Which would you use?

[Stakebed]

One axle casting has better wheel bearing surfaces but much worse axle clam area while the other has worse wheel bearing area and better axle clam area...




good bearing bad clam



good clam bad bearing

Im going to guess the wheel bearing surface is more important than the clam surface.

[gunmetal 2]

Take the wheel bearing axle to a good weld shop they can weld in the pited area and grind it down. just my 2 cents. good luck

[Stakebed]

isnt that bearing area heat treated? Im not sure but would seem like it should be.

[spectria]

isnt that bearing area heat treated? Im not sure but would seem like it should be.

The "bearing area" is probably hard, test it with a sharp file on the end, if it digs in, not treated, if it skips off, treated. Bearing alignment would be most important.
It would be very difficult get the finished surface to bearing specs, too hard to mount on a lathe unless you work at a shipyard...

[Stakebed]

oh yea and if one welds it makes the area around it hot and possibly warp it all. Looks like im goin with good bearing area then. Any ideas on cleaning up/smoothing out the clam area? i need to measure and test fit and see how worn it already is. Might be able to smooth it all out and wrap a shim around it or something....

Any ideas?

[1crosscut]

Go with the good bearing surface.

Run an acetaline / oxy torch around the rusted surface. Your not trying to get the base metal hot but just the surface rust. This will help break up the rust and loosen it from the axle. Use a course wire wheel on an electric drill an give it a good once over. Repeat with the torch if necessary and then use a good flat file on it to smooth it out. You might find that a hammer and a flat or slightly rounded punch will break the rust out of the deeper pits etc... I think that you will find it turns out pretty decent. On the clam shell there are two groves that run around the inside surface of them to help distribute the grease. I used a thin cut off wheel on an air grinder to clean out the groves. The circumference of the cut off wheel matched the curve pretty well. There isn't a whole lot of movement in this area unless you routinely load the truck heavy. Grease it up really good and you will be set for a long time.

[Bob C]

I would sandblast the axle housing where the saddles go and sandblast the saddles and
see how they fit. If they are real loose I would mill a little off the mating surfaces of the
saddles, that should tighten them up.

Bob

[Neil Wilson]

I likely have a pair of rear axle housing which are in good condition. Shipping is the costly problem. What axle is it (worm without emergency, worm with emergency, '30/'31 bevel type)?

[Stakebed]

thier both 29 worms with emergency. yea shipping would be killer for it...

[Chris Haynes]

An old time mechanic I know told me that they used to make new bearing races. You would put the axle housing in a large lathe to turn it down to the size needed to press the new race on to it. You would think there would be some of those races floating around somewhere.

[Stakebed]

race isnt the problem, problem is trying to get this thing balanced to actually fit on a lathe once you find one of those lol.

ill use the good bearing races and see what i can do with the clam area. should be able to figure somehting out.

[Bladehorse]

@ Stakebed. Its actually easier than it seems. I turned both 1/2's of the rear end down, one at a time mind ya, but with a good grip on the chuck, and ram in the tailstock, I had no issues of creep. I did counterbalance with somthing for the side with the pinion tho. I remember bolting it thru the housing hole. Ill have to dig up the results and post them. I have to wonder if the suppiers sell sleve repair kits for the AA axles like the A's have. THat is such an easy fix(At least for the hub) I too would scale the housing at the pivot and check for excessive play. If loose, I would turn down the axle at the spring pivot, and weld/braze up the shells, and re machine(Much easier to controll temper and warp on those vs the housing methinks.)

[Stakebed]

yea i figured it could be balanced but thats an awful lot of extra weight to be flinging around. going to need to find a big lathe!

[Chris Haynes]

yea i figured it could be balanced but thats an awful lot of extra weight to be flinging around. going to need to find a big lathe!

Nobody says you have to do at high speed.

[Bladehorse]

slow, but a lot of pressure with carbide. Ideally insert tooling, then ya can go up on the speed a bit. THe case hardening on the forgings is rather deep, and very hard. Ideally ground after, but if its going to be sleeved, its not nessesary.