Rear Axle Rebuild

 I'm taking a break from working on the rusted body and now that Lee helped me get the frame disassembled and painted I decided to rebuild the rear axle and start re-assembling the frame.

Here its all apart except for the removal of the old drum brakes.  Its getting all new gears and brakes.  Axle ratio will be 3.36:1 with POSI traction which will work good with the 700R4 transmission.

Brakes are off in the right picture

The new gear set is made by Yukon which is one of the most popular for DIYer rebuilds.  The process to rebuild a rear-end is not for the faint at heart.  The new gears have to be adjusted, adjusted, and adjusted to get them just right.  If you don't get it they will wear too fast or be noisey.  And possibly overheat.  I took it apart and put it together at least 6 times before I felt comfortable.  Once that was done I took the pinion gear to a friend and had the bearing permenately pressed on.  Once that is done no more changes can be made.  When I got the press done and reassembled it for the last time the setting were off slightly but they also appear to be close enough to be OK.  We are talking about .002 thousanths that it may be off but from what I read its acceptable and I'm happy with it.

Here the new gearset is installed and you can see the yellow pattern paint I put on the ring gear.  The yellow paint is used to see the contact pattern of the ring gear to the pinion gear.

Its complete now and ready to paint.

Tada....its painted.  Now I will proceed to install the caliper brackets for the new disk brakes.

The Caliper brackets are on.  Before installing the new brake calipers I will get my neighbor to help me get the axle re-installed on the frame.  I is just way to heavy as it is and the brakes make it heavier.

Next post will be installing this monster.

I have received the new gauge set also and am working in the house to install the gauges into the carbon fiber dash bezel because I am anxious to see how they look.  Thats what I do on rainy days.