had some clipped corner ones made. Chaffins bought a batch

[Les Schubert]

Here is another version!

[DanTreace]

Some photos for comparisons.

[Original Smith]

The clipped plate that Mike Spaziano used he got from me! I've seen the oval Canadian plates, and I recall seeing a rectangular one from Canada too. I also have a Perfecto plate.

[modeltspaz]

When I purchased a Ruckstell in pieces from Wayne Erickson, it was like new and very complete, except for a few things like a shifter rod, rod stand off, and I D tag.
I was readily able to find all the missing parts with the exception of one, the tag.
I talked to just about everyone I knew of that had experience rebuilding Ruckstells, including the late Stan Howe (RIP), and got the same reply. They all told me that when they would rebuild a Ruckstell, they'd toss the old tag and replace it with one that's available. Since my car is a '26 and I purchased a "Big Drum" axle, that wasn't going to cut it in the "Original Smith" rule book.
It's true that Larry did give me an original tag that is nearly perfect. But it got me to thinking, both small and big drum axles are being reproduced, but only one type of I.D. tag is being made. That put me on a mission.
I searched my area to find an engraving company that would chem etch the tags. Here in beautiful, sunny, So. Cal. any manufacturing process that involves toxic chemicals is like finding a dentist that specializes in chickens, or is so expensive it's cost prohibitive.
I was at a poker tournament at the local Elks Lodge and was talking with a gentleman that knew of such a company that made chemical etched brass I.D. tags and they were located in the same town as the lodge.
At that time, I was working as a Senior Prototype Model Maker for Mattel Toy Company and had, pretty much at my disposal, Mattel's Graphic Arts department. Using the original tag I obtained from Larry and a few shots of tags from this very forum, we were able to produce a computer file to make an extremely accurate mask to etch the tags.
I made a test run of 75 tags. I showed one of these to Glenn Chaffin while we were at the Long Beach Model T meet. He liked what he saw, and ordered 500 of them. As best as I can tell, these tags have never been produced since the axles were in current production.
If anyone needs one of these tags, I reccomend contacting Chaffin's Garage in Corona, CA. Glenn, Mark, and Dave are all extremely knowledgeable and friendly people who are always willing to help with advice and parts. Thanks again for your order Glenn. And thank you Larry for the original tag. I still have it.
While we're on the subject of originallity, when I put the original tag under a high power magnifying glass, I found that the top corners of the raised characters were square. The top corners of the original tag were rounded indicating that originally the tags were coined and stamped from a single sheet of brass. The characters on the tag were only about 1-2 thousandths higher than the surface below them. In case you were wondering, the original tag still had the black background intact, so there is little chance that the corners of the characters were rounded due to polishing.

[Original Smith]

The point I'm trying to make here is, just because the tag has clipped corners doesn't mean it's a 26-7! What it means is the rear axle half was made by Eaton, not Hall Scott. What I would like to know is if Eaton every made Ruckstells for the early driveshaft spools. As I mentioned, I have an original Eaton housing in my '25 with clipped corners, and it is NOT a 26-7. The reason I like the Eaton version, is because they used a genuine Ford backing plate, that you can replace the brake cam bushing in.

[Virtus]

Another style of Ruckstell plate. On my 1921 righthand drive Manchester built TT