Rebuild front axle Part 2 (renamed) was "Cleaning" thread

Indeed! But I like this setup even better than getting such a deal for myself - HE buys it, HE gets to store it (it takes up some room! And weighs about 300 lbs) - and then when I need a brake drum turned, HE'S got it.....
 
That lathe may be old, but mine was new around 1959 and is still in daily use. That one looks to be the same as mine, a model 3000 with a rotor kit installed in the '70's, making it effectively a Model 4000. Aamco came out with this design about 1957, and the Model 4000 is still available new, to the tune of over $5K! Any part you need for that lathe is available from Aamco, the parts from the current models interchange with ones that are 60 years old.
 
It's a neat machine. Really well built. We've got the rear belt cover too, but it has some wear on it's pivot shaft and so the lower pulley hits when it's running. We'll figure out a fix for that too eventually.
 
You should invest in a rubber belt to wrap around the brake drum while it is cutting to dampen the vibration and you will get a smoother surface for the brake shoes.



Dave
 
We got those two front drums turned finally last evening. They are certainly not "like new" but I think we can put them on and get some use out of them. There is definitely some pitting, and in fact pitting is a bit worse on the portion of the surface that doesn't show in the photo, but again - they're going on.

I had sandblasted and cleaned up the backing plates, and ordered all the brake bits from Walcks a couple days ago. Today, hope to squirt some paint on the backing plates and start assembling them.

I also had one stud broken off on the Left Handed side, and we used a de-swaging tool and cut around that and got it out. You can see the replacement stud sticking up a bit in the closest drum. I'll pull that into place today, too.


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I spoke too soon. This ain't over yet....

Yesterday, I started to install the backing plates, they're all pretty now. But when I started to actually torque down the 6 bolts that holds on the drivers side, I was "not-so-delighted" to discover that I couldn't torque a couple of them - they wanted to spin when I started getting fairly tight. Popped off the spindle, and sure enough, some of the threads in the knuckle are in pretty crummy shape. I had cleaned everything of course, and ran a thread-chaser through everything. But this was the first time I had tried applying real torque.

I thought about it all for a while.....

So, off with the knuckles one more time - I'm going to have to remove the grease seals, the tie rods, the pivot bearings, etc and pull that knuckle back off, and helicoil repair those holes that won't hold a bolt tight. And I'll check the other side too, of course.

This is called going backwards. Again. Sigh..... then I can reassemble everything.

Does anyone have a spec for how tight to torque these bolts? I was figuring 40-45 ft-lbs.

I did buy a set of 12 new bolts, Grade 5 (because I couldn't find Grade 8 anywhere). Grade 5 seems like plenty though, has to be tougher than the originals I would think.

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Hahahaha, great answer! We'll get 'er done, eventually. I keep telling myself - "this is just another chance to extend the journey, instead of hurrying to the destination." (It even almost works!)

Any opinion on a torque spec on those bolts?
 
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Ok, maybe that's part of why they strip! They are 3/8-24 (fine). But I was nowhere near that amount of torque yet when they spun. Hadn't even compressed the split washer.
 
I would drill the holes to accept the T head studs used starting in the '60's. Those bolts strip easy, being fine thread they don't have a lot of thread root depth in cast iron. The OE's switched to studs for strength.
 
Sprint 6 said:
I would drill the holes to accept the T head studs used starting in the '60's. Those bolts strip easy, being fine thread they don't have a lot of thread root depth in cast iron. The OE's switched to studs for strength.
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Don,
Just went through this same issue and I’d advise that you don’t waste your time or money on the Helicoil inserts. The knuckle housing castings are just too hard to thread w/ the Tap that comes from Helicoil. I’m going to install studs, at least in the holes that have damaged threads, if not all 6.
But I hope that someone that has done this can come up w/ the “Dorman” P/N for the appropriate stud. I realize that they may be available from your friendly local Jeep dealer, but I would think that Dorman makes and distributes same and then they would be available from NAPA or other local parts houses.
Mark L
 
Vintage Don said:
I also had one stud broken off on the Left Handed side, and we used a de-swaging tool and cut around that and got it out. You can see the replacement stud sticking up a bit in the closest drum. I'll pull that into place today, too.


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Don, when I rebuilt the brakes on my Willys and went to the "big" brakes off a Wagoneer, I also replaced all the studs in all 4 drums with new ones. I thought of it as cheep insurance after all it was 35 years old when I got it and who knows how many times they had been over torqued in those years.

I was tired of people breaking or stripping the threads on the left hand thread studs so every time I got a new Willys I changed all the studs as soon as I got it home. It also cuts down on the number of parts you need.
 
Gents, I've had good success with getting the Helicoil repairs done (I used Stanley brand, no problem getting the tap to go through the knuckle holes), and all the bolts are taking full torque now. Got the time today to do those repairs, and then of course had to clean everything back up real good from drilling and tapping chips - and it's all back together. All assembled and torqued down. Thread sealer on the (new) bolts through the backing plates and hubs and into the repaired knuckle housings. All readjusted and ready to go.

I mocked things up the rest of the way out to the hubs, a first to get it that far. All that is lacking now is to assemble the brakes - shoes and springs - and install the new wheel bearings and set them up. And the grease seals. That'll be tomorrow's effort.

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And suddenly - I'm done with the front axle.... and it's been quite a journey, for sure!

The new brakes are roughly adjusted, until it's all installed back in the truck and hydraulics are available to finalize that. I installed the new wheel bearings, and set them up this morning. Torqued on the outer drive hubs, and put on the caps. It's built, all the way.

The only thing further I could do is add the gear oil, and I'm debating if I should do that now, or let it sit dry (and not leaking!) until I actually put it in the truck. Anyone have an opinion on that?

I'm gonna do the floorboard replacement work and a new wiring harness while the axle and engine and tranny etc are all out of the way, before I re-install the big components.

Had a bit of a bummer here this evening - it seems I've used up my entire quota of "media storage" and can't upload any more photos! I always use a lot of photos (as you have obviously seen, haha). So I guess no more photos from old Vintage Don....
 
So I guess no more photos from old Vintage Don....
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Gosh Don,
That would be terrible!

I think it has to do with the method you are using to post your pictures.

You are uploading the images to your individual member oldwillysforum on line media storage cache, and then -- when posting your images -- you are linking to the URLs within that cache where the images are stored on this site.


Give this a try:

Click on the "Insert image (Ctrl+P)" icon in the top toolbar.

When the little window pops up, you'll see two icons in that window's top toolbar. The one on the left will look like an arrow with an underline, the one on the right will look like a chain link. (I'll bet you are using the chain link.)


Click on the arrow with the underline.

In the field that says "Drop image (or click here)", left click.

This should bring up a Windows "Explore" window that will allow you to locate images that you have stored on your computer.

Find the image you want where you have it stored on your computer, double left click on it, and BANG ZOOM: Bob's your uncle.
 
OH!!!

Let me give this a try, then....

I'll pick up with what I was going to post last night, and try this method of posting the photos.

AFTER-THE-FACT EDIT: Joe B, you have SAVED me!!! Thank you! And this way of posting photos is easier than what I've been doing all along! And I loved seeing that "Bob's your uncle" line. Haven't heard that for ages. Awesome. I'm back in business!!

After I got the axle finalized, I was reviewing and making sure I was truly done. And it occurred to me that I had seen something in the Manual about a Special Tool (always love it when you need a "Special Tool") to be used when taking off the hub caps.

I do remember struggling to get off the one I still had during disassembly - the other side was a soup can. It took me about 20 minutes as I recall, and there was a railroad spike involved.... So it seemed like a good idea to work out how I would get them off the next time I needed to.

Of course, on an old Willys truck, when they say hub cap - they ain't talking about no pretty fancy-shmancy, frilly chrome wheel cover - nope, they're talking about a CAP for a HUB - something that the occasional boulder impact won't accidentally knock off. OK.

So you can't use a regular puller, because you'd be pushing against what you want to come off. So my thought was that I needed to kinda turn my puller "inside-out," and attach it to a slide hammer. I had a slide hammer laying here from a recent garage sale, got it for a dollar. My problem was that it had a 3/8" course shaft, and my old puller has a 3/8 fine shaft. So I had to invent a union of some kind, like a turnbuckle - and it had to have enough room inside for the long leader on the old puller to not be in the way.

So here's what I came up with. My Rube Goldberg re-invented wheel...

And it worked! Two quick slides of the hammer, and the hub was off and back in my hand.

hub cap puller.jpeg


Here's a close-up of my custom-made union - two different sized nuts, and some scrap bits (beautifully) welded. Haha.

hub puller union.jpeg
 
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