'68 Dart, 8-3/4 Sure Grip. When I pulled my axles years ago, I recall them slipping out slick as a whistle with just a little bit of a jiggle. So, now I'm going to reinstall and the left side slides right in. I turned the hub and the yoke turns, so I know I'm engaged. I set the flange over the studs and started tightening the nuts, star pattern, starting with the bottom nut. But, somethings wrong. After ratcheting for a while, the nuts aren't tightening. I got down to take a closer look, and the bearing is not fully seated into the housing...lacks about 1/4" of being fully set. I hadn't noticed it because its behind the flange. All this wrenching I've been doing is just bending the flange in toward the axle housing!
So, pulled it all back out to see what the heck is going on. The flange is bent and mangled beyond hammering it back out flat. Besides, being mounted on the axle behind the bearing, there's no way to put it on an anvil to hammer it. No choice but to buy a new flange, bearing, seal and ring. Send it off to the maching shop. in the meantime, I had to find out why it stopped and didn't seat all the way in.
With the mirror, you can see a ridge in the top part of the housing. Runs from about 11 o'clock to about 3 o'clock. Never would have seen it in that position, and have no clue how it got there. It was big enough to hang a fingernail on.
So, I very cautiously honed it out with a barrel shaped rock and a cylinder hone.
I got the axle back from the machine shop today and slipped it in. It went farther than before, but still would butt up just right against the brake plate. Then I noticed that the flange was stopping it. The top right stud has just a hair of a bend in it toward the rear, and that was stopping the plate from sliding right up and keeping the bearing from fully seating. Pull it out again and enlarge that flange hole by 1/64". That's all it took to finally slide it all together and nut it up.
You can actually see the slight cant in that upper right stud, but I surely wasn't looking for that when this whole thing started.
So, pulled it all back out to see what the heck is going on. The flange is bent and mangled beyond hammering it back out flat. Besides, being mounted on the axle behind the bearing, there's no way to put it on an anvil to hammer it. No choice but to buy a new flange, bearing, seal and ring. Send it off to the maching shop. in the meantime, I had to find out why it stopped and didn't seat all the way in.With the mirror, you can see a ridge in the top part of the housing. Runs from about 11 o'clock to about 3 o'clock. Never would have seen it in that position, and have no clue how it got there. It was big enough to hang a fingernail on.
So, I very cautiously honed it out with a barrel shaped rock and a cylinder hone.
I got the axle back from the machine shop today and slipped it in. It went farther than before, but still would butt up just right against the brake plate. Then I noticed that the flange was stopping it. The top right stud has just a hair of a bend in it toward the rear, and that was stopping the plate from sliding right up and keeping the bearing from fully seating. Pull it out again and enlarge that flange hole by 1/64". That's all it took to finally slide it all together and nut it up.
You can actually see the slight cant in that upper right stud, but I surely wasn't looking for that when this whole thing started.
