With the help of my buddy Joe, I got it picked up and we took it over to his dad’s place. After what seemed like just a short time, the old spring pivot joint was gone, and a new piece of metal was welded in.

Above you can see the before with the horrible weld job that was done. To the right you can see that the joint has been removed. While he was at it, I had him remove the remaining outriggers so I can be sure the frame gets painted under them. I’ve got a little clean up to do and then it will be ready to paint.

Today, though, I didn’t do any additional work on the frame, but instead focused on getting the front axle blasted and the first coat of paint out on. Since most of the axle was already wire wheeled, sand blasting went extremely quick since it was more or less just touch up in areas that I couldn’t get to with the wheel.

After getting it back up on the bench (I found out about half way through getting it back from the drive way that without the knuckles installed, I can carry the axle without the assistance of other tools). Much like I did with the rear axle, I ‘ll complete the full housing before I do the differential cover. It has got some serious baked on something or other on there that will need special attention.

The first coat of POR15 went on relatively easy. There are a few spots that I’ll need to pay special attention too, and the whole thing will get a second coat before getting a final topcoat of Rustoleum for the gloss and UV protection that I’m looking for.

This coming weekend I’ll hopefully also get the most stubborn U-Joint removed from the long axle shaft. I’m also going to clean up the knuckles, backing plates, hubs, and spindles in preparation for their reconstruction. I’ve also gotta start either looking for a place to get the frame primed and painted the way I want, or determine if it’s something I can do in my garage.

But, there is one more thing…

I was also the lucky bidder on a rather nice looking original Carter W-O 636SA carburetor on eBay today. So yeah, a pretty good weekend for Ike. 

That being said, I did get a bit done with starting the final clean up process before painting. The axle tubes are clean, and I was able to at least get the spicer-jointed axle shafts partially disassembled. The short axle shaft side came loose as expected, but the other half, not quite so much. I’m giving it a bit of time to sit while I think of how else to approach it. The good news is my frame is done, and I’ll be picking it up from the sandblast place on Friday.

As with other little thing I learned because I over-research all of this stuff, both knuckles were assembled incorrectly. Aside from straight grease being used in both instead of “knuckle pudding” shims and snap rings were missing or installed on the wrong sides. Luckily, it doesn’t appear that it caused any lasting damage.

I began with the passenger side knuckle, and was somewhat disappointed that I had a Bendix style joint that uses ball bearings to articulate. One of the biggest disadvantages of this joint is that repairing the joint requires that the axle shafts be replaced since the major wear points are on the shafts themselves. However, the later (and current) Spicer joints use a Spicer universal joint for articulation. This joint uses a relatively inexpensive (and replaceable) inner cross.

After the interesting find on the passenger side, I started work on the driver’s side. This went far faster after I realized that paper towels seemed to be better at wiping away grease than shop rags. Who knew?

Fortunately, the driver’s side has Spicer style joints instead of Bendix. After cleaning all of the grease off (or as much as I could) I tired to disassemble the joint. After removing the snap rings, I tried pushing the caps out and was unsuccessful. Either things are really stuck in there, or I was using the wrong approach, so I backed off and decided to try again next week. I really didn’t want to end up having to buy a set of axle shafts if I bend the hell out of the shaft ends.

And now, lots of pictures…

To prepare the frame for sandblasting, I had to get a few things taken off to prepare. Last week I removed the front bumper and the outrigger that had the damaged rivet. After the joy of breaking as many drillbits as I did, it also hit me that the thing that kept slowing me down was the air cut off tool. It just took too long between uses to keep the compressor up to pressure, so I did what I should have done long ago which was to purchase a 4.5″ electric grinder to make removing the rear abominations a bit easier. Boy did it make a difference.

I had already cut off the “wings” of the rear cross member essentially making it almost flush with the frame. However, at some point in the past a previous owner added a “support” behind the cross member, essentially a large piece of rectangular tubing. Where it’s located, I can only imagine the goal was to strengthen the frame where the shackles connect the rear end of the springs to the frame, but the tubing didn’t actually fill the full gap between the top and bottom of the rails, so at most it would just minimize the amount of movement if something catastrophic where to happen. Needless to say, that was removed. After a few hours of grinding, cutting, and cussing, the last bits of the riveted (and tack welded) rear cross member were eventually removed, bit by painstaking bit. Luckily, I only went a little too deep in two small areas, only one of which will need to be filled with weld and ground down.

Since I had the cross member off, I took the opportunity to test fit the new one that I got for Christmas in 2010. It fit (and looked) perfect, but I’ll have to drill a few holes before it can be mounted properly. Nothing too major. The front bumper was also give a test fit, and it looks exactly perfect. Now I just need to locate the rear tie-in plate in my pile of parts so when I get the frame back and eventually over to a painter, I can have it painted as well.

After all the prep work I needed to do to get the frame ready, I didn’t have a whole lot of energy left to continue working on the front axle. I did, however, get the spindle nuts removed, and one hub slid off the spindle. The spindle cleaned up nicely, but has some wear patterns that I’m going to check out. They aren’t too deep, so it’s probably fine, but I’ll double check it with the other side before final re-assembly. I also need to figure out how best to remove the bearings and bearing cups from inside the hub. The inner oil seal is keeping the inner bearing in place, and although the outside bearing slid right out after the hub was removed, the outer cup is also stuck. Another adventure for next week I suppose.

If you guessed I’d go through 7 bits and 2 grinding wheels, you’d be right.

Apparently, Willys-Overland Motors never intended a front bumper, no matter how mangled and cut to hell, to come off of the frame after 61 years, or at least not very easily. The biggest problem was how to get through hardened rivet after a titanium drill bit broke off in the middle of it. The answer is apparently a lot of cussing, some creative engineering, and a few more bits.

Once the front bumper was off, I went to work on the outrigger that had a damaged rivet. After breaking another drill bit off, the outrigger eventually came off. What was interesting this time, though, was that with all the beating on the frame with the air hammer to get the rivets out, a small thing fell out from between the frame rails in an area that is boxed in near the engine bay. Apparently, Ike was a home to many creatures during its lifetime, including a nest of hornets.

Since I was finally getting the hang of removing these rivets, I attempted to remove the rivets holding the the pedal bracket from the frame. I removed the two rivets, but apparently this part was also spot welded on. I’ll grind down the welds next weekend when I finish the frame for sand blasting. I’m debating if I hate myself enough to remove the other outriggers, or if I should just leave them alone. I’m leaning towards leaving them alone.

Since I was completely exhausted from working on the frame rivets, I turned my attention to the front axle that had been up on my bench for a week now. I got far enough to remove the hub cover to find that I don’t have the right sized socket to remove the spindle nut. Such is my luck. I ordered one online last night, so hopefully it will be here in time for the weekend work. It looks like the last time this hub was looked at, and the spindle nut removed, someone just went in with who knows what kind of tool to remove it. It’s pretty banged up, and even the washer behind it is all bent out of shape. Both will be replaced when everything goes back together.

To that end, I finally put the finishing touch on the rear axle. I cleaned up the newly turned rear drums, put on a coat of paint, and used some new dust caps obtained as a Christmas present. The driver’s side brake line was also re-run (again). Once all that was done, I got the differential filled with new oil.

With new oil in the case, and luckily a seal that was holding, I lifted the axle off of the work bench, and attached the wheels to roll it into storage in the garage. To help make room, I moved the frame and set it on its side. I’ll hopefully be taking that to a sandblaster in the next week or so. Getting the wheels and tires back on the rear axle sure made it look small again.

With the workbench cleared, it was time to get the front axle up on the bench. The Dana 25 is rather spindly compared to the still small Dana 41 rear axle. Once I got it up on the bench, I started to empty the differential oil. Much like the rear axle, the oil was exceptionally dark, rather thick, and gave off the wonderful old differential oil smell. I did happen to notice once I got the cover off that there was quite a bit of sediment on the cover and the inside of the case.

Luckily the ring gear, spider gears, etc. all look fantastic. I’ll let it drain at least overnight before I call it good. The next steps will be to start pulling apart the knuckles. I’m sure that will be all kinds of fun going through all that knuckle pudding.

On a lighter note, I still get a kick out of the fact that the imprinted the front axle with a tag that says “FRONT AXLE” on it. As if the steering linkages didn’t give it away already.

On another note, I was able to do some work on the rear axle over the last few days and now have it perfectly ready for differential oil and to be taken off of my bench. I also got a great number of parts for my birthday and Christmas, so that should help out with the work that is coming up. I’ll do another post once I finish the rear axle for good, and include all the details.

After getting the backing plates blasted last weekend, I was all set to paint those and the grease retainers. Unlike the rest of the axle, I went with engine enamel for the plates and grease retainers. I don’t think there would be enough heat generated by the drums to cause a problem with the standard POR 15, but since the backing plate and retainer sits up against the grease seal, I figured I could take advantage of the heat resistance, oil resistance, and durability of the engine enamel. I like the way it turned out.

Once paint was dry, it was time to start putting the brakes back together. I loaded the shims, grease retainer, backing plate, and additional grease retainers on the inside, all held together with grade 8 bolts. Next came the eccentrics, wheel cylinder, and then mounting the shoes to the lower anchors and cams. After the spring was pulled tight, a quick adjustment of the eccentrics, and it was time to move to the other side. The other side was considerably easier after doing the first side.

With all the brake hardware in place, I finally got to do the brake lines on the rear axle. I had become pretty good at getting very good double flares at the end of the brake lines a few months ago when I first bought the tools. However, it apparently isn’t like riding a bike. After making a half dozen or so mistakes, I got back into the groove and was able to create good flares. Using my forming tool, I got fairly close to the original bend pattern. I don’t have any welting to place in-between the line and the differential clip, so for now it’s just going to sit there. Eventually I’d like to replace the clip and add some welting to match the original.

So now, after weeks of work, the only thing remaining to finish the axle is to get the drums turned, hubs/drums remounted, and then fill it with differential oil. I’m hoping once the drums are turned it will be easy enough to get a nice coat of paint on the outside. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting the rear axle off of the workbench so I can get started on the front axle. I’m fairly concerned that the front axle is going to need an axle shop to fix a pinion seal that has started leaking after I cleaned everything up. Since I don’t have the tools to remove the yoke, I’ll probably have to take it in to get it replaced. If that ends up being the case, I might get a bit more done while I have it there.

To get the backing plates, and the grease retainer, ready for paint I had to fire up the sandblaster. I was hoping that there was enough grease and brake dust on the plates that a quick cleaning would get me to a point where I could do a lithe scraping and get some paint on them. Naturally I wasn’t anywhere near that lucky. The only nice part was that the two backing plates and two small retainers didn’t take that long to blast. I’m hoping I can spray a quick couple of coats after school this week to be ready to go with assembly on the long weekend. Only problem might be the dropping temperatures as we get into winter.

After getting the backing plates blasted, I finished up the paint on the U-bolts and they look ready to attach. Last pieces to get paint will probably be the rear shock plates. The rear shock plates were the only ones that don’t need work before I can put them on. The front ones, not so much. Haven’t decided yet if I want to replace the front ones, or just fix em. There isn’t much metal left on the rods, but there may be enough that a quick braze and some grinding can bring them back up to the right sizes. We’ll see when I get to that point.

So with the brake decision out of the way, I placed an order for new brake hardware for the rear axle. Soon Ike will be donning powder coated backing plates, new shoes, new shoe springs and mounting/adjusting hardware, and freshly turned drums. Once the brakes are re-built, I’ll start running the brake lines. After I get the rear axle off of my bench, it’ll be time to start on the front axle, which should prove to be quite a bit more complicated than the rear axle. I have a feeling that those knuckles are going to prove to be a formidable adversary to deal with, but I may be pleasantly surprised. I’m really hoping that I don’t have to replace much other than seals and retaining rings on it, except for the pinion seal which happens to be leaking again. If the pinion seal on the front is damaged, then I’ll have to take it in to get replaced. I don’t have the tools or the knowledge to properly remove the pinon nut and yoke and put it all back together the way it should be.