Re: [HSS] Midnight Drive in a 1926 Hudson

Unknown
Unknown
in Hudson 1916 - 1929







M A R V E  L L O U S .......story 
!

Keep it going.....!

 

and as the soldiers told in the Second World
War............

"Keep them rolling
"......................

----- Original Message -----



Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:10
PM

Subject: [HSS] Midnight Drive in a 1926
Hudson


Ten years or so after I bought my '26 Coupe, I am
finally able to drive it with a reasonably high degree of confidence that I
will be a motorist for the entire time and not converted unwillingly into a
pedestrian. Monday night after work, I drove the Hudson to a meeting of the
Fullerton Theatre League with the intention of having a pleasure drive
afterward.

Geoff Clark has recently been working on the car and made a
number of vital improvements. First, he installed new kingpins & bushes
and adjusted the steering box. Now the steering is tight & smooth, tighter
than any vintage car I have ever driven. The steering is very heavy, but no
worse that the big ole trucks I drove over the road in the 70s. I'll take that
tradeoff any day of the week.

Geoff also relined the brakes with the
proper soft woven lining. These large external contracting rear axle only
brakes are transformed. Where before they were weak, grabby & faded
rapidly, they are now smooth, progressive and powerful. I haven't had an
emergency stop yet, but I'm pleased so far.

Another area Geoff worked
his magic on was the motor. The motor never ran well even though it had been
recently completely overhauled. After some poking around, Wizard Clark noticed
the wrong points installed causing a weak spark by having very little dwell.
That fixed, the motor seems much happier and has much more pep.

On my
drive, I sought out the steepest hills in town and climbed them all easily in
top gear. The car even accelerated while climbing! Very nice.

On a
negative note, the car has very short legs. While Geoff was here, we checked
the ratio and found it to be the same as my '29 Town Sedan, a car happy at 50
mph. The Coupe is happy at 30, busy at 32 and screaming at 35 and this with 21
inch wheels vs. the 19s the '29 has. Geoff pointed out that the racket that
disturbs my mechanical sensibilities is mostly fan noise. The fan is set at
twice crankshaft speed! Aside from simple noise, I have real fear that one or
more of the blades will part company with the hub taking out the hood,
radiator, hoses or other items in their way.

With a comfortable
cruising speed of no more than 32 mph, this car will not even stay with a
Model T tour that proceeds at 35 to 40 mph. Something must be done! Geoff
suggested converting the hub to a V belt setup from an early '27 with an even
more modern '54 Hudson fan. Well & good, this setup keeps it all Hudson.
Still, it would look wrong and the flat belt of the early Super Sixes is a big
part of the appearance.

As I understand it, all Hudson fans from 1916
through 1954 are interchangeable. If this is so, perhaps someone knows of a
modern aluminum flex fan that will fit the original Hudson hub and withstand
the revs of up to 6000 that are theoretically possible with the fan spinning
at twice the speed of the crank? If a flex fan were painted an unobtrusive
chassis black it might almost hide in plain view while the eye is entertained
by rest of the engine. Does anyone know of a modern flex fan that fits
Hudsons?

In spite of the rather stately pace the '26 was comfortable
with, I sure had a great time. Just pottering around, with the cool night air
a relief from the heat wave daytime conditions was relaxing and informative.
It helps with historical perspective to drive a car like this 1926 Hudson, one
that compares better to walking or riding a horse than to a modern car. When
these cars were built, most roads were dirt or mud outside of town and 30 mph
was considered a pretty good clip. The old Hudson is quite happy to potter
around just above the pace of a brisk walk in top gear.

The old 6 volt
lights were surprisingly good, better even than my 1983 pickup truck, and
didn't flicker or fade at all. The reflectors in the headlights were
resilvered several years ago making them more like they would have been when
new.

The ride is very bouncy as this car has pretty stiff springs and
no shock absorbers of any kind, but given that folks were used to horseback or
buggies was probably considered pretty plush in it's day.

I should have
the '29 Hudson back in a few days and lock forward to another midnight romp in
the more modern car for a comparison. My thanks to Geoff & Lew Phelps for
their parts in getting the '26 up and useable.



Paul
O'Neil
SoCal
1926 Hudson Anderson Coupe
1929 Hudson Town
Sedan
1939 Cadillac Coupe (How'd that get in
here?)

www.cichet.us
www.aeromark.net


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