The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Servicing the Torque Tube Bushnigs & Oil Seal, Building a Better Mouse Trap

Servicing the Torque Tube Bushings & Oil Seal, Building a Better Mouse Trap.

I've been thinking about this for awhile.
This is what I came up with - The Torque Tube Splice

You could use ether a Okie bushing or the original Bushings & Oil Seal.
I prefer the the original Bushings & Oil Seal.

This would be so much easier to install the Bushings & Oil Seal.
Just unbolt the front end of the torque tube at the splice and slide it off the propeller shaft.

Replace the Bushings & Oil Seal on the bench.
Slide the end of the torque tube back on, bolt it in place. Done!

Do you think this would work or is there to many forces involved?
What would be the down side and up side to The Torque Tube Splice?

Interesting idea.

My only issue is to make the serviceable bushing you would need to fully disassemble the TT anyway. So why not just replace the part and put back together?

Once you replace the bushing, you will not need to remove it again. Also it provides another place to have leaks.

In my 1937 Truck Sales Handbook, there is a statement regarding the 1 1/2 ton driveline that may apply here. This model truck has a hybrid driveline; the front is open and rear of the carrier bearing it is a torque tube. So it is not the same as a full torque tube, but they comment the "all braking and torque strains are borne by the torque tube...".

This makes me think that there may be considerable strain, especially upon braking, on the torque tube and unless the splice is robust, you may have failure there.

Perhaps the engineer types might have some thing to add.

Kent

I don't understand what you mean. Please elaborate.

The whole point of the Torque Tube splice, is to gain easy access to the bushings and the oil seal.
Otherwise you have to go through the extra work of pulling the axle shafts, remove the entire torque
tube from the rear axle housing, remove the differential case from the carrier housing, then
remove the pinion gear and propeller shaft from the torque tube housing.
After all that, you finally have access to the bushings and oil seal.

With a splice in the torque tube you just unbolt the splice and slide the end of the
torque tube off the propeller shaft. You now have access to the bushings and oil seal. Less work.

If you have a torque tube that already has a Okie bushing assembly installed, and it needs to be replaced.
The assemblies are tight and they are hard to get out of the torque tube.
Sometimes the only way to remove the Okie bushing assembly is to make a special tool or
do the extra work and remove the torque tube from the axle housing.

When installing a Okie bushing assembly, the old rear bushing and oil seal remains in the torque tube.
Which makes the propeller shaft potentially run hotter.

It is much better to remove all the worn out parts.

Do you mean the bushings don't need to be replaced that often?
I think most of the time the main reason for servicing the toque tube is not that the bushings failed, it is because the oil seal failed.
The reason for the repair is because, the gear lube in the tranny is disappearing and is ending up in the rear axle.

I thought about that and my conclusion was, if there was a leak at the torque tube splice that would indicate that the oil seal is leaking.
There should not be any lubricant beyond the oil seal.

That makes sense because, there was a company that made some kind of support Picture 1 , Picture 2, Picture 3, Picture 4
that clamped around the tail of the U-Joint ball housing and the torque tube.
Its soul purpose was to prevent the torque tube from drooping downward.
The reason for the torque tube droop is probably coming from the downward force when applying the brakes. Picture 5
Here is a GM film Strip (Starts on picture 35), about repairing the ball housing and the end of the torque tube.
Because of down force wearing them out.

About the the splice being robust.
I originally drew it up using a inner and a outer sleeve, but I was trying to keep the torque tube looking stock.
So I erased the outer sleeve, two sleeves might be needed to handle the forces involved.
Back to the drawing board.

To see if there is enough room between the propeller shaft and the inside of the torque tube housing.
I need to know the inside dimensions of the torque tube and the outside dimensions of the propeller shaft.
The inner sleeve may interfere with the propeller shaft if there isn't enough room.

I enjoyed that GM film strip.
Thanks Jeffrey