Quote:
Originally Posted by JM 35 Sedan
Capt, good job on disassembly! A few comments.....
1. 37 to 40 axle housings are normally one directional, although I have seen them swapped around by some hotroders to give some funky spring possitions.
2. In one of your earlier pictures, taken of the rear banjo center, I noticed non standard ford bolts with lock washers bolting the axle housings bell ends to the banjo housing. These standard Ford bolts are special to help in sealing as are the female threaded holes on the banjo housing. I would suggest getting the original type bolts to use there.
3. Many folks probably do set bearing preloads and backlash by feel. This is the way I did mine in 2013, and in 2015 that rear had a complete failure, and all that I could salvage from that mess were the two axle housings and the torque tube. I used measuring devices this spring to make those setting on my rebuilt rear, and I plan to do any future rebuilds this way rather than by feel.
4. When you measure those shim gaskets that were between the housing bells and the banjo housing, keep in mind that those gaskest get compressed when all bolts are final torqued. So for example, if you measure the thickness of an old/used gasket @ 0.007" it most likely started out at something like 0.008". Just sayin'... you would probably not be correct in putting a new 0.008" gasket back in.
5. Also, if the carrier bearings and their cups look good and you decide to reuse them, keep in mind there has been some wear on those bearings and putting the rear back together with original shim/gasket thickness will more than likely not give you the correct preload, IMO.
6. While you have things this far apart, I would strongly suggest replacing all three rear seals, two in the small ends of axle housings and one in the front of the torque tube.I believe there were some other things I noted as I reread this entire post earlier today, but when suffering from CRS, I could only recall the 6 things. If and when I remember more, I will just add them to this list.
ps...keep up the good work Capt, you did well today getting all this done, I assume working alone?  You are much faster at this than I am, but than you might be a bit younger and still full of pep and vigor .
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JM, LOL, pep and vigor...not hardly. You made some very good and helpful points. Regarding the banjo bolts...good eye!...not knowing any better, when I restored the car, I thought it would be a nice feature to have stainless bolts there. I removed one at a time and replaced the originals. I'm sure I still have the original bolts in Fairbanks. As far as pre-loads and backlash, I'm going to have to reference my book when it gets here. I'm going to have to buy a mag base and dial indicator...and that's OK...I've been wanting one for some time now. I've got micrometers out to 4", calipers and a bore gauge...I need the mag base setup!
With regards to the old gasket being compressed. I was wondering about that. The one I measured was .006 and figured that over the decades, it would have compressed at least a little. The thinner a material is the less it will compress. I'm not sure a .007 gasket would compress to .006. I was thinking about putting a new .006 gasket on and letting it compress whatever it will and seeing how that works with any bearing (carrier bearings and races look really good) and gear wear. Good place to start anyway.
Regarding seals, I was planning on replacing the axle and hub seals...didn't give much thought to the seal in the torque tube. I wasn't planning on pulling the torque tube off...is this seal you're talking about at the trans end of the torque tube?
All this vim and vigor resulted in a sore back so I'm sitting in my rocker with 12 oz of back pain medicine.