Rebuilding the knuckles

[mrman5917]

Hello everyone,

Today I took apart the passenger side knuckle on my 1950 3A. To recap, my front hubs are/were mounted behind the drum (the front drums come off freely with only the wheel removal), the axle shaft ends look to be factory (or at least machined) with no threaded ends. My understanding was that the Bendix style joints were replaced in favor of the Spicer style joints, so I guess I'm a bit surprised that I have the older joint with what at least appears to be a later axle shaft. Or were the threaded ends dropped before the Spicer joints replaced the Bendix?

In any event, I just read through the Service Manual and it states that "The universal joint cannot possibly become disassembled after it is installed in the vehicle." But, while moving the knuckle around to remove the bolts from the king pin bearing caps, the axle shaft came out when moving the knuckle from what would have been a left turn to straight on. I haven't measured the diameter of the ball bearings, so I don't know if those are worn down (they don't look worn), but the joint itself looks relatively clean.

Is this something to worry about?

[rocketeer]

When you assembled the axle joint did you reinstall the lock pin? Not the center pin but the lock pin?

http://www.vernco.com/FrontAxle/id374.htm

Larry

[mrman5917]

I haven't re-assebled it yet, just took it apart. I'm just curious if, despite what the service manual says, if it really is possible to "disassemble" the joint while the knuckle is still on.

The pin is still in place at this point, and wasn't removed prior to taking apart the joint. I'm starting to think that shouldn't have happened since it appears from the Vernco site that extending the pin into the center ball is the final assembly step, so I would assume you'd have to start by retracting it to start the disassembly?

[Bob W]

At CJ-3A 37549 the Bendix axle shafts without an outer nut were placed into production. It is common for the Bendix shafts to come apart when you pull on them at a slight angle. You can see an area of wear on your shafts in the center of the surface where the ball rides. This is where the balls ride while driving straight ahead. If the groove is too deep it will cause a clicking noise when the wheels are turned in 4WD.

[mrman5917]

I'll try putting the joint back together when I go back out to work on it next weekend. I don't recall hearing clicking noises front he front axle, though the rest of the jeep was making lots of little noises so it may have been disguised. Is there a definitive way of determining if these should be replaced or not? I don't mind purchasing a new set of axle shafts if it's necessary, but I could obviously spend that money on other parts if it isn't.

I pulled apart the drivers side knuckle today, and lo and behold, I have a Spicer style on that side. Aside from there not being a snap ring on the end, this one at least had the shims on the top king pin cap versus the other side having them incorrectly installed on the bottom.

One thing I am having trouble with is getting the cross removed. I removed all 4 of the inner snap rings, but I can't seem to get the caps removed. I tried pressing them out (using the vice and two sockets method) but it seemed like the pressure I was putting on it was too much for it not moving at all, so I backed off. I also tried to just push the cap out from the inside of the joint thinking hat maybe they only moved one direction, but that didn't seem to work either. Is there a method to removing these, or do I just need to put a little more pressure on them?

[rocketeer]

I can tell by looking at the pic that the top cap is crooked and wedged. Take a hammer and tap it on the high side to unwedge it then check the others for the same problem. They must be pressed in and out in a straight line or they will wedge up and jamb.

Larry

[mrman5917]

I'll have to give that a try. I had given it a few taps after I realized that it wasn't moving, but it didn't really move much if at all. I'll try a little more persuasion next week, or maybe after work one day this week if I get home early enough. I'm assuming if it got wedged up there, I should be able to get it unwedged.

[mrman5917]

Ok, I only had a few minutes to work on the Jeep this weekend due to homework for my Masters, but...

I was able to push out half of the U-joint today and got the shorter axles haft half disconnected. It required a bit more force than what I anticipated, but right before I got to the point where I was going to stop, it started moving and things were great.

After that success, I tried doing the other half. While the picture I had above shows what looks like a crooked cap, I'm not sure that's the case. The material that holds the cap in is thinner on one side than the other, so I think that may be creating a sort of optical illusion.

In any event, I tried pushing and banging and all kinds of persuasion and was unable to get them to budge, even a little.

Is there another method I can use on these to coax them out?