So another installment of the Jeep work that I am somewhat chronicling on the blog. With parts in and workbench built and ready, and some help from a few awesome neighbors to hoist the wide-trac Dana 30 front axle onto the bench, it was time to start taking things apart. Throughout the disassembly, and undoubtedly even more during the reassembly, I have made extensive use of Moses Ludel's Jeep CJ Rebuilder's Manual. This book is an excellent guide for anyone wanting to do work on their Jeep, whether it is restoring original parts or upgrading to aftermarket parts. Following fairly detailed instructions in the Rebuilder's Manual and some reference to the Chilton CJ Manual, I spent the last few weeks disassembling the axle assembly so I can put it all back together again, albeit with some different parts. Now, for the three people who are actually still reading our blog and the one person of them who might be mildly interested in the Jeep work, do not fear, I don't intend to make this one of those online tutorials with step by step instructions and twenty-seven 8x10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and all that jazz. Rather, I will just highlight a few things in the process and include some pictures for reference.
Taking things apart is fun; especially for the first time so you can gain a good understanding of how it works and marvel that someone designed it to function so well (or sometimes marvel that someone designed it in a way that it functions so poorly). The first things to come off were the hub and rotor assemblies along with the brake calipers and pads. I also took off the tie rod. This left the spindle and brake backing plate on the steering knuckle. As with all work on pretty much anything, stuff doesn't go as planned. The pitman arm tie rod stuck in the passenger's side knuckle and took a lot of soaking with WD-40/3-in-1 and bent one of my pickle forks before it came off. I broke a rubber mallet on the driver side spindle before buying a dead-blow hammer (the right tool) and whacking away for about an hour to release it.
Getting off the spindles and backing plates and pulling the axle shafts brought me to the point of getting off the steering knuckles. Here is a picture of the disassembly down to the knuckles (note the snazzy orange dead-blow hammer on the bench).
If I thought that the pitman arm tie rod or the driver's side spindle were tough, removing the knuckles was an even better challenge. I had to laugh at Ludel's comments about removing the knuckles in the Rebuilder's Manual because he was obviously working with an axle that hadn't actually been used on a Jeep for the last 20+ years. He said once you loosened the castle nuts on the ball joints (and the locknut on the lower ball joint) that "a few good whacks" with the dead-blow hammer would drop the knuckles. Well let's just say I gave it more than few really good whacks and nothing happened. I got out the 10 lb. sledge hammer and gave it some more whacks. Nothing. I Googled ways to get off siezed ball joints. The answer was basically unanimous across multiple forums: "get a BFH". I'll let you decide what that means. Of course, the last time I checked, a 10 lb. sledge hammer was a pretty BFH so internet wisdom was failing me. I eventually decided I was going to be replacing the ball joints so I would just cut off the rubber dust boot and get out the pickle fork (it wouldn't fit with the dust boot in place) and see what I could do. After driving the pickle fork in as far as possible from different directions, whacking with the dead-blow hammer, the BFH, moving the knuckles, lots of penetrating oil, etc. I finally got the knuckles to drop. Whoop.
That brought the final part of the disassembly: removing the carrier and the pinion. The carrier came out no problem; I just pried a little with a long flathead screwdriver and out it came. The plethora of tools from my dad then became indespensible, as long as I remembered I had them. After a brief period of forgetting I happend to have an electric impact wrench that my dad gave me, I dug it out and put it to work removing the pinion yoke nut and then with what truly were a few good whacks from the dead-blow hammer, the pinion was free. Out came some bearing races and some axle seals and the axle housing was stripped and ready for more thorough cleaning.
With the housing stripped, I got to put together the shop press I bought from Harbor Freight for about $120 so I could get the inner pinion bearing off and recover the shims. I had inquired of some local shops about the cost of having some bearing press work done through the course of the rebuilding and the figures I got back all had more than two zeros associated with them. So, spending $120 for a 12-ton press that would do all the work I needed (I think) was deemed a worthwhile purchase. I just have to figure out where to put it once I'm done...
The press and some bearing collars worked great for removing the pinion bearing but I've run into another snag in pressing off the carrier bearings to recover those shims which will require fabricating a support structure to raise the carrier. At this point the housing has been cleaned and degreased and is ready to be painted, along with the knuckles and some other components. I'll give things a fresh coat of paint and then the precision work of rebuilding really begins. To set the gears I need to pick up a dial indicator and then decide if I can successfully make some "set-up" bearings from the old ones or if I should just invest in a set-up bearing kit.
2 comments:
I have no idea what your words said (Blah blah blah Jeep?), but I am in awe of your amazingly organized workbench. I bow down before your tool greatness. :)
Beka, I am not really sure I would consider it greatness, but I appreciate the compliment. I learned to keep an organized and clean garage from my dad.
And the "blah blah blah" is much more sensible than you might first think. They're all mechanical systems.
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