Is this part IV? Anyway. Box arrived.
SKF Speedi-Sleeves. Both the same. The come in a size range min to max measurement. These were just at the top end of the tolerance and I thought they might be pretty tight. But they are thin. I had to make a tool to knock them down the shaft and as luck would have it this water pipe was perfect. They were pretty snug and you could see them stretch as they went up the transition in the shaft onto the bearing surface. Pretty tidy.
You have to cut a nick in the skirt so that you can tear it off at the end. Here’s the sleeve fitted on the shaft
The skirt coming off and the finished repair. I tried a seal on it and it was fine.
Pretty fine this morning so next job was to put in the inner axle oil seals. I decided to machine my current universal tool to be a perfect fit for this job. Quick whizz in the lathe and it was done.
Perfect fit in the seal so that the edge is supported properly.
Couple of taps with the mallet and voilà, inner seal fitted. I didn’t stand them out at all given that I had just fitted repair sleeves to the shafts.
Time to get dirty. Much easier to pack the birfields without the shafts in.
It’s necessary to crush the snap ring to allow the shaft to pop into the CV. There is a knack to it. I sometimes use a jubilee clip but a tie wrap works really well in the field. Crush the snap ring, put the splines into the middle of the CV and give it one meaningful whack, with feeling. And the shaft should slip straight in. If it doesn’t then don’t go battering at it. Pull out, check and go again.
Whilst all greasy, I slathered up the new needle rollers and stuck the paper gasket on with a dab of grease too.
Back out side, I tapped in the new outer races for the swivel bearings. No mystery to this. Just tap them in. At this point I put the felt and rubber seals over the knuckle ready for later.
I also coated the back of the knuckles with grease as it’s really difficult to get it in there once assembled.
Mechanic I may be but engineer I ain’t but at this point I wanted too look at Frank’s thoughts on setting up the swivel housing. I went back to the FSM to see if there was any Voodoo in there. There wasn’t. Fit bearings, put shim in, tighten up. If preload too much, add some more shim. End of chapter.
So, I put the swivel on and placed a jack underneath the hub and took the bottom bearing up tight after torquing up the cone nuts underneath. When you do that properly, you really appreciate just how tight then should be.
I put the top cap on with the factory shim in and tapped it down into the bearing and put the bolts in but only got them as tight as I could BY HAND. There was no play in it, but there was also no preload at all.
Using feelers, I measured the gap under the cap. It was 0.47mm
I ran the bolts down and the gap closed completely but with minimal torque on the spanner. I measured the preload and it was absolutely cock on. Supposed to be 2.5 to 4.5 KG. I torqued the top cap and measured again. It was the same. Sweet.
So I have no idea what all that means, but all I can say is it all looked good, I followed the manual and the setting was correct. And I didn’t use the sort of force that I would have thought worrying. Now, where did the 0.47mm go? Some may just have been what I couldn’t do by finger and some might be swivel hub distortion.
I put the genuine wiper seals in.
Fiddly job.
And, whilst I was at it, I spotted what looked like a crack in the web between the axle and the steering arm stop. One site it made a nice heavy clack clack when I moved the steering full right and on full left the hub made a sort of dull thud. Hmm. So a bit of prep, out with the MIG, Bzzzzzzt. No crack.
Back on track. Now, at this point – I have to insert EDIT THREAD HERE.
The CVS, which I am now running backwards, are a bit of a weak point in the build. I need to get some new ones and it’ll probably have to be genuine ones. Ouch. So at this point, I have greased them up, packed the back of the hub and the swivel bearings but I have not packed the hub cavity full of CV grease as you should do. Simply because I will have to go back in there shortly. I am not planning a trip across the Moab in the next few weeks so this will just have to hang for now. Back soon. So save the hate mail, I have to be able to move the car off the drive.
Enough grease for now
Here’s the long shaft in place. I have to say this one put up a fight. I have done dozens of these and this one was a tricksy little blighter.
Stub axle on with paper gaskets, new dust ring and brake shield. Bolts set to 34 ft lbs
Then it went black. The sky flashed, hail came down, the dog hid and I made a cuppa.