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1975 Tucker 1544 - project and trips

Mighty chilly. Supposed to get colder yet.
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At least we get a break from all the idiots crying about CO2 boiling the planet.

Mind you I think the hood turned out pretty hot!
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That brand new steering Ram from Tucker started a slow leak. So I took the ram apart.
The ram is a little different than the rest of the rams as the end where the rod moves through virtually floats a little bit between the two lock rings.
The advantage I guess is you can use either of the ports in the cylinder for the end fitting.
The bore seal is a single O ring so it doesn’t have a lip seal style.
I guess it works, so all I could do was replace the O ring. The original O ring did have suspect areas, so had to try something.
It hasn’t leaked so far, might get out this weekend.

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Finally getting some snow. Used the Tucker because it is inside and warm. Just click the remote and ready to work.
 

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Wondering if anyone has tried Bearing Buddy’s for the idler wheels?
Looks like they should work same as trailer applications, and address the same problems we have with expanding and contracting and keeping grease in the bearings. Not cheap but cheaper than doing bearing, race and seals.
They also sell a stainless slip race for the inside seal that makes sense and might stop the seal from grabbing the steel sleeve on the stub shaft.
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Part number 2441. Which happens to be the diameter. The seal is .2437” so the fit is excellent.
Going to look for thick washers 1 1/4 opening by 1 3/4” wide and that will do away with the outboard slip on race.
 
I put bearing buddies on all of my wheels. The problem i have encountered is if I put in grease until i compress the bearing buddy spring partially is that after a drive I assume with the vibration and spring pushing on the grease i have lost several bearing buddy units. At the time they did seem to fit well into the wheel as the wheels are not new. i have since when installing new ones I clean out the area they slip/ pound into and use red loctite. I have not lost any since i did this. For the ones i lost and didnt buy replacements for yet I took a piece of round aluminum stock and fabricated a end cap for the wheel. I drilled a 1/4 " hole in the center and installed a set screw I press this into the wheel where the bearing buddy would go. To grease the wheel i remove the set screw and push grease in the origional grease fitting in the middle of the wheel until grease comes out the hole i drilled in the middle of the cap i machined. I have not lost any of these and my bearings have stayed perfect I assume the reason i have not lost any is there is no spring pushing in on the grease thus trying to push off the cap and they are shorter thusdo not stick out as far which probably helps keep them in there with the vibration when driving . The machined pieces are easy and cheap for me to make compared to the bearing buddys and if I lose any more bearing buddies I will go with my home machined caps
 
Good idea. I’ll watch the buddy spring then. As soon as the spring plate moves I will stop greasing.
What did you find for washers where the nut holds the bearing in place?
 
Oops didn’t need washers. Used the same slip on rings.
Word to the wise. Only the original Buddy Bearing fit. I measured a couple knock off brands and they are not deep enough to clear the castle nut.
Also the Buddy Bearing brand has a rough grooved area that fits into the hub to grip better. The knock offs are all chrome and slippery in the fitment area.
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No snow and no snow in the forecast. Very unusual for this part of B.C.
However the Tucker is still a good toy to work on.
The windshield wipers are crap. Might be original 1975 wipers.
I am wondering what people have tried and worked or didn’t work
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for replacements?
The length is 13”.
 
One solution would be to unrivet the end of the arm and find a J hook arm to rivet in place of the straight end.
Then there are lots of wiper blade choices.
 
Found replacements at auto parts store.
It is Trico #61-130
Bolted these on. Won’t know if they are any better until we get some precipitation.
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Got tired of the fire extinguisher rolling around behind the seat. This about the best I could come up with.
Different cab configurations probably offer other solutions.
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I started with install of the Buddy Bearing caps. I thought the Buddy’s were a little expensive until I started pulling off idlers. All the new bearings I put in last year are shot.
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Thanks for the suggestion on using a flat piece of steel and a large hammer. I only wrecked one seal so far. I didn’t have the seal set correctly that time.
 
The seals seem to be okay so the water has to be going under the races the seals ride on.
Now the only race that sees air and water is the one closest to the track frame. Since that might be a problem I glued the races to the spindle with windshield urethane.
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Couple of points to consider. Bearings in use get warm. warm causes expansion of what's inside. on shutdown they start to cool off, causing contraction of what's inside. Snow packed around the hub is melting and that contraction will suck in outside atmosphere, which is laden with the moisture of the melting snow. which then condenses. Doing communication work, we used hot melt adhesive, special bonding tapes etc, and the only certain way to keep the waveguide dry was a positive pressure of dry air / nitrogen /sulfur hexafluoride. There will be no way a rotating seal on a bearing will resist the effect. The springloaded bearing buddy is a great option as it will keep a constant pressure of grease. but it will need to be watched and kept full. I run double lipped seals on my bogies, and still expel water when I regrease at the end of a run.
 
The newer races that the seal rides on come with a grove cut in them and an O ring to seal them to the shaft. If you have access to a lathe a grove can be cut in your origionals and an o ring installed to seal them up
 
I have couple of those installed somewhere. I’m resigned to pulling everything apart so we’ll see what those look like when I find ‘em.
Hopefully the Urethane glue has enough flex to seal, plus a little pressure from the Buddy bearing might get some life out of these bearings.
Still no snow so I am happy to wrench until we get snow. In our neighborhood if you want it to rain you dig a hole. I you want it too snow take your snow machine apart and order parts.
 
Were they all equally bad. We recently pulled apart my sons 1970 to redo the rear slides etc and suprisingly enough all his bearings were still good.
 
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