Well, my parts came in, at least most of them. There were no brakes to be found, these ones have to be re-shoed. The short term plan is to clean them in some de-greaser, and have the pads re-done in the near future. We put the first hub together Friday after work. It was definitely due, there was some serious wear on the bearings and races. In fact, there was so much wear that my friend was concerned the truck had been run without gear oil in the rear end and told me to yank the "pig". More on that fun later. Anyway, we tore the races out and put the hub back together. By we of course I mean my friend. He gathered up a pile of hammers and punches and special tools and went to wailing on the hub. Races fell out, new races bearings and seals went in. I tried to follow along, but am glad I was not the one responsible. As it was, one new bearing decided to fall apart, and we very carefully had to clean all the rollers and put them back in place. My job was the cleaning of parts, and the greasing of bearings. After it was all put back together, he looked at it, and said "I don't like this setup, I wonder why GM built them this way, it is going to leak" I shrugged my shoulders, that is way out of my paygrade.
Saturday morning, I had non Chevy items to attend to, so did not get back to the truck until peak sun blasting time. I put a little umbrella in a table up over the side of the rear end I was working on, and it helped a little. The idea was to put the hub back together enough that I could get a tire on for stability, while I worked on the rear end and the other hub, so only one side of the truck was on a jack stand on a board, over dirt. Safety first. I slid my shop floor out from under the truck, pulled it over to the hub for when I dropped the outer bearing later, and prepped my self to install the hub. But wait, what is this? The most inner race on the axle was still there, it had stayed on the truck when I pulled it earlier, so I worked it off. Low and behold, a little rubber seal was behind it. I looked through all of my boxes, and parts inventory, no little rubber ring. I checked the shop manual, no reference. I took the old race and seal to my father, and he was of the opinion that I just use the old one. I went back to my friends shop where we pressed the bearings in to see if he had one in stock. He did not, but said the old one was fine to use, and now he loved the Chevy seal setup. The outer seal puts wear on the bearing instead of the spindle, and the little inner seal keeps the oil and dirt from going through that connection, or something like that. I really have not quite got it all in my head yet. If they were happy, I was happy. He even offered to come up and show me how to properly set the bearings on the truck. I slid the hub on, added the outer bearing and washer, and torques the inner lock nut down with my new very expensive special tool. He had me crank as hard as I could to pre-load the bearings, then back off a bit, then tighten to a certain "feel" that he showed me. This was pretty similar to the shop manual negative 45 degree turn. Then he told me that I should have popped the brake springs before the hub was put back on because it was blocking them now. Then we drank beer.
Sunday, I discovered that he was correct. The springs were a huge pain to take off, but I worked them off with a curly q tool someone left me. I removed the brake shoes, boxed all that up, put the drum and one tire on, and moved my operation under the truck (in the blessed shade). I figured that it was safest to work on the rear end with tires on the truck, I was pretty sure I could not lift the truck off of me if a jack-stand dropped the truck on me. First I pulled the left axle out with my special axle pulling bolt, then disconnected the vacuum lines, marking which line went where with tape. The driveshaft came off relatively easily, but I had to get a breaker bar for the rear end bolts. I was encouraged by the amount of oil that came out of the bolt holes, and yes, I did have a pan to catch it. I am slowly learning. The wind blew a good deal of it over my arm and face, but what can you do? The rear end in a 2 ton truck is HEAVY. It was all I could do to not drop it on my plywood shop floor. I was able to more or less gently get it to the ground, put it on a board, and drag it out from under the truck. Had a pretty bad strain headache from the sun and weight of the pig, so I just threw a towel over it and went back to the hub. I did look at the gears before that, and it seemed to be all shiny and new, not that I knew what to look for.
Put the truck up on a jack stand, pulled the tires, and went to hub removing. I am now an expert, so it should go quickly right? Ha ha. There is a line in the shop manual about the little flathead screws that hold the brake drum on. It says something to the effect of "they should be easily removable with a screw driver" It is a cruel lie by the authors of that book used to torture mechanics. I tapped and oiled and prodded, and finally got a power tool (which is the only time I have used power tools on this project). I borrowed my dads impact driver and worked the screws out. Even with that, I almost could not get them out, and destroyed them in the process. I backed the brakes off with the brake spoon tool, and went to pull the brake drum off. Nothing. I tapped around with a hammer to loosen things up. Nothing. More tapping, some light prying, a bit of cussing, nothing. After about an hour of this, my father says "just pull the whole hub off and then remove it". It sounds so easy when you put it that way, but I listened, and it all came off as one unit, which I threw in the back of my truck with the axles and various jars of bolts. The brake springs come off so much easier when the hub is not on, and you have the special tool. I whipped through stripping the brake parts off, and loaded everything in the truck.
Did I mention the rear end? I backed the truck up to where it was resting on the ground, and went to pick it up. I am still pretty strong despite the advancing years, but it was as if it was bolted to the ground. Of course anyone that could have helped me was gone, and by that time I was partially demented from sunstroke, so I decided I could load it on my own. I closed my eyes, channeled my younger self, bent at the knees, and slowly muscled it up until a lip was over the tailgate. Worked it around, spilled gear oil down my front, and got to where I could close the tailgate. I was seeing spots, but don't think that I did any permanent damage to my body.
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/161726854559/in-case-anyone-is-curious-this-is-what-the-2Back to the shop I went, and by this time it was dark. The brake shoe pad thingies and little parts went into a vat of commercial grade concentrated purple power de-greaser. It took three hard swings with a 16 pound sledge to to break the brake drum from the hub (yes I used blocks). The old bearings and races were removed, and everything was cleaned including bolts. We even douched the rear end out with pressurized gasoline, no smoking please. The hub went back together same as the day before, minus the exploding bearing trick. We cleaned off the brake adjusters with a wire wheel, and coated them with graphite. We also cleaned up the pumpkin bolts, and made a couple of special studs to slide the pig over to align holes. Basically a couple of bolts with the correct thread, cut the heads off, add a taper with the grinder, and cut a slot in the end for a screwdriver. That and the transmission jack should make the reinstall a lot easier. We checked the vacume on the two speed, and it seems to be working properly. I left teh rear end in his shop because there is less dust there, loaded the rest of the stuff in the truck, and then we celebrated.
The plan today after work is to dry out the brakes that have been soaking in degreaser all night, clean off the area where the brakes go, paint everything, and put the brakes back together. If I get all of that done before days end, I will put the hub back on, but that will probably end up being tomorrow. After it is all put back together enough to have tires on the ground, I will go back for the rear end and tranny jack. Hopefully by the end of the week I can have the rear end and brakes all put together with all the fluids they need. The plan for the weekend is to move up the brake chain to master cylinders and front brakes, and to drain the transmission. Best laid plans, we will see how it all goes.
