Enough room for my axle's to slide out?

[Banshee365]

Hey guy's, doing the boots and seals on my front axle. Truck is on my concrete pad between my 2 sheds. I didn't think of this earlier and when I was about to pull the brake shoes it dawned on me. As I stood up and felt the shed behind me I wandered if, when I get to the point of pulling the shafts out, that they would hit the shed and still be in the housing. How stupid would I feel! Especially since I need to replace those axle seals! I measured the clearances and they are as follows. From tip of the axle to the shed is 36" on one side and 38" on the other. Then I measured the distance from the center of the axle to the front mounting surface of the steering knuckle that the brakes bolt to. That distance is around 30". I figured I had some room to play with because the oil seal is several inches behind the mounting surface of the knuckle and the end of the axle will pivot some on the u-joints giving me more room. I also assume the end of the shaft is a 4-6" away from the center of the differential housing. Does it sounds like these things will have room to slide out? Boy do I hope so!

BTW, I'm pulling the shoes without return spring pliers. Recovery4x4 recomended leaving the spring attached and removing the shoes at the bottow first where the tops will then slack up enough to remove the spring. Is there any special order I should pull the retainers and alignment pins out so I don't have shoes flying everywhere? Should I pull the alignment pins first then the bottom retaining pin at the bottom last while holding pressure pushing the shoe in and then let it out after the clip and washer is off? Thanks guys for all of the help. I'm going to take pics of each step on the other side and post if anyone is interested.

-Kelly

 

[Polverone]

I'm going to take pics of each step on the other side and post if anyone is interested.
-Kelly

Well I am not much help on your original question but on the last sentence I would have to put a definate yes so that I can bookmark this for when I need to do same.
Thanks in advance

 

[gringeltaube]

Long axle shaft, drivers side is 33+12=45" total lenght.
Short one, pass. side, 25.5+12=37.5".

Only the long axle might be a problem if you don't have a big floor jack to move the truck sideways or you don't want to disassemble the U-joint.

No special order removing brake shoe hold down pins. Just make sure that everything goes back into correct position. See the brake "sticky".

Good luck!

Gerhard

 

[Banshee365]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ok, now how do you remove the bottom retainer clips??? I'm tired of banging them around in circles. And my ring pliers aren't working.

-Kelly

 

[Recovry4x4]

There is a pair of pliers for that. Aside from that I use picks to get a gap and then small screw drivers.

 

[Banshee365]

I have everything taken apart and most of it cleaned up. Boy is it messy! I took a bunch of pictures during the teardown process and will post later. To remove the bottom clips on the shoes I wedged a wrench behind the shoe and pushed on it with my foot to put pressure against the clip so it wouldn't move then just tapped it with a screwdriver and hammer and off they all came. Used a small punch to remove the inner oil seals from the retainer and tapped the new ones in with a hammer going around in circles small taps at a time.

I ordered some wheel cylinder rebuild kits because my pax side is leaking. Are they hard to rebuild? If the cylinders aren't pitted hopefully this will fix it. Everything is very heavy and very greasy.

Is there any reason to seperate the hub and drum? There is still some gease inside of course but figured I might just leave it there for installation. I want to get the pax side back together asap. The truck is covered in lights and I want to drive it before christmas comes. It's hard to believe it's almost here since it's 80 degree's all day.

-Kelly

 

[Stretch44875]

I paid too much and used kits from napa, they are much cheaper at saturn surplus. #45 was the part number at napa. Bought a brake hone and rebuilt two of them, went really well. Just use plenty of brake fluid when honing.

I didn't see any reason to take the drum and hub apart. Only thing I can think of is for a bad brake drum, or if you are flipping the hubs to run singles.

Dennis

 

[Banshee365]

Thanks for the advice. How much do the hones run and where did you get it? I already have over $500 in tools and parts to do this front end plus a new cab cover so I don't want to spend much more but I want to do it right. Thanks!

-Kelly

 

[Stretch44875]

I got mine at napa, I think it was around 20 bucks, could be wrong. I would think most parts stores would have it.

 

[Banshee365]

Would it be okay to use Dot3 to hone the cylinder? I was just quoted $35.11 per quart from car quest for DOT5 and want to spare that as much as possible.

-Kelly

 

[jasonjc]

You can get the DOT5 surplus for around $20-$25 a gal. I can't remeber where I got mine but 20-25 sounds right.

 

[derby]

I don't think using the dot3 will harm anything.just make shure you buy the right hone size,and don't use too much spring pressure.you want to polish ,not bore.as Stretch said be shure to keep the hone well lubed and keep it moving up and down.

 

[DDoyle]

According to the U.S. Army, DOT 3 and DOT 5 are completely compatible. The only problem that the army recognizes with mixing the two is that you lose the benefit of the DOT 5. IF you're concerned about this - then after honing you could flush the cylinders with alcohol.

Regards,
David