Rod brakes rear axle

[Tony R]

I wonder if someone can help me please. I have a 1938 rear axle with rod brakes and want to fit it to a 1937 Ruby chassis that had cable brakes and a full width cross shaft. What do I need to do to achieve this? There seems to be next to no info on the rod brake system in the Woodrow book.

Thanks!

[Ian Williams]

The rod system uses a half width cross shaft and a rod pivot on the rear crossmember, you will need to alter the cross shaft brackets too. I guess with some ingenuity one could cut up and alter the semi grilling cross shaft but that is probably as much work as fitting the correct parts...... that is if you can find them! I can post pictures if you really want to go down the route of fitting the later axle, but without the parts to hand is it really worth the trouble?

[Tony R]

I also need to replace the seals in the rear hubs of this axle. Are they available?

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Hi Ian,

The '38 axle seems to be in great shape, apart from the seals. Unlike the one presently on the car. I suppose I could convert it to cable brakes as a last resort? I have acquired a full set of semi girling brakes that I could use.

I'll put an ad on the forum for the short cross shaft parts and see what crops up.

[James Anderson]

There was quite a lot written about rod brake set ups on the old forum but I encountered problems accessing it through this new one. Got the first page of the search 'rod brakes' then it stuck and I wasn't able to access further pages. Fortunately my Microsoft computer has the old forum on favourites and I can still accesses it directly and scrolling/searching isn't a problem. If you're stuck I can try and photograph the bottom of my 1938 Tourer but I've got a lot on over the next 10 days so any help of this nature will have to wait until then if you're still desperate for information.

[Ian Williams]

If it still has the long taper half shafts in it then they are a good thing, worth using for that even with semi girlings fitted, and in all honesty properly adjusted the semi grilling system works well. 

Here are the pictures, note the bracket on the rear crossmember is bent, and the cross shaft is not in its correct orientation in one picture as I was dismantling at the time

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[Tony R]

Thanks Ian and James.

[James Anderson]

I cannot improve on those photos, especially as mine would've been from below with the body on !

[totalshell]

oh I cannot tell you how grateful I am for those photos mine has been in bits for a year whilst each part has been re-furbed.. and I clean forgot what went where!