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Seals came in from Hagen's today, so I spent a few minutes getting the passenger axle put back in.

The inner seal was the exact part number for the original, so they must be NOS. The outer seal is nothing like the original, but is roughly the same dimensions (slightly shallower). But I don't think this outer seal is as critical. It should still fit fine.

I repacked the bearing on the axle the best I could...it was a messy process and I'm really not sure how well I got the new grease in there. The old grease still looked really good, so it's obvious someone had been in here not that long ago. All the bearings I've seen look brand new. And the tapered axles on both sides of the rear have fresh anti-seize on them (to keep the drums from getting stuck on I presume). So I wasn't too concerned about getting every bit of old grease out on the rear bearings.

I then installed the new inner seal but using a large socket and tapping it into place until it was fully seated. The outer seal was installed into the grease catch plate. Should work.

The axle was carefully reinserted without damaging the seal, then seated, and race tapped in around the bearing. No hitting the axle.

I then reinstalled the backing plate. I used gasket maker to replace the very thin gaskets that were on there previously. I put the gasket maker where the old gaskets covered. Very thin layer. Then installed both of the plates, and torqued down the bolts that hold it all together.

Lastly, I cleaned off the tapered end and applied new anti-seize (DON'T DO THIS...BAD IDEA). Now I'm just waiting for the brake shoes and hardware to come in before I can button this side up. But with the axle reinstalled I can now disassemble the other side without messing with the axle end play too much.

-Kevin

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  New seals from Hagens.jpg (302.06 KB)


  New on the left, old on the right.jpg (280.25 KB)


  New inner seal installed.jpg (299.80 KB)


  Outer seal installed.jpg (274.31 KB)


  Axle reinstalled.jpg (222.32 KB)


  Backing plate reinstalled.jpg (327.76 KB)


  Gasket maker.jpg (328.59 KB)


  grease catch plates reinstalled.jpg (391.90 KB)

When you say anti-sieze on the axle, you not talking about where the drum is pressed axle taper are you?

You want that taper / drum interface dry and torqued to 200-250lbs. Its that interference fit that turns the drums/wheels/tires etc. People in the past have put grease and other substances on that to taper to make it easier to disassemble in the future and doing so could lead to problems as then the keyway is the only thing preventing the two from turning against once another under load. Eventual sheering the key.

Kevin, I was getting ready to post about your comment regarding never seize on the taper -- but I see BigKev already did.

Agree fully with BigKev.....no lubricant at all, just clean everything really well. Studebaker warned on these tapered axle shafts and hubs that using a lubricant could leak to swelling and cracking the hub.

Also, you mentioned 'not messing up the axle endplay' -- so you did check and verify the end play is correct? If not, now is the time to do it while the brakes are apart.

It's a good thing I mentioned the anti-seize then. Thanks for the correction. I'll go ahead and remove it.

I was going to wait to check the axle end play until I got both axles reinstalled. Plus I need to finish reading the supporting documentation to be sure I'm doing it right.

-Kevin

Kevin

I whole hearty agree with your statement about reading the documentation.

My concern is your statement in a previous posting:
“I then reinstalled the backing plate. I used gasket maker to replace the very thin gaskets that were on there previously. I put the gasket maker where the old gaskets covered. Very thin layer.”

Since there are no ‘gaskets’ in that area (interface between the rear axle housing and the backing plate) I suspect you misidentified the steel shims as gaskets, and replacing the shims with RTV will likely result in a very low bearing service life. IMO the side that you have assembled should be disassembled, cleaned, and then the shims reinstalled. The interface where the shims sit should be quite clean.

dp

David - correct, there are no gaskets between the shims and the backing plate (the shims and backing plate were reassembled correctly on the car). I was talking about the gasket that goes between the backing plate and the outer oil seal retainer. See the picture below. I then used gasket maker to replace the gasket that goes between the oil seal retainer and the oil guard.

I took pictures of every step of disassembly and double checked to make sure I was reassembling the correct way.

-Kevin

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  Outer oil seal retainer gasket.jpg (409.67 KB)


  Oil guard gasket.jpg (307.15 KB)

Well that’s good news.

Delay putting the RTV on the other side until you have confirmed the bearing clearance. If shims need to be removed/added the backing plate must be removed, and the gasket maker will make that a bit more tedious.

Did you measure the thickness of the shims?

dp

I did not measure the shim. It was a single one, fairly thick. I'll be sure to check the other side when I pull it apart.

If I do have to remove the backing plate to add/remove shims, I won't need to remove any of the oil seal retainer or oil guard assembly. It will all just come off with the backing plate as one unit.

-Kevin

Got to work on the driver's rear axle tonight, now that the passenger axle is back in.

The backing plate, shoes, and everything within the driver's drum was covered in diff oil. It was a mess. I scraped off what I could and cleaned up the parts in the parts cleaner. Next step for them is the blasting cabinet.

The axle was easily removed with a slide hammer. The bearing grease was nasty. I'll have to completely clean it out and repack. The inner seal was removed with a couple solid whacks from the slide hammer.

My neighbor took a look at the bearing and race, and saw the race had scoring on the outside of it. Inspecting the axle housing showed scoring where the race sits also. So it looks like the race is spinning within the housing. How would I go about correcting this?

Before I ran out of time tonight I cleaned the old grease out of the front wheel bearings, then repacked with fresh grease. I then reinstalled the front drums and installed the axle nut and cotter pin according to Ross's video.

-Kevin

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  Driver's rear axle.jpg (266.80 KB)


  Caked on grease cleaning.jpg (555.65 KB)


  Driver's rear axle leaking seal.jpg (310.11 KB)


  Slide hammer inner seal removal.jpg (425.56 KB)


  Axle bearing race scoring.jpg (176.29 KB)


  Inner axle scoring.jpg (325.12 KB)


  Front wheel bearings cleaned.jpg (211.10 KB)


  Front wheel bearings repacked.jpg (215.59 KB)

With regard to the bearing race no longer being a snug fit within the axle housing, one of the solutions involves using a center punch to produce a "stippling" pattern on the surface of the axle housing where the race would sit. This essentially shrinks the effective diameter. Take care to stipple uniformly and in complete circles so the race will still seat concentric with the housing.