Work Log: April 2011

Painting, continued

The new paint is in, and it's a pretty close match. Not quite grey enough and a bit too glossy, but darn close. This will be the final topcoat for all chassis parts. Woo!

Axles, continued

Front

Front Coast

Front Drive

Finally, we got the mesh correct. It turns out that if you really overshoot the target pinion depth, the results get misleading. 15 iterations and way too many weekends of both Dad and I working on it, we have a nice mesh.

Note that prussian yellow paint is a lot easier to see than prussian blue, especially on new gears.

There's a much better method than the manual suggests for doing this work, especially for removing the pinion. Instead of wailing on the pinion using a brass punch and hammer, a shop press does the job much faster, easier, and cleaner. Why we didn't think of this sooner, I don't know. The same goes for removing the inner pinion bearing cup. Using a drift and hammer really beats up the shims. Instead, make a remover from some steel plate, which you can use in a shop press with a pipe or similar extension. Just place the pusher plate on the bearing, aligning the tabs with the cutouts in the housing, put the pipe on top, and push it out. Heck, even if you don't have a shop press, this tool would still make the job easier. Say goodbye to damaged shims! Here's a pdf template.

Dad also built a housing spreader, which made the job actually feasible. Here's some photos of it in use, along with the puller to remove the very stubborn carrier. Say goodbye to whacking those carrier bearings during installation.

I realized that I hadn't tightened up the ring gear bolts to full torque, so I went back to do that, only to strip out the second one well below the proper torque. The bolts are weak after being not even finger tight in the original installation, so we'll replace all eight just to be on the safe side.

Rear

Rear Coast

Rear Drive

We also finished this mesh up, and managed to get it done in 2 1/2 days. By this point, we had a routine down and all the tools to make it easy.

Propeller shafts

Removed, cleaned, and in the process of painting. Made new seals from cork.

Wheels

I stripped and blasted all these. The rust on the inside is bad (see last month's log), but not structurally shot. I filled the pits with PC7 metal-filled epoxy to smooth the bumps, which should prevent damage to the rubber flap/tube. Almost done with painting these...

Steering

Removed the bellcrank and drag link. Seriously, if I find a bearing that doesn't need replacing, I'm going to take a photo of it and post it on the Wall of Amazement. Painting these now.

Body removal

Since I was back to tasks only requiring myself, we looked ahead to the frame. It's the task next on the Big Ol' Gantt Chart, so we began body removal so we can take the frame in for blasting.