MTFCA Forum

From this photo can tell if it’s Babbitt or bronze?
Tom

Hard to distinguish from that photo - Babitt will obviously be grey in color & depending on the rear axle lubricant cleanliness, the brass might be disguised by the color of the fluid !

with the random striations I see on it I would think babbit more than bronze

You got the bore scope in there to get the picture, so try a long thin screw driver or something else, to scrape a little grease off the edge of the washer, maybe some solvent on a long shop towel would work. Then take another picture with the bore scope, you just need to see if it is yellow or steel gray color, of course the yellow would be brass.

Great ideas I will do it tomorrow and post a new photo
Tom

I recently bought a very original 1916 coupelet and look inside the rear axle with a bore scope. It was pretty easy to see the yellow color of the brass washer.

Don't count on the color! I have taken a couple of Babbitt washers out of T rear ends that appeared to be brass colored only to poke at them and scrape the brass color off. What causes that? I am not sure, could be some type of oil used, or a contaminant of some sort. Maybe even something in the Babbitt mix? Whatever it was, it stuck to the Babbitt all the way around the things and looked like brass, until I scratched them.

Inside the bell of the internal housing, is a fiber thrust washer, originally red in color. It is .110" thick. I have never understood why Chaffin never made these correctly.

If the washer between axles is not made "correctly," it may have something to do with wear between the axle ends and wear between the diff housing and the thrust faces on the back of the axle gears. Wear in these areas will compromise the fit of the original washer. If Chaffin's supply a thicker washer so this wear can be compensated for, good on them I say.
Our $1.00 bronze alloy coins are of the correct outside diameter. Their thickness allows for them to be worked down to provide the correct play between axle ends. Sometimes in rebuilds, the detail on the coin faces is almost obliterated, others not so.

Allan from down under.

Finally got time to go check it some more. I first cleaned it with some acetone and then was able to get the tip of a Babbitt bearing scraper to make some scratches. Do to the silver color I am pretty sure it’s a babbit thrust washer. Looks like I need to plan to remove and rebuild the rear axle
Tom

Yes, yours looks like babbit to me. Here’s a borescope photo of the one in my ‘24 touring. From the color, it’s probably bronze. Only the right side is accessible through the fill hole, and I can only assume the left one is the same.

I don't think the fiber washer I mentioned is a thrust washer. I think it's a spacer used internally. I had a bunch made a few years ago, and they are .125 so needs to have the thickness reduced to the correct thickness. Sometimes because of wear they need to be a bit thicker. The dowel pin holes are in them.

Larry, I understand and agree with you on the need for thicker axle spacer washers. However, you lost me when you said the dowel pin holes are in them?

Allan from down under.

Larry is referring to the large fiber thrust washer inside the Ruckstell assembly - not the small washer between the axle shafts.