I hadn’t realized it the other day, but I recently hit the one year mark on my restoration. It’s been a pretty crazy year. Over the last 12 months, I have completely dismantled Ike down to a bare frame, broke an awful lot of old parts, and completely restored my first big piece. Over the next 12 months, I hope that I will have something that will actually start resembling a Jeep again. I’d love to be putting the finishing touches on a complete rolling chassis this time next year.
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.
