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Good progress this weekend. Got the steering wheel assembly put back together. It has split type washers as spacers, as I detail here.

I finally got ALL the lights working on my car. (The front fenders are off but they work.) The last one to do was the reverse lights which required splicing into the wire under the car which inexplicably was detached just forward of the fuel tank. In this process I also redid the headlight switch and reading light switch.

I then got most of my rear axle put together. The axle shaft housing is cleaned out, the differential mated, and one axle shaft in.

I used the old trick of gobbing some wheel bearing grease on the thrust block to keep it from rotating. Then I checked with a flashlight before inserting the axle shaft. The used side of the block has a distinct shiny appearance compared to the other two sides.

I replaced the seals in the axle case. I didn't have puller so I used a crow to cock the seal in the bore and wedge it out. Once it lets go it goes flying! VERY IMPORTANT: if using this method you must not let the tool scrape against the axle case. It should contact only the seal.

I installed the seal in the traditional way, meaning I dug through the drawer of 1" drive sockets and found the closest one (1-7/8 FYI) then pounded it in with a dead blow hammer.

To replace the outer seals, I used the same trick to drive out the old seal. 28mm socket and the housing against the table. Then to drive in the new one, I found a huge socket large enough so the inside of the socket surrounded the outside of the seal housing, then hammered it in with the seal against the table. Obviously you should use wheel bearing grease or gear oil to prelube the seals.

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