MTFCA Forum

I recently replaced the bushing for the hand crank. I cannot engage the claw with the pin on the crankshaft. The crank with out the claw mounted on it appears to be hitting the front of the crankshaft too high for alignment of the claw, in othewords the bushing is not correctly in straight. What did I do wrong, and how do I avoid this issue when I replace the bushing again.

Hi Doug,
I can only think of two reasons for that, because the greater mass of the hand crank is forward of the pan & a dry swinging crank will wear down
in the front & up in the rear of the portion of the pan it is in & when replaced the bushing will follow that wear as you install it. Or the crank
handle has been run into something bending the nose of the pan down. Putting a 3/4" reamer into the crank bushing & turning it while pulling up
may give you some leeway to correct the issue but kind of defeats installing a new bushing. That reminds me I forgot to order a hand crank holder.
Craig.

Hard to imagine the bushing is to blame. I'd investiate whether the nose of the pan has been bent. If it is a cocked bushing, try making your own out of solid tubing and glue it in place. Im not a fan of the split busings sold by the parts houses. You can memove the new bushing by using a torch that will char rhe glue so it breaks the seal. Re removing the recently installed bushing, there is a nifty method using a nut, bolt and metal tube larger than the bushing that has heen outlined on this forum.

One other thing to think about. If the nose of the pan is bent and you cant correct the bend, you can make a smaller od bushing and angle it inside the pan hole so that the hand crank aligns with the crank and glue it in that position with JB Weld. I did a similar repair on a misaligned Stevens front axle tool that worked like a charm. The original JB Weld is stronger than the quick drying stuff. Good luck and let us know how things go!

Doug, if the ratchet interference is marginal, you could enlarge its inside surface with a Dremel tool. Ratchets are easier to adjust than engine pans in-situ.

If the nose of the pan is bent...

That seems a very likely reason for misalignment of the bushing and crank. I could post several pictures of installing a better bushing, but I had no misalignment to deal with.

The old bushing was worn and it was another one of those noises on a T. obviously there were no issues with it before, only worn. Car has not run into anything since I have owned it (14 years). The engine was rebuilt 4 or 5 years ago, and the pan was perfect on the pan jig. My error in not replacing this bushing at that time.

You don't, per chance have an aftermarket aluminum pulley on this T ??

Bent pans are very common! But so are pans where the bushing is worn crooked. How much wear and how much crooked in what direction depends on what sort of use the hand crank has suffered from over the past hundred or so years. Fixing it properly depends upon first determining what is or is not bent or worn and how. Not easy to do in an assembled car, but it can be done.
Some pans, depending on vintage, production runs, repairs (bad and good?), did have bushings in the nose originally, but some years and/or production runs did not have a bushing from the factory. Some pans have had bushing replaced, some that did not originally have one have had one put in to compensate for severe wear.

Be well aware! Whether you, or someone else a half century ago, uses a big drill to cut out a badly worn busing (or no bushing hole?)? The drill will try very hard to follow the crooked wear!
A couple that I have repaired over the years, I carefully ground out or filed (NOT fun!) out the hole or bushing very carefully measuring to get the hole even, centered, and straight before drilling to install a bushing. If a pan has a bushing in a straight hole, the task is much easier. Even crooked, drill out in small increases in size (and as straight as the drill will allow) until the drilled new hole barely breaks through one side, at which point removing the bushing should be easy.

I have seen several severe cases where people drilled very crooked holes and installed bushings only to have very crooked bushings such that the crank ratchet could not engage the crankshaft. In a few cases, I was able to confirm that the problem was NOT the result of a bent pan, but totally due to a crooked hole.

The narrow nose 1915 pan in my 1915 runabout was back from when early pans were quite expensive (before a hundred people flooded the market with their private hoards). I had a genuine NOS narrow nose casting, and found a 1915 pan for cheap that some numbskull had hacksawed off the front of the original casting. I carefully removed the ruined casting, and very carefully installed, riveted and brazed like original, the NOS casting. When I installed the hand crank, it was way off and couldn't come close to engaging the crankshaft. Careful measuring discovered that the NOS piece was defective since new, mis-drilled with a crooked hole. Undaunted, I managed to heat and bend the NOS casting to line up the cranks. (There was a recent topic thread that questioned heating and bending original castings, my experience is that if care is properly taken, Ford castings often can be heated and bent)

So, how far off is it? The fix will likely depend upon the severity.

What is a claw?
Never drive out the old bushing unless the front of the pan is held in it's proper location. and use plenty of WD-40.

Original Smith wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:20 pm

What is a claw?
Never drive out the old bushing unless the front of the pan is held in it's proper location. and use plenty of WD-40.

I believe that the "claw" was a reference to the crank ratchet at the engine end of the starting crank.

Keep crankin',
Eric

How did you fit the replacement bushing?
Is it a split steel bushing like the originals?
If it is a new bronze bushing, was it machined down on the OD so it could be easily worked home?

Allan from down under.