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It's a static (electricity) dissipator. The tire/hub/brake drum are isolated from the spindle and the rest of the car by the grease in the wheel bearings. This is just a spring loaded contact that provides a positive electrical path from the hub to the spindle to ensure there is no chance of any electrical noise in the radio. Either radios got better or GM decided that this wasn't really necessary, because by the 1970s they were no longer used.
Thanks for that cool info Joe,
When it popped out…I felt like I accidentally opened the back of an old clock.
I’ll put it back in, just because I think it’s cool. I hope when I open the passenger side it has one also.
would they have been installed in rears also?
That's interesting. I wonder if there's an aftermarket part marketed for that purpose. It could come in handy for grounding and bonding on a vehicle with an aftermarket (ham/CB) radio or even running EFI. 🤔
I'm curious if they actually afforded any benefit whatsoever. You can purchase reproductions from the various sources (Fusick, etc.) & find originals online. Pretty sure they were only on the front. They're listed in the Delco parts book of that era. Lots of these design engineers were watching a lot of Flash Gordon back in the day. Of course, just the notion of a transistorized radio in a moving vehicle was novel enough to warrant "something". Probably designed by a MIT graduate working on the Van De Graff generator at Round Hill.
Interestingly, I found a small bit regarding rear static collectors in an old Delco booklet:
Under running board antennas are more subject to
wheel static than cowl antennas as they will pick
up noise from both the front and rear wheels. For
these installations, be sure to check the rear
wheel static collector installation if the front
wheel collectors are properly installed but do not
eliminate the noise.
Now you all know why your crappy am radios sound so bad.
I’m looking at my car now and just realized rears don’t have dust covers. So that answers that question.
i remember my old ****** Jeep had reverse tightening lug nuts on driver side because they thought it would keep them tight like old single lug wheels. Someone I knew that knew everything about ****** jeeps said they finality realized it didn’t really matter so they switched to all righty tightly lugs.
i don’t blame those old designers for anything….it would have been so cool to be designing cars back in 50’s and 60’s…so much progression.
Joe, I’d drop it to see if it spins but I’m afraid if it spins it will suck me into a time warp back to the 60’s.
My dad bought a new cutlass in 1978 and it had a recall for front wheel bearings pitting from static electricity. I think it was some sort of ground between body and chassis. Wonder who figured that out.
Static Collectors! They are called static collectors. They were indeed used for reducing radio noise in old cars. When cars were using ball bearings in the front wheels, before going to tapered roller bearings, there was significantly less solid electrical contact between the tire/wheel/brake drum and the ground of the car and the radio grounded to it. Add some grease into the axle (a good insulator) and you ended up with a a static charge building up, from the car traveling down the road, between the wheel and the rest of the car. That static charge would release (arc) to the car chassis ground. This would happen probably many times a second and would result in popping/crackling/noise on the radio as the "ground" side of the car got a surge of electrical potential. They did not use these on the rear wheels since they have a more solid connection to chassis ground.
Hence the static collector solution. I'm currently working on bringing an 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88 back up to original working condition (or the closest I can get). The car was in great condition when I got it (it was my wife's grandfathers car...I'm the third owner) so it's basically just minor restoration and servicing of things. I just pulled the AM Radio out (it's the standard Delco unit, not the fancier signal seeking unit) and have sent it off to a restoration shop in Canada to get it back to, new, working, condition (I DON'T want to do a "conversion"...I love the sound of an old tube radio warming up :-)
I've just put new static collectors in the dust caps. It's important to make sure your cotter pins are bent in such a way that they won't interfere with the collectors, as the "button" rides on the center of the axle shaft. You can find these on line. I bought a pair that were spec'ed for a 56 Cadillac, but they're the same size as for the 54 Oldsmobile. Anyway, here are some shots of the static collectors, old and new:
Old static collector and dust cap Cotter pin out of the way
Last edited by justacog; January 26th, 2024 at 01:39 PM.
I immediately knew what they were but only because I had seen them on here before. Oldsmobile up into the 50's and maybe longer had left handed threaded lug bolts on the drivers side. I don't know what year they quit using them.
According to the package that I ordered, Cadillac was using them up to at least 1962. If the dust cap size changed in 1963 they could have kept using them, but they would only be necessary up to the year tapered roller bearings were used. Those bearings had more than enough metal to metal contact to negate the need for this things
Is there a correlation of the use of these static collectors and the use of dust caps having the outward center dimple? I'll speculate the dimple was added to provide clearance for the center contact if it happens to get positioned outward. I have some NOS static collectors and dimple caps, I'll have to check how they may fit together.
For these mid-fifties oldsmobiles/cadillacs/buicks, the dustcaps don't have dimples, they're simply deep enough to provide the clearance needed, but you do bring up a good point to check for proper clearance particularly if a car doesn't have original style dustcaps.
Is there a correlation of the use of these static collectors and the use of dust caps having the outward center dimple? I'll speculate the dimple was added to provide clearance for the center contact if it happens to get positioned outward. I have some NOS static collectors and dimple caps, I'll have to check how they may fit together.
No. First, due to the barbs on the outside of the static collector, you can't install it backwards in the dust cap. Second, the flimsy static collector isn't going to cause any problem for the dust cap that's probably 5x the thickness and made of steel.
No. First, due to the barbs on the outside of the static collector, you can't install it backwards in the dust cap. Second, the flimsy static collector isn't going to cause any problem for the dust cap that's probably 5x the thickness and made of steel.
I think by "position outward" he didn't mean installing them backwards, but rather the button being pushed back a bit further that the surface plane of the springy looking thing if you flattened the thing out on a table.
Yes Justacog, that is what I was attempting to state. By outward I meant outward from the spindle and the vehicle. I don't recall what the backside of the static collectors look like, I don't remember if there is any protrusion at the collector that faces the inner surface of the cap.
At the risk of derailing this discussion, why did some dust caps have a center dimple? I don't imagine it was incorporated for cosmetics. Further, what years and models used the dimple caps? From casual research I haven't figured that out.
The new collectors seem to be made out of tin or aluminum. The old ones look like copper. Those old ones just seem to have decomposed. One was missing entirely and the other one was missing half of the spiral spring base. There was nothing left to recycle/reuse. They cost about $35/per collector. The Cadillac site had the best price and the part number matched what I had found for my 1954 Olds, even though the Cadillac site listed the package as for 1956-19XX Cadillacs
Last edited by justacog; January 28th, 2024 at 04:44 PM.
Will do. The radio was just sent off to a shop for cleaning/restoration this last week. It was working OK but the tuning **** would only move the dial in one direction (had to punch a button to move back to the other end of the dial). Oxidation on potentiometers cleaned off. Capacitors are being replaced. Tubes are being checked for spec. Vibrator being checked. etc, etc. etc. That will eliminate any radio internal issues with noise.
There are articles about this phenomenon that measure 100K volts of static discharge (sounds like a lot but it's extremely low current...but will get your attention) such as at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...-3443/4/S2/333 (they want $50 for a copy of the article from 1953 when this topic was more relevant...which I'm not that obsessed with the science to pay for). But you can imagine adding that jolt to the ground side of your car. Modern radios and all the other modern car electronics have incorporated noise supressors internally (think capacitors) that eliminate this issue, but these old cars, well, it's a problem. I am curious about folks that have done "conversions" to their 1950's radios (bluetooth, FM, streaming capability), rather than restorations (original internal design). They might not have to address this issue anymore if the new internal electronics have the needed noise filters.
I'm an electrical engineer by education and worked in a radio/tv repair shop back in the 70's as a teenager trying to fix these issues in cars. I love this stuff 😎.
Last edited by justacog; January 28th, 2024 at 05:14 PM.
Interesting on the collector disintegration. To me they look to have been originally fabricated from brass which galvanically is not a great match to the cast iron hub. Although I would have thought the corrosion to be on the iron. Maybe I got that backwards?
I'm an electrical engineer by education and worked in a radio/tv repair shop back in the 70's as a teenager trying to fix these issues in cars. I love this stuff 😎.
Very cool.
If you have the inclination, you could find an AC Delco or Sam's Photofact manual for the radio in your Oldsmobile.
I still haven't sourced one of these for my 71 Oldsmobile, but I haven't been actively searching. I teach technicians how to do pre-selector and duplexer tuning on Motorola radios for the FAA (planes not cows).
I don't think galvanic action is a real problem with these things, regardless of whatever the metallurgic difference is in materials. There is the the interface between the dust cap and the collector and the interface between the collector button and the tip of the axle. That second interface is definitely not a problem since its spinning against the axle all the time. I suppose there could be something that could happen between the collector and the dust cap, but there is just too much vibration going on the from the suspension movement for any metal conversion to take place.
OLDS64, thanks for the suggestion. I looked for a radio repair manual for this model and couldn't find one, but I did find a SAMS Photofact Folder. It's got everything I would need in the future if I feel like sticking my fingers into that thing. The shop in Canada (RetroRadioShop) I sent it off to went through the entire thing and so far has been fantastic in communicating back with everything they found/replaced/adjusted. I should have it back by the end of next week. Once reinstalled, I might try it out, with and without, the static collectors just for fun. If I do, I'll report back with any differences in AM radio performance
Interesting on the collector disintegration. To me they look to have been originally fabricated from brass which galvanically is not a great match to the cast iron hub. Although I would have thought the corrosion to be on the iron. Maybe I got that backwards?
Yes, galvanic corrosion could happen if water got in the hubs, water would give a conduction path for the electron transfer. Dissimilar metals can contact each other without drama if they remain dry.
My '68 has these in the dust caps. The primary benefit is for the AM radio since they are way more susceptible to noise from electrical discharges (static, lightning). FM radios and most modern electronics are way less susceptible to noise from electrical discharges due to the spark (very high slew-rate currents) producing a very broad-band noise that waltzes right on through the AM (AMPLITUDE modulated) radio receiver's RF stages, regardless of what frequency it is tuned to, into the audio stages and out the speakers. Not sure if there is any correlation, but by the '70s use of the FM bands grew quickly taking audiences away from AM stations, which might explain why these were eventually eliminated (cost savings + fewer noise complaints). Also, more prominent use of steel-belted tires may result in less static build-up. That or maybe the rubber compounds have more conductivity that reduces static build-up.
Also, these do absolutely nothing to reduce noise from the ignition system.
December 3rd, 2023, 06:11 PM
