Sunday, September 20, 2015

Improvise and Overcome - An Interesting Story






They drove almost 600 miles on a rod bearing made out of leather.   I don't know if it would work on a more modern engine but I did read that during WW2 a U-Boat had bearing trouble in the middle of the Atlantic and they used the tin foil wrappers from the crew's cigarette packages to make emergency repairs to get home.   

From  The Old Motor.

Sometimes its amazing what you can do when you have no other choices. 
 

2 comments:

bill goode said...

as a kid playing with model a fords.i know of a lot that had harness leather for bearings when the babit bearings became worn. hill billy boys make do.bil

Lantry said...

I once made a bearing for a soft serve ice cream machine by wrapping Saran Wrap around the place where a nylon bushing was supposed to go. My Grandfather knew how to rebabbit bearings. I have a couple of chunks of babbit that he gave me 40 years ago but I had never heard of using leather. I hope I never need to see if you can do that in an engine with insert bearings!