Diary of a Restore (Thread)

Update:

I am over half way thru the rebuild of the clutch and trans of the Harley.  The thing about tearing something down like this is, well while I am here, I might as well…..[fill in blank].  

So, I am going to replace the original oil lines, etc., while everything out of the way.  But, the trans gears are coming off this week, to replace the main shaft which got cooked, and caused all my Harley issues with the clutch.

Anyway, I am antsy to get back to the Ford.  I am still concerned about pulling the front shafts to replace the u joints, but it has to be done.  I have ALL the parts I know I need.  The Harley issue really caused a chink in my timeline.

At any rate, found one of these for CHEAP and got it just in case.  I see new brakes in my future and an not sure mine is work exactly right as the back brakes still lock up intermittently—which could be a number of issues I understand.  But, I could not pass up the price for this.

Cheers Everyone.

Good luck on the Harley.  Sounds like a lot of work.  

And if you got one of those for cheap you did well.  I doubt that is the problem with locking up, but it sure won't hurt.

Hey all,

Just an update.  

I am putting the Harley back together.  I had to change the clutch hub AND the main shaft of the trans.  I had to dissemble all the gears and then reinstall them (on both shafts! Harley has a small counter shaft which I could save).

Checking the shifting, pressing on races bearings and seals.  I essentially replaced ALL the bearings in the tranny.  The only thing I did not change in the trans was the gears and shifter forks/drum.  Essentially, I did an overhaul.

IF everything goes well, and I did not mess anything up, Should be back onto the Ford in 2 weeks.

This weekend, the Harley was finished, and I took it out for a short and gentle spin, shifting through all the gears, but staying close to home, you know, just in case I messed something up.

So, all seems well, and I cleaned up preparing for my Ford project, which I likely will not start until this coming friday.

To remind:  I am tackling the front shafts, pulling them, and replacing the u joints.  D-side shaft joint is completely shot and rattles—needles likely all fallen out.

I have new bearings, seals, etc, in a large box that has been sitting idle for months now—took me 2 months to fix the Harley.  Glad to be back at the Ford again.  


If anyone has ideas on how to pull the shaft, let me know.  I hear it can be a real pain.  

Yippee!  One problem down, more to go!

Glad the Harley is working and you can now move on to the Ford.  And if I haven't told you how I pulled the left shaft out of Dad's front end, it was by loading the diff on a set of casters, tying the axle to the leg of the lift with a chain, and taking the slack out of the chain rapidly.  It took several goes, but it finally popped loose.  Basically a slide hammer, but using the weight of the diff as the hammer and wheels as he slide.

Gary Lewis wrote

Yippee!  One problem down, more to go!

Glad the Harley is working and you can now move on to the Ford.  And if I haven't told you how I pulled the left shaft out of Dad's front end, it was by loading the diff on a set of casters, tying the axle to the leg of the lift with a chain, and taking the slack out of the chain rapidly.  It took several goes, but it finally popped loose.  Basically a slide hammer, but using the weight of the diff as the hammer and wheels as he slide.

That would mean, of course, dropping the pumpkin.  Yes?  

I am hoping to avoid that, but this needs be done because 4 wheel is not functional as it sits now.

I need to refamiliarize myself with the SM on this issue to see how all this is held in.  

Cheers Gary.

I have the drivers side of my Dana 50 apart right now as well.  My axel shaft pulled right out with no issues.  No need to pull the pumpkin.  However, pulling the slip joint apart on the passenger side was another story.  The grease was like glue.  It took a few minutes of moving it pack and forth sharply to get it to come apart.

Oddly enough, my u-joint on the drivers side was shot as well.  I am replacing the axel pivot bushing, u-joint, upper and lower ball joints, all seals, and the small bushing in the front shackle.  Oh, and a new spring.

The next thing I will tackle is the axel shaft seal on the drivers side of the pumpkin.  I am going to attempt to do it without removing the pumpkin.  Should get to it this week.  I plan to use a slide hammer and a hook to remove the seal.  To install the new seal I am planning on using a seal driver with a 2 foot piece of pipe over the handle so I can pound it in.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Atlas75 wrote

I have the drivers side of my Dana 50 apart right now as well.  My axel shaft pulled right out with no issues.  No need to pull the pumpkin.  However, pulling the slip joint apart on the passenger side was another story.  The grease was like glue.  It took a few minutes of moving it pack and forth sharply to get it to come apart.

Oddly enough, my u-joint on the drivers side was shot as well.  I am replacing the axel pivot bushing, u-joint, upper and lower ball joints, all seals, and the small bushing in the front shackle.  Oh, and a new spring.

The next thing I will tackle is the axel shaft seal on the drivers side of the pumpkin.  I am going to attempt to do it without removing the pumpkin.  Should get to it this week.  I plan to use a slide hammer and a hook to remove the seal.  To install the new seal I am planning on using a seal driver with a 2 foot piece of pipe over the handle so I can pound it in.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Hey there Atlas!  

I HOPE mine comes out like that!

It is funny, before my bike took a dive, I was thinking about that seal, which is deep in there on the axle arm assembly.  I was thinking about fabbing up something like you mention—long pipe or some such.

I may be digging into those ball joints too, and the camber adjuster.  I have not ordered those parts yet because I was unsure if I was going to tackle it and I am unsure of the condition.  But, while I am there….

Plz share pics if you have them—do you have a thread on this?

Hot on it as of Yesterday.  Took parts inventory.  I discovered I need a few more seals, and one needle bearing—spindle bearing I think they call it, E0TZ-3123-a,

Because of Atlas, I decided, well, since I am here….I am going to order ball joints.  That may also force me to deal with the camber adjuster, which may need be changed since I know my alignment is out—and by that I mean the camber.  The tire look more than a little leaning top out, bottom farther in.  tread wear show that too.

This is what I did with the Harley too—well since I am here I might as well do X.  So, I am going to do the same thing.

The ball joint choice is giving me a bit of grief—there’s a lot of them, and some have a weight rec—I assume mine will be the 4600lbs variety.  Part numbers are E0TZ 3049-b and 3050-c

What did you use Atlas?

I made a post tonight on the replacement of the drivers side axel shaft seal.  Hopefully it helps you.  It went pretty smoothly for me.

https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/1980-F350-4X4-C6-Project-tp88381p134559.html

Made quick work of it today, then got halted fast.

Everything came off rather easy today.  I picked up some channel this morning for the Bob method of pulling the spindle, but after a couple whacks with the dead blow, it moved.  So I kept tapping around it until it gave way.  

Spindle looks ok, except for some discoloring—it got hot at some point?  At any rate, if anyone sees something out of the ordinary, let me know, but It is smooth in all the places it needs be.

The hub came off relatively easy.  The bearings were packed with….blue grease?  All pics follow.

The shaft?  Pulled out like butter.  No issues.

What is my issue:  the knuckle.

I got the nuts off with an impact, but the camber is rusted to the top ball joint—I tried pulling the sleeve, and it broke the neck on the sleeve—see below.  So I would say that the camber sleeve is stuck in there.  And the SM says this should be removed before removing the ball joint.  So I am in ugh’ville at the moment.  

Tomorrow, Parts arrive.  But I will be changing out the spindle nuts, which have seen WAY BETTER days.  Also need order new camber sleeve.  TorqueKing says that 1.50 degree is the factory standard.  But will get the shaft and hub done and begin to prep that and dust shield for new paint.

OK, to the pics:

The knuckle will come off before removing the camber/castor bushing.  Because you are replacing your ball joints, I would get 2 pickle forks and put one on each ball joint and hit them until the knuckle drops.  Keep the top nut on so it doesn't hit the ground.  After that you can use a punch and hit the camber/castor bushing up from the bottom.  That is how I did it.

Hey Atlas,

On it.  Will try that.  There really is no other option—this means I will need to head to a store and get some—the ONE I have is going to be too narrow.  


Cheers!

With special thanks to Atlas/Carl, I got the knuckle out first thing this morning.  It was not easy.  Using the pickle top and bottom and alternating aggressive hits helped.  I kept the king nut on, because when it broke free it did so violently you might say.

Ball joints are next to be pressed out.

Looking into the shaft, I believe my truck was former home to many bee colonies.  Cleaned this all up, which took a while—grease and dirt might as well be cement.  Wire brushed it, and then rust reformed the entire inner.  Then, pulled the seal from pumpkin with slide hammer and a hook.  Looks like the seal lost the spring long ago.  It needed to be changed.

The camber/caster was set all the way negative (I think that’s right), which partly explains my tread-wear more on the outside of the tire, and why the wheel pointed top out/bottom more in.  I had to use the pickle fork carefully again to get it to break free.  It is so old, I have no markings that can be seen.  

This leads me to believe that (I think it was Gary) who suggested one of those Moog K80108s in another thread, otherwise one needs ot have specific sleeves in because the original like the one you see that came out of my truck, is either + or - 180 degrees from the number on the sleeve.  The new many eared sleeve allows several incremental changes.  I am not sure I fully get it because it would also change the caster as it changes the camber (confusing!).

Finally, got the u joint out of the shaft.  And…had to cut the joint to get it out.  Why?  Because every single time I pressed the cap on one end, the cap on the receiving end, split in half.  Yes, EVERY ONE.  So, I could not remove one cap to remove the joint.  Thus, had to cut the cap and sort of pry is out from the knuckle to get the joint out of the slot in the shaft.  Time consuming because I had to be very careful not to nick the drive.

Also, only two of the ujoint caps had any needle bearings remaining.  The other two were gone completely.

Got the dust shield also cleaned, wired, rust neutralized, primer, and shot black paint.

Have to reorder top ball joint as the one that came today was missing everything but the ball joint itself.  ugh.

Pics:  

Progress!  

Yes, that stuff looks gross!  Glad you are getting it apart and cleaned up.

Those u-joints must have been really, REALLY BAD!  Glad you are getting them replaced.

And yes, I recommended those Moog adjusters.  The alignment shop was able to dial Big Blue right in with them.  

Today, got the pumpkin seal in (I added a little thin ultra black to the lip of the seal), and cleaned up all the parts—knuckle, shafts, spindle.  Wired them all, and shot rust reformer, then a high temp flat (see pics).  I will be taking some sand paper to the bores before install to make sure they are all cleaned out.  Also I used a pick on all the snap ring guides to clean everything out.

The ball joints came off rather easy with the impact and the ball joint tool.  They were really rusted in there, so after the first pop, they moved.  

I am a little concerned about the spindle—the inner needle bearing was put in bearing letter facing in, not pressed in on the letters.  I am looking at the SM, and see nothing on this, but everything I have been told, always press ON THE LETTERING. I had to use to drift to get the bugger out, and letter faced in which means they pressed in on the non lettering side.

Also, the threads on the spindle are a little, messed up.  I have new nuts coming—original style—but the threads, someone (from FLORIDA?!)  must have messed them up a bit—the beginning is tough to thread, and then tight for a while while screwing it on.

Last:  the spindle has the beginnings of seal markings like with the rear I went through with the messed up rear axle.  I do not think it is as bad to require speedi sleeving, and it appears not to leak, but….thoughts?

oh, the last pick is my inner seal installer fabbed from my versatile bearing race jack screw install kit and pvc.  And the seal—the axle housing all shot with rust treat and a flat black

Tomorrow: bearings and seals in the hub.  Last ball joint is here tomorrow as is MOOG camber/caster sleeve.  Service manual highlights I noted in another thread should also be here.

Onward!


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Not sure on the spindle seal surface but the spindle nuts are a lock nut.  That is why they are tight.

I think I'd put a speedi sleeve on that spindle.  I would be afraid the seal would leak.  They are cheap and ensure there's no leak.

Hey Gary,

I ordered one this morning.  Gonna put me back a few days, but my gut to me to do it too.

And on the locknut—the rear was NOT tight at all.  Went on smooth like you’d expect a nut to go on.  So this is different?  

I think it is wise to put a speedi sleeve on.  At least you'll have peace of mind.

Are the nuts deformed?  Meaning kind of flattened a bit?  If so they are "prevailing torque" and don't go on easily.