Does this look worn to you...?

[Kevin Pharis]

Some people try to calculate the pennies per mile to operate their car... I gave up! This ‘15 touring came to me as a high mileage driver that needed a motor after the bendix cover came loose while driving. We happened to have a mostly done A crank block laying around, so a bit of effort and a few parts and we were back on the road. A couple hundred miles of touring yielded a tire blow out. Sharp rims were the problem! Luckily, I know a guy who can handle building new wire wheels, and so we were back on the road again. Then suddenly, no go! The ring gear falls out in about 10 pieces! Once again, the works; gears, axles, everything! Back to the road for about 150 miles, and something doesn’t feel right...?! Rocking the car back and forth yields almost 1/2 turn of the wheels prior to engaging the motor. A few tests had me hopeful that the tapered roller pinion bearing has slid up the spool causing much backlash in the gears... silly me! Full blown carnage! The Ruxtell gears seized on the pins, pins broke off in the support plate, diff housing completely destroyed, sun and ring gears ground to nubs. Was there oil in it...? YES! Looks more like metallic black paint... but it is/was oil...

[AndyClary]

Ouch!

Andy

[TXGOAT2]

You need an Exorcist. Your car must be haunted by the spirit of a crushed and recycled Yugo.

[Dropacent]

[Dan McEachern]

Knew a fellow with a Ruxtell and a Warford in his car. He liked to drop the Warford in overdrive and the Ruxtell in low and then buzz down the road at 60+mph. I can only imagine that the little planet gears thought of that!

[Mark Chaffin]

Upon inspecting the photos provided by Kevin, it appears the thrust washer between the P202 differential and P159 bell housing may have failed first. Likely if the Ruckstell had a fiber thrust washer installed. Evident by the visible galling by the P87 pinion gears wearing into the P159 bell housing. This likely happened when the differential was allowed to move inward into the bell housing. Terrible either way. Also, Dan is correct that the use of Ruckstell low gear in a continuous manner with high torque is a receipe for disaster.

[Kevin Pharis]

I haven’t been able to get too deep into disassembly due to a case of extremely difficult rear hub removal. With one hub off, this is as far as I could go. The planetary pinion gears did not wear into the bell, what you are seeing in the pic is an 1/8” of metallic mud buildup. There was no noticeable end play in the axles prior to disassembly. I’ll get the other hub off eventually, and will get better pics of the rest...

[Steve Jelf]

Sounds like a former owner was in the "ignore that noise" school of Model T driving.

[Kevin Pharis]

Amazingly enough, just bout all parts in the pic were brand new and had only 150 miles on it... the only parts I was able to salvage during the in depth rebuild was the bell, and the short half of the inner differential housing

[Kevin Pharis]

Don’t you hate it when you beat on a hub puller for days...? The torch, the bigger hammer, the cursing... nuthin! The whole time expecting the taper to explode apart with Hollywood type theatrics...

Well, I disassembled the hub puller to grind off the mushroomed end and reestablish the wrench flats... and while tightening it back up, with almost no effort at all... pop! SUCCESS!!!

The bell is full of debris, the fiber washer is in tact... more questions than answers...?!

[Original Smith]

Looks like the fiber washer is still in there! I wonder if it is original?

[Mark Chaffin]

Metal mudd for sure! Let use know what else you find as you explore further.

[Allan]

Ruckstells do weird things. We had a club member who lived in the city, and his daily driver in the 1970-80's was a heavily accessorised 27 roadster. He had driven that car for almost 3 years on a rebuilt Ruckstell before one of the planetary gears got so hot it seized on the pin, which snapped off flush, the remainder being welded in place by the heat. I had the job of rebuilding it this time, and I believe it is still in service.

Allan from down under.