U Joints?

[Albino 94LTD]

Wow! You are far more ambitious than me. Ive been delaying replacing rock lights.

 

[massacre]

Thanks, but I prob should have been done already but kept finding more stuff until I just said f it replace everything.
Deal is I was working too much to keep up with the maintenance of it. So if I had kept up with it I wouldn’t be in this situation lmao
Truck has ~93k on it I bought it with ~75k so although it was low mileage, not much had been replaced.

Just replaced front swaybar endlinks and bushings. Finally got spring on axle, man that sucked more than I thought it would. Would like to get the rotors on today we’ll see

 

[massacre]

So wondering what you guys think - does this look correct? Seems like my spring doesn’t come out as far as some I have seen pics of. Do I need to move the collar over? This is a bone stock truck BTW so it needs to be able to stay put with the stock suspension travel but that’s it.

Thanks for any feedback!
Waiting for a boot to arrive early next week before I can install pass axle.
Going to HW store to try and match up ABS bolts. If I find some that means I can finish up driver’s side today.

 

[massacre]

Found some 6mm 1.0 bolts, had to cut the sensor bolts down but bolt for the block was correct length. Ran a tap through the threads first. They are hex head, so I will have to remember to remove the sensor first, hopefully I used enough antisieze lol.

Was able to get rotor and brakes back on, new ABS sensor and slide pins & rattle clips, as I had none before and def had pad rattle.

I do have a slight issue, the c clip on the end of the axle won’t clip in fully. It is almost there i did hear a slight click but I don’t think it’s on all the way. In the past I would just pull the axle out more and it would be fine. But now I can’t pull it out like before. I tried a pry bar but I may have to break out my 5ft and try to push the axle out.

Did I mess something up? I put spindle grease seal with flat side out, used plastic spacer with bevel facing inboard. Rubber seal on axle with curved side facing spindle.

Thank for any feedback

 

[massacre]

Drivers side done

Here is how close the c clip is to snapping in

I can’t find my giant prybar I think it’s loaned out.

 

[massacre]

Found big prybar. Not working though. Wondering if I should pull spindle back off and try and see what is hanging the axle up.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

The issue is with the spindle bearing components and seal. Don't pry the shaft out to get the clip on. It rotates and the spindle doesn't so it will wear through.

I forget the actual solution but work with the spindle seal. You might just have the graphite washer on backwards,

 

[410Fortune]

Pretty sure he said he put the graphite seal on correctly, with the bevel facing the knuckle
You can use a prybar to push the axleshaft outwards a bit, in order to get the C clip on, but you should NOT have to force it.
The prybar is used back by the U joint, slight pressure should push the halfshaft into the spindle far enough to install the clip.
If you have to use force and it does not slide out easily, then I would revisit the wheel bearings and spindle bearing and see what gives.
You should have just enough room to easily slide that C clip on the end, in your picture it actually looks like its pretty much in place?

The C clip spring looks very nice and the spring length looks okay, if you have to adjust the collar you can always do it in the truck. My C clip eliminator is WAY different, I wish I would have known about this setup years ago..

Nice work!! You are doing great.
It took me 4 days with a mechanic friend to do radius arms on my 1988 back in 1996 or so now I can service each side of a TTB in like 45 minutes. You have tackled a big job here!

 

[massacre]

Ok
Thanks a ton guys, I’ll pull everything back off and see what I can find. Pretty sure I drove the spindle bearings on all the way, I should take the spindle and axle back off and then see how they fit off the truck. If they fit off the truck but not on, I also just jacked up the beam to make it straight although that might not matter. Going to dive back into this since I am getting anxious to drive it since winter is coming it was 28 this morning. A month ago it was 100 degrees out lmao

It is close to fitting but really really tight. Never was like that before.

Thanks for the feedback on the spring and collar much appreciated.

 

[massacre]

So how important are those plastic spacers? Without those the axle has plenty of room for splined washer and clip. In the back where the big round seal is on the axle shaft seems to fit nice and tight in the back of the spindle. I’ll post some pics

 

[massacre]

Here is axle with plastic washers, top is the gap between the flat plate and the back of the spindle. Bottom pic is how much the shaft sticks out at the end. There is almost enough room for the washer and clip, but not quite.

Now this is with the plastic washer removed, same deal top pic is the back and bottom is the front. Notice that the flat plate sits almost flush without the spacer, and that the shaft sticks out far enough for the washer, the washer is on the shaft in the bottom pic.

Without the plastic washers, when I pull the spindle off I get a little suction so it seems to be greased and tight. Also when I pull the spacer off, the spindle bearing seal stays on the axle and is at the rear up against the flat plate. To me that says that the seal is doing it’s job, plus there is the big seal around that.
The spindle bearing seal from the timken kit is different than my stock one was, if that makes any difference.
There’s only so much going on here, bearings are down as far as they will go.

Should I not use the plastic spacers? Seems like my setup fit s much better without them for some reason.

Thanks for any help not sure what to do next?

I do still have the stock plastic washers, maybe I could make them skinnier?

 

[massacre]

Haha never mind I swapped the stock plastic washers instead and that did it!

 

[Albino 94LTD]

I would be tempted to eliminate the graphite washer on the back side.

You still have autohubs so must not use 4x4 very much so those shafts probably get less that 5% of the vehicle mileage.

More important for the shaft to stick out the correct amount to ensure the full length of the splines engage the hub

 

[massacre]

I would be tempted to eliminate the graphite washer on the back side.

You still have autohubs so must not use 4x4 very much so those shafts probably get less that 5% of the vehicle mileage.

More important for the shaft to stick out the correct amount to ensure the full length of the splines engage the hub

Thanks I do use the 4x4 in the winter but that’s pretty much it. Occasionally I will have to drive through a field or dirt roads, etc. and we have 140ft gravel driveway. I take it to job sites from time to time too. I am not a “wheeler” although I do think it’s really cool. The stuff you guys do is amazing, I always love reading the threads and seeing all the off road builds and the crazy suspensions!
But this needs to be a dependable daily driver more than it needs to be a rock crawler or mud bogger. Maybe someday but not right now unfortunately.

Here are pics with the stock plastic washers, which worked to my disbelief.

C lip and washer are on!


But I mean from process of elimination, there’s only a couple of things involved: axle, bearing, sleeve, washer and spindle. It was fine before the work, so that tells me the axle and spindle are fine. Bearing is in all the way, so it had to be either the seal or the washer.
I do like the thought of eliminating the plastic washers but if I can use them they must be there for a reason.

Back on truck
You can clearly see that it is fully seated now.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

Before you put the hubs back on, clean them out real good with brake cleaner or carb cleaner then pour in a little ATF and coat the internals well. Set them to draing for a while before installation

 

[massacre]

Thank you for that, no sense doing all this work and then put dirty hubs back on!

I have been spraying them with brake clean and I have some ATF ready. Only waiting on shocks and boot for c clip elim
I need to fill the front diff too. I might have a pinion seal leak as well FML not sure how hard these are to do but I would imagine I would also need a new crush sleeve?
But I guess we’ll see.

Wondering if I should just do it anyways while it’s down?

 

[imp]

Thank you for that, no sense doing all this work and then put dirty hubs back on!

I have been spraying them with brake clean and I have some ATF ready. Only waiting on shocks and boot for c clip elim
I need to fill the front diff too. I might have a pinion seal leak as well FML not sure how hard these are to do but I would imagine I would also need a new crush sleeve?
But I guess we’ll see.

Wondering if I should just do it anyways while it’s down?

@massacre
If pinion seal replacement is something fairly new for you, I would suggest becoming as familiar as possible with the factors involved in pinion bearing life and sealing. The purpose of the crush sleeve is to maintain high torque level on the nut as it crushes the sleeve, while slowly eliminating clearance between the two roller bearings. Once that clearance is zero, further tightening increases the bearing preload. Once correct preload is reached, the torque being applied to the nut must be adequate to maintain the nut tight enough so it does not loosen in service. Use of a new crush washer assures that; using an old one over sometimes results in insufficient nut torque once preload is reached. Then, the guy either tightens some more, overloading the preload and lessening bearing life, or quits, has good preload, and the nut slowly loosens, the gears begin to howl, and if pushed long enough, the teeth get ruined.

High performance operations often use a SOLID "crush" washer, which of course does not crush. It must be selectively chosen for the thickness which provides proper preload. imp

 

[massacre]

Thanks for the advice imp

I have done a few on vans. I worked on a lot of E-350s and 250s which have a similar suspension to my first gen with the beams and conventional steering but we had zero 4x4s. I imagine it is a similar setup, but have not done a Dana35 but have done some 8.8s

I feel like I should replace it, already replaced the other seals in the diff and they were terrible so pinion seal prob is too.

 

[massacre]

Soaking the hubs in ATF now. I filled them with brake clean and let them sit, then took a pick and moved all the parts around inside. Seems like one hub would move in and out more than the other. Sure hope the ATF frees them up, don’t feel like buying new hubs.

Started ordering stuff for rear axle too, I’m sure those bearings and seals aren’t great either.

 

[imp]

Soaking the hubs in ATF now. I filled them with brake clean and let them sit, then took a pick and moved all the parts around inside. Seems like one hub would move in and out more than the other. Sure hope the ATF frees them up, don’t feel like buying new hubs.

Started ordering stuff for rear axle too, I’m sure those bearings and seals aren’t great either.

@massacre
I've rarely replaced bearings unless they were obviously shot (noise), or I had something opened up for other reasons, then inspected them. Ball bearings can be more notorious than tapered-roller; ya can't always "feel" bad spots in them, but the tapereds allow visual inspection of the bearing cup, easily, and the tapered roller race (need to be clean, and a bright light to peer between rollers).

imp