The "You're an Idiot" restoration

Any new progress?

 

This is what I did. I used the TSC paint and used the hardener on the frame. So far it has held up great on my frame sitting in the garage. But when I hit it with a wrench, it does not chip. IT seems very hard.

 

No progress to speak of other than some cleaning and painting of the small axle parts (backer plates and some shock mounts etc).

What I have been up to is doing some traveling. This is totally unrelated to the jeep so stop reading if you don't care.

My wife was born and raised in the West Bank (Bethlehem, Palestine). So we had not made the trek since 1999 so we had to get over there this summer and my kids had never been there. It was quite a trip. It took 42 hrs door to door each way from our home in NC. I made the call to drive up to Dulles and fly from DC to save about $1500 (vs. flying from Raleigh NC). I have to say, I was questioning that decision on the way home after being up for 2 days and driving home 5 hrs at the end of the trip. We flew through Frankfurt, Germany to Amman Jordan where we met one of my wife's cousins who lives in Amman. He drove us to the Israel-Jordan border and we crossed the land border at the King Hussein Bridge to enter the West Bank. That is quite an experience. We arrived at 5AM and met my brother in law on the Israel/Palestine side at 11:30AM. A total distance of maybe 5 miles in that period. Good grief, what a circus. In hindsight though, that part really added some adventure to the trip and we got to see some really neat geography. We landed in Jordan at 1:30AM and found a roadside cafe (read some dude set up a tent and sells coffee to trucks heading to the border) and had coffee on the side of a mountain road in Jordan on the way to the border. It was Ramadan while we were there so the muslims fast during the day and then as a result many places are open all night to eat. Jordan is great and the people are great. If any of you are of the religious type or just like to see different places or cultures, this is a neat culture to visit and probably about as different as can be found.

In line with my post, I have alot of pics, here are a few I found interesting anyway.

Here is the end of the earth, crossing from Jordan to Israel. The elevation is around -1400ft (yes below sea level). All salt and rock. Would be a great jeeping area I think if the guys in the guard towers with the machine guns would allow it!





Here is the view from my mother in laws home. Right in the heart of Bethlehem.



Church of the Nativity, 2 blocks away.



Here is my personal favorite. My daughter and I on a camel in Jericho. Pretty neat I think.




So, as a result, not much progress on the CJ5.

 

Interesting, glad your home safe. That had to be quite a trip.

 

Very cool! I was in Israel in 2000 for 12 days. We went in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as well. Nothing compared to the view of the Old City from the Mount of Olives. I may never get over that view of Jerusalem. BTW, I see you went "four-wheeling" in the Holy Land. The Original CJ (Camel Jockey). Great pics.

 

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Small update. Haven't had time to do much since mid June but here is a little progress just to keep this going.


Got my shackle mounts cleaned up and primed with some rattle can primer.




Had a little more time on these but I got the brake backer plates and the spring/shock mounts cleaned and primed with some rustoleum through the paint gun





Then today I moved on to the rear axles. I first cut off the old bearings. I used a dremel tool to slice carefully through the collar then the bearing roller cage and finally the bearing base itself.

Just to remember how it goes this is what I started with



stuff off shown in the order it should go on with the axle retainer, outer seal, bearing and collar.



Bearing off, seal still in place, note the directionality of the thing.

THis is the inside of the outer seal.



Outside of the outer seal



One of the axles in the buff.



Tried to get a close up of the part of the shaft where the bearing goes. Not too good of a shot, but you can see the different diameters of the shaft. The shaft is in fine shape although the pic looks horrible. Smooth as can be as it should be.



Both together.



All the junk off. Bearings really were fine, but I wanted to put a new seal on there and clean up the wheel carrier part and paint it up so I guess the bearings are a casualty.




I then took it over to the press and pushed out all the old lug studs. Going with new ones.





End of one



End of the other.



I hit these with the die grinder with a wire wheel.



Ready for some paint



Rattle can rustoleum primer and I'll let sit for a week until I can topcoat.

 

Also some progress on the differential. Once I had the axle housing all painted up, I opened it back up and dropped in the pinion and carrier

A few numbers on the pinion bearing - can't really read these sorry but maybe someday I'll need to try and decipher. Anyway, a good look at the bearings.







Ready to go in. Cleaned up the old gasket material.



Before I dropped in the pinion and carrier, I removed and replaced the inner grease seals near the axle bearings out at the end of the tube. I used a threaded rod and big washer as a slide hammer. This was easier to feed in when the carrier was out of the pumpkin. I ran the threaded rod in from the end, then put a couple washers and a nut on in the pumpkin area then slid back out to the end and wham, knocked out the seals with a couple good pulls. Worked great.

Here are the old seals



New inner seals for the dana 44 rear axle ends (grease seals). Timken part number 481837



I put the new ones in using a big socket as a drift to seat the seals. Took a bit of persuasion but they seated real well I think.





I then dropped in the pinion and torqued it down with the old nut and no grease seal until I am ready to finalize the install. Didn't get a pic of that. Then I dropped the carrier back in place and torqued the bearing caps down to about 80 ft lbs (spec is 70-90 ft lbs). I used some loctite on the bolts too but not sure that will do much the bolt holes have oil residue in there so it will likely not set up I would guess.



I tried to get a reading on my backlash





I guess that is about 0.009 so spec is 0.005-0.010 so just inside spec I guess. I have no idea what the hell i am doing but having fun thinking I do. Any suggestions are welcome.

Finally. Some parts for the rest of the axle rebuild.

 

Looking good so far. To check backlash correctly you should measure it in several different spots. I measure one spot then turn the ring gear 180* and measure it again. If you really want to get serious you can measure it every 90*. You'll probably find the measurement varies a little at each point.

 

Brian, I looked through all my receipts and remembered how I wound up with the U-bolts that I needed. I actually had to call 4wd.com and talk to a guy to piece it all together. I started out with this kit, but take a look at these part numbers as well.

(Qty. 4) 999210 - rear d44
(3) 8130370 (front d30)
(1) 8130369 (pass. side d30)

 

Awesome. Just the info I wanted. I had looked at the 4wd.com site and was wondering if that was a good place to go to. Thanks Brett.

 

Got some painting done on the remaining dana 44 parts.

Backer plates, topcoated





axle retainers



Axles



Spring plates





Too humid here in NC right now! I am not using the good paint with hardener (just using the rustoleum enamel for the underside stuff). It takes a long time for the paint to fully cure - maybe 1-2 weeks then it gets nice and sturdy. So far I am pretty happy with the cheapo rustoleum paint that comes in a quart and I am able to spray directly from my gun. I haven't thinned it at all, but maybe that would help in the setting up part, I will need to give that a try.

 

Rear Dana 44 reassembly time.

I had everything cleaned up and painted so the next step was to put my new lug studs into the axle shafts, but....


I bought what was advertized for the year/model (I am total OEM stock) from Rock auto and got the wagner studs shown below (on right in the pic). P/N was BD61142. These things damn near fell through the holes! Clearly they were not going to work. So I went a huntin at the local parts stores. The dorman number for the 72 at all the stores came up with 610-109 (sometimes the kit of 10 was 610-109.1). Same part as the rockauto sent me, way too small! &#$&#*@(@#!

On a whim, I had the guy look up the lugs for a 77 CJ7, bam - perfect part. The number I needed was 610-103 (or 610-103.1 for a pack of 10).



Here is the old, correct and wrong ones in order left to right shown below.



installed. I just beat them in with a hammer from the back side. Had trouble pulling them in with a lug nut. This worked fine.



I then pressed on the new Timken set 10 bearings. I couldn't get the races to come off the pre-greased bearing, so I guess it's OK. I also got 2 different types of the outer seals, same number but one was timken orange the other was also a timken but black. The orange one I had trouble fitting in but eventually got it after I knocked off some of the paint.

Here is a couple pics of the seal before the bearing was put on.





Bearings I used



Outer seal Timken 9912S



Bearings on. 20 ton shop press was the tool to use here! I got a cheapo harbor freight bearing splitter to use for a base when I did this too.

 

Before assembling the axles into the tube, I put in my pinion seal and new pinion nut. A bit of a learning experience, I put it in ***-backwards first. Fortunately was able to carfully remove it and re-install. The pics aren't great and look screwed up, but I can assure you it seated nicely and I think it is good to go. I did manage to mess up the paint on my yoke when I was tightening it down to 220 ft lbs. I used my torque wrench up to 150 ft lbs then put a bit more on it. I hope I am close, I have about 20 in lbs of preload. Kind of hard to measure but I think I am within spec.











Next up were brakes and backer plates.

Somewhat of a puzzle at first.







I put on new wheel cylinders as well. I used the advance auto house brand. Tru torque W59240 for the left rear and W59241 for the right.



I also got new adjustors and small parts kits for the right and left. H2540 for the left and H2541 for the right




and a new set of springs H7137 (includes everything for both sides on 1 axle.



As you can see above, I installed the brakes before I put the axles together, just seemed easier.

Put in the axles















I also got new emergency brake cables Omix-Ada p/n 16730.05 for the two rears. Also got the front cable for later p/n 16730.04. Got these from CSE off-road. Good prices with free shipping if over $100. I got a new gas tank while I was at it. Pics of that later.



All together



The shaft ends looked about like they did when I disassembled as far as spacing so I think all is good.

 

Next I wanted to re-bush my springs and chassis spring mounts.

I got OEM bushings. After I bought these I kinda wished I had upgraded but I think these should be OK. I used the press to push the old ones out. The trick was I found an OEM lug stud is the perfect size to push out the old bushings without having to pounds and cut as I have read in some posts. This worked awesome (again, with a 20 ton shop press). I got a 1 inch deepwell socket to put underneath to press the old bushing into. A few bucks at lowes.










New ones in









There are also 4 bushings on the frame itself. Obviously these were not going to be able to be put up on the press. So I had an idea to use a ball joint press from autozone tool rentals. Same idea, set it up like this.







I did it just like removing a ball joint. Tightened it up and then smacked the sh*t out of it with a hammer (just a small ball pean is all I needed) and then tightened some more until after a couple times, I could just push them out with the breaker bar torquing on the press. Worked like a charm!

Bushings removed





New ones installed.





I got some new spring bolts, so ready for the axle and springs to be hung. I am still trying to find the right u-bolts. I got some that I think are too long, more on that later. Here are the shackle bolts

 

Good idea with the lug studs

 

I am really starting to get ****ed about finding the right u-bolts for my dana 44. I got some online (4) that came as omix-ada parts with the number 18204.08 which by all I can tell are the right part number (got it from CSE off road). Exactly what I ordered so not their fault. They fit ALMOST perfect - they are 1/2 inch bolts, 2.75 in circumference and fit the axle great, however they seem to be about 2 inches too long. The threads don't go up the bolt nearly far enough. I think if I had some lift between the spring and the axle they would be fine, but I don't have (or want) any lift.

So attempt #2, I read the thread on here about ubolts and got the napa part number 650-4023 which is again spot on for fitting everything, now the lenght is great (6.75 in) but they are 7/16 bolts, not 1/2in. #$*#$#*(@)$&_@#~!!!! I think they will be too sloppy in the bottom plate, plus I guess there is a reason for OEM being 1/2 inch and I don't want these damn things to break someday. Unlikely I guess but would be just my luck. Fortunately I only ordered one to try so I don't have alot invested in that since they are basically not returnable to napa. Did I mention I really hate to deal with napa too!! I am thinking maybe I can get a die and put some more threads on the ones that are too long and cut off the excess length.

Anyone got any other suggestions? The FLAPS (advance, autozone, oreilly) don't seem to have anything with the right 2.75 ID spec. I am surprised since these dana 44's from the early 70's were on all kinds of rigs.

 

Take the ones that are too long to Fastenal and get them threaded and cut off the excess. Or if you have a tap and die set you can do it at home

 

I think after what you went through on u bolts, think I would just run a die on them and cut them off. That said, there was a post about a member having them made at a garage or shop that works on large trucks . Been a while back though.

 

Ah, great. I didn't realize fastenal does that. I have a new fastenal right up the road, never been there yet but I'll hit it tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion!