Awwe Crap!

Hey Kirk.....You've got a whole sack-full of clean parts there, and it's gettin' late on a Saturday afternoon. We're wonderin' if you got that thing glued-together yet, and if maybe you've done a few do-nuts to see if it's gonna stay in one piece! DD

Funny you should ask Coop...was just going to post up on the progress. I got started late morning cause I had to get some crock pot chili going. The axle is now assembled but still sitting on the ground. Everything went together fine. The axle housing gaskets measured .005 on one side and .006 on the other. I used both .005 gaskets so it's going to have .001 more preload than it had and the ring gear remains in the same position as it was. I don't have the tools to check pinion backlash but I could feel that there was a hair worth and everything spins like it should and with no binding. New seals in the axle tubes and hubs and put new brake shoes on while I had it apart. I noticed that the spring on one end of my e-brake cable was broken into a bunch of little springs and was no longer working. Guess I need to get another cable before I can get the drums on for good.
I had some afternoon stuff to do with the wife but I managed to get it assembled before we left.
Tomorrow, I want to pressure wash it and get a fresh coat of paint on it before sliding it under the car. I have some questions...I'll ask in the next post.
 
1) Are there any torque numbers for the axle housings, backing plates and torque tube?

2) I greased the wheel bearings but how's a person supposed to know how many grease gun pumps is required to fill the space between the axle seal and hub seal? Do I pump it up without the hub on till it starts showing at the end of the axle housing then add more after the hub is on.

3) How many pumps for the center and end driveline bearings?

4) I haven't searched here yet but I may have questions on adjusting the brakes. The eccentrics at the bottom and the cams at the top...I'm sure there's a way I could screw it up if I didn't research.
 
LOL...I just read a 3 month old post on adjusting the brakes. Yep, I did them wrong when I restored the car. Might explain why I have never been comfortable with the way the pedal felt.
 
I just managed to get mine together - I wrote a separate thread on it so's not to hijack. It was a first for me and I was surprised how time consuming it was.

Mart.
 
Ya done good there, Kirk! Hope you realize I wuz jerkin' your chain.

OK, those two zerk fittings that you're trying to pump MORE grease into.........FORGET that they exist! That was such a bad idea that Ford finally quit putting them there. Pack those two hub bearings by hand, the old-fashioned way. Throw a little extra grease in the hub cavity if it makes ya feel good. If you pump grease into those zerks, it can go any direction it wants. It can fill the axle bells, and it can certainly fill your new brake shoes, etc. with grease. Good 'n snug on the torque for those bolts. Go back around the banjo bolts several times 'til they don't want to tighten (reasonably) any more. Do the safety-wire thing on the torque tube bolts. You're almost there! DD
 
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I saw on the model A build guide to torque the banjo bolts to 35 ft lbs, is this the same for a V8? When I undid them they didn't seem very tight, in my mind they felt like a 35 ft lb bolt that had been in place since done up at the factory.

Mart.
 
All of my parts came in yesterday including the axle...which looks amazing. I will be hitting it with dye penetrant this weekend before reassembly.

One of the questions will be with respect to lube. I plan (unless told otherwise) on using some red grease that's in a container that says for disk and drum wheel bearings for gear assembly. Thanks for all your help Barners!
Kirk

I wouldn't use the red grease for the rear wheel bearings. You need to use a long fiber grease
I use Sta-Lube SL3131 Drum Brake grease. High temp grease will break down and make a mess of the bearings.
Ken
 
It's ready to go back in...waiting on my e-brake cable.
 

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"I got started late morning cause I had to get some crock pot chili going."
Ya Ya Ya....axles,bearings,grease......SO WHAT !!!.......How was the CHILI ????.....Mark
 
LOL...my chili is always good!..but I seem to have a problem with making everybody happy with the level of spicy-ness. The wife thinks skim milk is spicy, the step daughter thinks ketchup is spicy and the step son can drink Tabasco without batting an eye. Myself, I like it when my hair starts sweating and the next day, the neighbors can hear me screaming from the bathroom.

"I got started late morning cause I had to get some crock pot chili going."
Ya Ya Ya....axles,bearings,grease......SO WHAT !!!.......How was the CHILI ????.....Mark
 
Rear and front wheel bearings like the NAPA Sta-lube SL3131 grease. Pack the bearings by hand. Only need a few pumps of the gun on the drive shaft center bearing, lube the center bearing after the drive shaft is in place.
 
So how are you doing Capt? Is the rear back in and that Cab. on the road again? We need a blow by blow update ;).

I think they had some torrential rains up Kirk's way the past couple of days. Surely though, he'll get that thing glued-in today and do a few donuts to get it all tested out. DD
 
Well, we did have some rains this last week and Saturday didn't look any better. We got a reprieve on Sunday. I used the good weather to get it stuffed back under the car by myself with the help of a jack and an old skate board. It went together well and I had to do some grinding to get my new drum retainers fitted to the proper clearance. I got the car setting back on the ground and tightened the lug nuts tight and axle nuts to Herculean torque...jacked it back up and let it run in gear with fresh lube. No noises out of the ordinary but noticed a slight wobble in my K-H left hand wheel. This was reported to me prior to the axle break and is unnoticeable during driving. I didn't have enough brake fluid in the shop to bleed the brakes and it was getting late so I'll save that and reinstalling the pad and floor mat till this next weekend. Got the new e-brake cable installed and spent some time looking under the car at the original 35 mechanical brake master shaft to find the magic hole(s) that allow a homemade rod to be connected between the master shaft and the e-brake cable...I'm not seeing it but this topic may be better in a new thread.
The car is on all four feet and drive-able. Bleed the brakes and put the mat down is all that I have left to do. Thanks for all the help and encouragement and I apologize if I asked too many questions, provided too many pictures and/or gave too much trivial information...like I did in this post. :)
 
It was that way...I left it like that when I restored the car. I have an original e-brake handle that was intended for mechanical brakes and I have no way to go from the original handle to the cable so I put a big spring at the point of the cable V just to hold it up. I didn't want that spring to apply brake pressure so I left them disconnected in the drums. Once I figure out how to go from the e brake lever to the cable, I'll hook them back up. At least I have all the cable parts where they belong until I can get the rest figured out.
When you get ready to hook up your hand brake let me know an I can guide you through the process. I just did it on my 36 Cabriolet using the mechanical brake actuator, cutting off the lower arms that use to operate the front brakes as well as the end that attached to the brake pedal. Then used the upper attachment for the rear brake rods cutting one of the rods down for the emergency brake and it works perfect.
 

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Thanks Mr. Will. I have the cross shaft, the brake lever and the slotted rod that connects the two. I saw a sketch of the original brake rod layout where the rear rods V'd through the cross member from the top center cross shaft point. I couldn't get my fat head up high enough to see that there's a clear-shot directly rearward through the cross member. The car is put to bed for winter so I'll wait till it warms up before I tackle this project. I am thinking about sending in my 97 and helmet in for a rebuild over the winter though.
 
When you get ready to hook up your hand brake let me know an I can guide you through the process. I just did it on my 36 Cabriolet using the mechanical brake actuator, cutting off the lower arms that use to operate the front brakes as well as the end that attached to the brake pedal. Then used the upper attachment for the rear brake rods cutting one of the rods down for the emergency brake and it works perfect.

Just wondering if it was really necessary to cut those arms off the mechanical brake cross shaft mechanism to hook up your ebrake system?
When I put hydraulic brakes on a 35, I used Richard Lacy's master cylinder mounting bracket that utilized the stock cross shaft to actuate the MC using the stock brake/clutch pedal assembly. His ebrake hookup was a rather simplified cable that passed through the center of X member in a section of steel tubing, and connected the ebrake lever directly to the ebrake cable that loops around to both rear backing plates, and used the same '39 curved sheet metal bracket like you show in your 3rd picture. Basically a simplified system that utilized stock components requiring no modificatons.
 
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