A few nights ago I tore the old brake shoes and drums off. The left rear was a real bear and fought me the whole way. The bloody shoe was so badly worn into the drum that I had to back off the adjuster the whole way, and of course it’s 70 years old, rusty, cruddy and didn’t like to move. After backing it off the whole way, I still had to hammer and pry the snot out of the drum to get it to budge. The brake and drums are off.
Tonight I blocked up the frame on the driveway pad and proceeded to remove the rear center section to redo seals and such before I install the 62 rear gear. I’m doing this to get an open driveline for my 261 and T5 combination that’s sitting in the parts shed awaiting rebuild. I was in a good mood and was bobbing my head to the music as I raised up the back end, blocked it, removed the diff cover...all is good! Whoop whoop. “This stuff is fun!”
Wrench
Wrench
Wrench...
Then I went to remove the locking bolt for the axle spacer between the axle side gears...
SNAP! It twisted off.
You...dirty...m...(insert your very colourful language here and then do it again. And again. And again).
I tried to drill it in order to try an easy out. I started to drill and then the bloody bolt pushed in further! What the?! It snapped off right where the threads ended but of course it had a lip that was like a barb and forced it deeper with little hope of extraction. By this point I was extremely mad and should have gone to bed. But I began to think that my pal likely has parts for this kind of screw up. I wanted that gear out tonight. So what to do?
Hmmm...well...
That won’t work...
I doubt I can get in there...
Would this work.. bugger, of course not....
I had a neighbour once tell me, “If you’re going to hit it, *bleeping* hit it!”
So...
Enter my BFH! grabbed a long punch, my vise grips, and my sledge hammer. I hit that bloody pinion gear shaft as hard as I could and after a few blows I sheared that keeper bolt sideways. I was able to get the spacer out with surprisingly little damage. Hopefully my pal is able to salvage what remains. I packed up quickly and shut down as the mosquitoes were starting to swarm in force and my light was fading fast.
I checked my ‘62 axles and c clips, gears, etc that I took from the donor ‘62 to see how they looked compared to the 50’s. This install might work out after all. I hate twisted off bolts like that. That was one nearly impossible, methinks.
I’ll grab some pictures later to update as the sun had set and dusk was deep.
Frame: 17
Sheet: 3
Box: 18
Total: 38
🦊😎
Update:pics
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AJKWcycf3f3L6YzA7Here you can see the sheared keeper bolt. What a dirty bugger.
