Go hard or go home also applies to breaking stuff... Grenaded my front wheel bearings

[CanonNinja]

Well, finally sold the A3 I had, and went to work on the brakes for the new owner, when I discovered it wasnt just brakes. Apparently the heat from dragging shoes destroyed the outer wheel bearing, and pretty much seized up (or welded) the body of the bearing to the spindle. Had to pull the rollers out piece by piece, and after some cussing and sweat, looks like the hub and drum are stuck on the truck for now. I have an extra A3 rear axle I plan to swipe the bearings (good to go) from, but any ideas on getting the drum off? Its come down to, in my head, using a drum puller, or bolting up a spare split-rim wheel and hammering the dog$H1! out of it until I break it free. Looks like Im in this for some brake parts, plus the bearings and a new spindle.


Ideas? Comments? Concerns?

 

[moving chicane]

Did you adjust the shoes all the way in, so they will clear the lip caused by dragging? If so I would vote for an OA torch and rose bud + mini sledge

 

[CanonNinja]

I forgot about that part actually (DOH). The drum has about 1/2" of play in and out, and can oscillate a bit, but appears to be held up by what's left of the outer wheel bearing. There seems to be play in everything except between the bearing and spindle.


That said, I've had **** of a time looking online for a part number (or source for that matter) for an A3 spindle. I turned over all my manuals to the buyer to begin to get versed on these trucks.

 

[welldigger]

I believe john at TNJ Murray has a couple of a3's he's parting out. Might try and give him a call. I'm trying to think of how you could put a puller on it but there's not much inside that hub to brace the puller on.

 

[CanonNinja]

True. I was going to attempt to use a donor rear axle for the bearings and hub (since it looks like the races are hosed), but it looks like the spindle is trashed too. Might just end up having to replace the entire front axle at this point. Unless someone else

 

[rosco]

Sometimes when a race turns on a spindle or shaft, it wears a little groove on each side of it. That keeps it from sliding off. Can you detect any movement of the race? Is it stuck to the spindle. Use a big punch on it to try to break it free, or a piece of pipe. You might be able to split it, if you are handy with a torch. I had one like that on a rear axle housing, but could remove the axle. Then i put a cap, or disc, over the housing stud, and put a 12 ton hydraulic jack on it, and wraped a chain to the rest, and just jacked it off.

 

[welldigger]

Man that looks bad. I guess you could get a punch and a BFH and hit that race side to side and see if you can break it loose. Then just stick the puller on. The seal retainer and the u-joint should keep the axle from moving backwards.

 

[CanonNinja]

The A3 spindles are side-dependent because of the CTIS system. This is turning into possibly the worst case scenario here. Even if I get this drum off, there seems to be several small A3-specific parts that may not be worth replacing, vs swapping the entire front axle

 

[welldigger]

If you get a new pair of spindles and you have bearings, hub, and drums from a rear axle that should cover most bases. You will also need to replace the o-rings in there for the ctis. But those should be changed anyways.

 

[welldigger]

I forgot to mention all of the ctis crap is welded or soldered onto the spindle itself. So if you get everything off simply unbolt the spindle from the knuckle and all you will need extra is a new pair of spindles.

 

[CanonNinja]

I'm trying to source the spindles, but no luck so far =/ part number i need is 12448552

 

[welldigger]

If the new owner doesn't care about ctis you can switch to a2 spindles and bearings.

If they do then try:
Red River truck parts in Texarkana TX.
Army Surplus of Dodge City KS.
Memphis equipment.
TNJ Murray.
Eastern Surplus.

Remember to call these places. Some of those don't sell parts right off the website or don't show their complete inventory.

 

[CanonNinja]

Im gonna call a few of them tomorrow and see what I can come up with. Right now, CTIS is not working, there's a leak in the rear most axle somewhere, and my $400 for work I had done by CM Automotive on the controller was for naught, as the **** thing is going haywire again. He wants the capability there, even though he expressed concern and talked about disabling it completely when he first came to preview the truck. Its driving me nuts, and I'd really like to just find a take off A2 front axle, throw it on the truck and be done with it.

 

[welldigger]

Ya I hear you there. A buddy of mine has some a3 ctis parts and axle parts but no front spindles. Crap like what your going through is exactly why I DON'T like the a3.

 

[CanonNinja]

Well, looks like im going to just convert the one side to A2 stuff, with the new seals, bearings and spindle. Is the hub going to be the same, or will I need to snag one off a parts truck?

 

[welldigger]

Hub is the same. Just put a plug in it where the ctis line goes in and be sure to put new races in.

 

[Recovry4x4]

You may need to heat up a section cherry red on the inner part of the bearing to be able to make progress with a chisel.

 

[Hainebd]

I have cut many races off spindles with a torch without spindle damage. It is a mess with lots of fire for a short time but can be done. The key is not to heat race to long and cut as soon as you can. All heat applied to race and blow till you get to spindle. The spindle should not be hot enough and your blow will stop at the spindle to race gap.

 

[CanonNinja]

The main issue is right now the old bearing and race are stuck on the spindle, preventing me from getting the hub and drum off. Not much room to work with

 

[peashooter]

If I was in your place I'd try to cut the bearing race in one spot (the one stuck on the spindle). Once you have cut a groove through as much of it as you can then stick a chisle in the cut area to break/spread it to get it off. Obviously there isnt room to get any cuttoff wheel in there but (again if it was me) I'd buy a few packs of small diameter dremel grinding bits (coarse aluminum oxide ones for metal) and try grinding a notch through 1 part of that stuck spindle bearing race. I'm sure this would work, but you may go through a few packs of bits. Mcmaster.com usually sells quality stuff and a pack of 5 bits with 1/8" diameter grinding tips is about $4, so even if you go through 20 bits, you still only have $20 bucks into it.
You might want to make sure you get half decent grinding bits if you go this route, the ones from the Home improvment stores wont hold up as well as the quality ones.