The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Drive shaft/Axle Work

While investigating the parking brake, I came across other issues. It started with noticing oil in the right rear brake drum which led to me pulling the axle and installing a new seal. In that process, I found that the differential had too much fluid in it - when I took out the fill plug, gear oil came out. This led me to the bushings and seal in the drive shaft near the transmission likely being bad (fluid from the transmission leaking down into the differential). After some research and help here, I came across the Okie solution.

Also while under the truck, I noticed the threaded collar that seals the torque tube to the bell housing (?) was unscrewed and also leaking fluid. I could not get the collar to screw back on possibly as suggested on here because I need to align the two pieces so they are parallel and therefore the collar will screw on correctly. This led to a question about the transmission mount pads maybe being worn.

So I have ordered the Okie bushing and seal and the transmission mount pad kit.

I have some images attached. I meant to take more photos during the axle removal process and the seal replacement, but kept forgetting!

Two of the images attached are for the following questions:

One image shows what I believe is the bell housing cover. From what I understand, I need to remove this cover and then inside of there I will be detaching the u-joint and from there be able to access the torque tube and drive shaft to do the work on the bushing and seal. It seems likely I will have to remove the frame cross member, correct?

Another image shows the transmission mount pads. It looks completely wrong to me. I would think the pads should be on the top side of the plate as their current position would appear to have no purpose. They are currently not in between anything from what I can tell.

You need to loosen the collar ,the one that you cannot thread on then remove the 4 bolts that hold the bell retainer on both in your first picture .clean the torque tube behind the bell so that you can slide it back as far as it will go .Once you have got this far you should be able to see the universal joint. Put a jack stand under the torque tube up close to them joint but not in your way .Disconect the u joint and you should be able to lower the tube enough to work on installing a oakie bushing.There are two sizes of oakie bushings and even then you need to measure to make sure they will fit .The two I have tried one was to tight so it had to have material taken off to fit in the tube and once in the tube it tightened so the yoke would not fit and also tightened up on the driveshaft .The other one fit well after a little machining but I had to sand the bushing to allow the yoke to slide in .One video may help the jayhawker .

Yours being 1950 may have a dowel pin holding the front bushing that needs to be removed as well as the dowel pin at the back may need to be removed to allow the old bushing at the back to be pushed back farther .You also need a puller.

Here is a picture of the dowels removed and the puller

Here's a link to the complete transmission mount from Classic Parts. If you look at the picture you can confirm that the rubber pads on your mount are in the wrong place.

Classic also sells just the pads so you can restore your mount, which has already been taken apart, to the correct configuration. Your rubber pads look to be pretty oil soaked, so may not have much life left in them. Should be easy to remove your mount and repair correctly instead of buying a whole new mount.

One very important precaution- - - - -DO NOT support the axle housing on jack stands. The way you have it set up at the moment preloads the torque tube with the weight of the truck, and once you try to unbolt the U joint, the torque tube will slam down. Move the jack stands to the frame rails, and let the rear end housing hang free.
Jerry

Hello everyone - Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for all of the advice. Through some research, I am aware of some things you've brought up but there are some things in your comments that I didn't know.

The only other question I have ahead of tackling the project is it seems to me I will need to remove the frame cross member. Do you think that is necessary? I haven't looked at how it is attached or whether it the bolts are old an rusted, etc.

Also, it looks like I need to buy the tool for removing the bushing? I see Chevs of the 40's has it. i guess I should have ordered it with the other parts.

I can't remember where I got my removal tool (maybe Jim Carter?), but after using it I could send it back for a partial refund. I'm not planning on doing an Okie bushing again, so back it went and I used the dollars for more project parts.

The removal tool was difficult for me to use it first took the brass insert out of the bushing and that made it more difficult to remove the rest of the bushing I ended up making a thicker inner part of the tool to spread the jaws a little further to grab the rest . There is someone on y tube who welded a pipe and washer with a nut to the old bushing to get it out. Also important is to measure the oakie bushing and compare to the bushing you took out ,the inside of the tube to the bushing size ,the yoke to see if it will fit proper .I had three bushings to look at one was for earlier tube but they all were different in size by a little bit .When you are happy that it will fit you can warm up the tube and put the bushing in the freezer before installing. Good luck hope my imfo helps did not intend on babbling and I hope it all goes well.

IIRC there are two different diameters of Oakie bushings. The earlier ones also have a pin that keeps them in. The pin has to be removed to get it loose. I think they changed in around 1950 or 1951 that don't have the pin, but are just press fit. My 1950 was without the pin. I tried making a removal tool, but failed miserably and had to use a "rental" one from one of the vendors. The filling station lists 3 separate oakie bushings, 37-39, 40-50, and 51-54.

Well, it has been a bit. Other things in life got in the way (and will continue to I am sure). I started to work on this project today. I got the bell housing bolts removed but the bell housing is still held in place by some RVT sealant of some sort, so it will take some prying to get it loose. I went ahead and removed the transmission mount and took photos. First two show how it was installed and the second two are how I will install the new pads and bolts in the kit I got from Chevy's of the 40's. I decided to come back to this thread and read through all of the comments to help prepare for the next steps. Thanks again to everyone for your advice. I'll let you know how it goes - hopefully sooner than another 6 months!

The original transmission support was riveted together with rubber material sandwiching the mounting plate. You should put one of your pads above and one below the mounting plate. With the bolts, the support can slide forward and backward, but on the original was captured by the molded in place rubber.

Here's a pic of mine after I used polyurethane to reproduce the original rubber. In the second pic, you can see the space around the rivets that got filled with rubber.

Got it. That makes sense.

Okay, I have the bell housing pulled back. I am at step three in the manual, "Remove cap screws which fasten front trunnion bearings to the front yoke."

The screws I would actually call bolts because they are held on by nuts. There are some sort of clips in place to keep the bolts and nuts from loosening and falling off. There is nothing in the manual about those clips and I am not sure what to do. Is there some way to unclip them, or do I have to bend the tabs back? By the way, the one bolt I touched is loose, so I guess it is good the clip thing is on there.

Once I get those bolts removed, my understanding is I will be able to pull the rear yoke back far enough to get it around the end of the transmission and then pull the yoke off the propeller shaft.

Correct on all accounts. You can get replacement keepers from the usual vendors in case the tabs break as you bend them out of the way. Interesting that you found a bolt loose. I found the same when I disassembled my u-joint and I know I tightened them all when I put it together.

Thank you for the quick reply.

Well, things have taken a turn for the worse. One of the bolts on the u-joint connection was missing. And one tab on each of the lock plates was also missing. I felt around with a magnet and found one of the tabs, but I did not find the bolt.

There are various reasons why I had put this project on hold a while back, but one of them was because while stopped at a stop sign, the truck made clunk noise and wouldn't move forward. I was able to get it to move if I allowed it to back up a bit and then it would go forward, but then it would clunk while driving and resisted moving forward as if I had the brakes on. So I pulled over, rented a trailer and trailered it back home.

Now I am thinking it may be that missing bolt is somewhere in the transmission and that is where the clunk is coming from? I don't know if there is room for it to make its way from the u-joint area forward into the transmission, but I scraped all around the end of the transmission area of the u-joint and didn't find it. I am working on the ground underneath the truck, so it is a little hard to see.

On another note, I don't see how I can get the rear u-joint out of the propeller shaft. When I lift it, it doesn't clear the end of transmission before hitting the floor of the cabin. I can't bring it down because the frame cross member is in the way. Do I need to remove the cross member? Even with the cross member removed, it wouldn't clear the transmission because I have the entire truck on jack stands. Maybe if I lowered the rear of the truck off the stands, the shaft would be closer to horizontal relative to the transmission and then it might clear. It is also possible I am not pushing the u-joint back on the splines far enough - I only got to move maybe 1/2 inch.

So, thoughts on the missing bolt? (I am afraid removal of the transmission and a rebuild may be in order - which means the truck is going to have to sit for long while as I have other projects that are going to take priority unfortunately).

Should I removed the frame cross member? (I am sure that will be fun looking at the very rusted bolts)

I should mention regarding the "clunk" issue: Back when it happened, I did do some investigating because as I said in my original post, I had just replaced the seal in one of the axles which involved opening the differential and removing the axle. I went ahead and opened the differential again and rotated the wheels to make sure everything looked good back there. Twice while rotating the wheels, they stopped and I didn't see anything amiss in the differential. Each time if I went the opposite direction just a bit (basically took the load off), the wheels rotated again fine.

So, that leads me to believe even more this missing bolt is the culprit.

I really doubt that the missing bolt wound up in the transmission. Even if it did, it wouldn't be able to get to where the gears are because there's a ball bearing in the way. I'm going to guess that it's inside the ball cover that's still on the driveshaft torque tube. Yes, you'll need to pull the crossmember out in order to drop the torque tube enough to slide the u-joint off. The u-joint yoke should slide back more than 1/2 inch but unless you move the ball cover back (loosen the packing nut on the back of it and probably clean the gunk off the torque tube to allow that.) I'll bet the inside of the ball cover is torn up a bit if the bolt wedged between it and the u-joint, even temporarily.

Do be careful to put a jack under the torque tube as it will be forced down by the weight on the axle tube if you have jack stands there. It can cause some damage if you don't control it with either a jack or something to hold it in place. You don't want it hitting you in the head.

Slide the pivot ball as far back as possible- - - - -it should move at least a couple of inches. Most likely, the missing bolt is wedged between the U joint and the Okie bushing, which is keeping the joint from sliding back far enough on the spline to clear the transmission housing. Supporting the frame of the truck on jack stands (not the axle tubes) so the rear end hangs free will minimize the down pressure on the torque tube. Worst case scenario, unbolt the spring U bolts and slide the whole axle assembly back on the springs. Then you'll be able to drop the torque tube down and deal with removing the U joint.
Jerry

i have moved the ball cover thing as far back as it can go (where the tube tapers out to a wider diameter, so that's good. I had a feeling that I just wasn't getting the u-joint back far enough on the spline, but wanted to check. It seems like if I can remove the cross thing in the yoke that would help with clearance, too. I am hopeful once I can get the tube lowered (the jack stands are under the frame in stead of the rear axle thanks to suggestions here on the forum), things will be more clear.

Hopefully I will find the beat up bolt. Thinking more about it, even if it did get into the transmission, I would imagine it would more likely fall to the bottom near the drain plug. There is visible dents on the yoke, so I am hoping that is what was causing the clunking issue which means it is in the u-joint area somewhere.

Thanks!

There's no way that the bolt would get into the part of the transmission where the gears are. As I said, that's blocked by a ball bearing.between the main part of the case and the tail portion where the speedometer gear and u-joint are. So don't worry about that.

Maybe one of the 4 bolts holding U-Joint came loose?
If you pulled the bell cap back you should be able to see the bolts holding the U-Joint. They have bendable tabs to "Lock" the 3/8" head bolt in place. Those tabs are weak.

Gents, about 5 ago when I started working on our 1/2 Ton with 216 engine we had a leak at the front U-Joint. We disassembled that area and found that one bolt was about ¾ out and the inside of the bell housing was deeply scored. So we assumed that at some time someone had previously had disassembled for whatever reason and didn’t secure the U-Joint properly. We replaced the U-Joint, bolts and bolt keepers, cleaned up the bell housing and to this date it seeps at gland nut. We also had to repair the aft tranny Mount.

The tabs on the bolt keepers aren't necessarily weak, but they can only stand bending back and forth so many times. Then they break.

I've got a couple of u-joint ball housings that are so bad that they have lumps on the outside. I tried hammering them back down, but getting the ball back into a true sphere was nearly impossible. Wound up finding a NOS replacement. If the gland nut on the back isn't tight enough, or the seal is worn, crank it down tighter with a strap style wrench.

Well it has been an interesting day. First of all, I did find the bolt as you can see in the photo attached. I also was able to drop the cross frame (thank you impact wrench). I was then able to get the rear yoke to clear the transmission by putting a jack underneath the differential and raising the rear end so that the torque tube was more horizontal and the yoke move in such a way that it cleared the transmission. I had the rear end off the ground but the jack stands are set under the frame, so the suspension was at its full extension.

Now check out the second photo. That is the top of the torque tube. Anyone ever seen that before? I really have no idea how that could happen. I am hoping that if I can get the okie seal in there it will help make it all structurally sound.

Wow, that torque tube looks ugly. No idea how that might have happened. Possibly as long as the oakie bushing fits snugly, and the sealing area toward the rear is smooth so it seals properly, it could be reused.

That's about as far as that bolt could go, which is fortunate.

What I am trying to figure out: what is the part behind the sleeve I need to remove? I can’t seem to push the removal tool in far enough for it to grab the other side of the sleeve because there is another “sleeve” there. I am speaking of the kind of threaded looking thing. Once I get the sleeve removed am I supposed to just shove the okie thing in and push that part further back along the tube?

There is a hole on top of the tube a little to the left of the photo that I assume was where the dowel was located?

I have been trying to extract the sleeve and also running into issues with the front of the tube because it is deformed and won’t let the sleeve pass through. The tube is not very bendable which is a good thing I guess, but it is making it difficult to round the outer hole.

I’ll go get some more photos and post them in a few minutes.

Here are a couple of photos. You can see on the end of the tube, it is somewhat deformed. I need to somehow bend some of the edges out a bit so I can extract the sleeve and also insert the okie.

Wow, looking at the torque tube That looks like prior damage. ?
If you have the tool it only has to go inside maybe 2 inches where it "Grabs" the old bushing, if original or Okie. You might have to "Round" it out the best you can. Also, I don't think any torque tube after 1950 ish had dowel pin unless it was added.
So One u-joint bolt fell out and 3 were attached but no spin to axel? Or is U-joint destroyed too?

I think someone has previously installed an oakie bushing. The original front bushing is only about 1-1/2" long, so if that was all that was in there, you'd be able to see the splined driveshaft behind it through that gash. The rear dowel pin has been removed to allow the rear bushing to be pushed back by the oakie bushing.

Since there's that big hole in there, you could weld a piece of metal to the bushing to allow you to hammer it out.

Also since there's a dowel pin hole, you likely need to use the earlier (smaller diameter) oakie bushing. That might be the cause of the gash near the front end - someone going crazy getting the original bushing out.

This is the most horrific Oakie bushing thread I've seen on this site.

Considering the amount of deformity and damage that torque tube has suffered, maybe it's time to locate another one??? There are very frequently complete torque tube axles that come up for sale as many folks swap out for later model rear axles or convert to open drive differentials.

If you decide to go the replacement torque tube route, post an ad in the Truck Parts Wanted forum and we can try and help you locate a replacement.

I'd have to agree with Dan. Someone beat the snot out of the tube back around the rear dowel pin hole, too. Might be time to replace the differential and torque tube (you don't need to replace the whole rear axle, but you could. Might be an opportunity to install a 3.55 ratio ring and pinion at the same time.

One bolt fell out, but there was only some minor nicks on the yoke, so everything looks okay around the U-joint so far.


So there is a ~1 1/2" bushing in there that I am trying to remove. In the photo, you can see about a 1/4" gap between it and whatever that is (maybe an okie - but then why the standard bushing?)



Honestly, if it were another 10 or so years down the road when I am hopefully able to be retired, I would be all in on doing something like you suggest. Right now though, i just need it to survive until then. If I can just take it out every once in while for short distances, that would be enough for now. Outside of work, I have many other projects occupying my time and I don't have a nice place where the truck can sit for weeks on end while I work on it (I am working on it in my side gravel driveway right now).

Like I said in my introduction, this was my uncle's and when he passed last year I brought it to my home. I am super grateful to have the truck and it means even more because it was my uncle's. But the timing isn't right for me to be able to put a lot of time and space into working on it.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions and help. I'll let you know how this progresses.

I've been reading another Okie thread by Shaffer's1950 and it does seem that there shouldn't be that thing right behind the front bushing. It does look like an Okie. So someone removed the old bushing, shoved an okie in there and then put a new bushing in from of it?

Looks like I need to remove what appears to be an Okie.

This is going to be fun.

No what you see is all part of the oakie bushing. They're machined with deeper grooves in the center part of the assembly, and smoother on both ends.

As far as removing it, since there's that gap in the tube, you could either drill a hole to give a punch something to push against and drive it out, or weld a tab to the bushing and hammer against that. You'll probably want to remove the crossmember and drop the torque tube down a bit to give yourself some room to swing a hammer. If you don't want to swap out the differential and torque tube, dress up those divots near the dowel hole with a fine file to be sure that they don't interfere with sealing the ball cover on.

Just a SWAG idea on your situation based on the available pictures, and knowing what an intact "Oakie Bushing" should look like (below).

It might be that a PO tried to install an Oakie bushing and buggered up the forward seal end (smooth side surface section beyond the multi-ringed side section). With that outer smooth seal section destroyed, they may have cut it off from the rest of the partially installed Oakie, driven the remainder of the Oakie in, then cut off another forward Oakie seal section and driven it in. I said it was a SWAG (silly wild a-- guess).

The reason I think this may be the case is the picture showing the gap between the Oakie in the tube separated from the forward seal section leads me to believe the remainder of the Oakie was driven in too deeply, and the other forward Oakie seal section was installed at the proper depth to seal the yoke when installed. That would account for the 1/4" or so gap shown between the two pieces.

It's your call on what you want to do for now to get things back together enough to just occasionally drive the truck, but considering the damage to the torque tube and the possibility that putting it back together this way could lead to a repeat failure of the u-joint, mounting hardware, or worse, I think safe operation of the vehicle might be questionable.

Best to consider the safety of not just yourself but others on the road as well.

I got the front bushing removed. Took some work, but it eventually came out.

It looks to me like the person installed the Okie backwards with the oil seal in front. Realized their mistake too late - maybe even tried unsuccessfully to remove it. Gave up and instead reinstalled the front bushing (or bought a new one) and pushed the Okie back far enough that they could get the yoke on. That is why I had trouble getting the yoke back far enough to clear the transmission was because the wrong end of the okie was blocking it.


I respect your opinion Dan and I'll keep this in mind. I will say that even with the split in the top, that torque tube is very robust. I couldn't bend it in any way despite my best efforts. I would think if I can get the new okie (which seem pretty solid) installed properly I should be okay. But, yes, I don't know. I also have no idea how long it has been in the current condition.

My next hurdle is seeing if I can get the old okie out. And, ultimately, giving up and trying to find a used torque tube per Dan's suggestion. I don't know how much work that would involve but it may come to that.

By the way, I just measured the new okie I bought and it measures 1 47/64 in diameter at its largest width and the bushing I removed measured the same, so I guess that's good at least.