The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1946 1/2 ton - Spring Saddles / rear end ?

Can someone tell me how much clearance should I have between the Spring saddle and the rear end housing on my 46 1/2 ton?

Mine are real sloppy and after sandblasting the rear end I can see groves wear it looks like years of wear have left there marks on the rear end were the saddles ride on rear end housing.

Thanks for your help

Longhorn

Can you take a picture of the wear ?

I am not savy on adding pics to a post ,but I did add 3 pics to my photo bucket so you could see the wear.One of them you can see the right side on my trailer after coming home from the blaster. The other 2 or up close after painting.
Thank You
Longhorn

I was reading thru my service manual and refers to them as spring seats ,not spring saddles.It states that should you ever need to adlust these to pull you u bolts off take the 2 screws out of the spring seats and then pull the 2 halfs off and put them in a vice and file them down until you have a slight drag when installed back on the axle housing.But in my case it looks like the axle housing has wore a heck of a lot more than the spring seats have .I have a lot of up and down play now where it has wore more from the top of the axle housing than anywhere ,If I file the seats down as they say until I get a slight drag,at what point do I need to worry about it wearing right into the housing?I have about a 1/4 inch play up and down as it sits now.
Thanks for your help

I'm no expert with enclosed driveshaft rearend housings - but, you will have to get that 1/4" of movement fixed or the truck will not drive well at all. I see your dilema with filing the saddles, to get rid of that much play will produce "egg shape" that will wear very fast. If you can measure the housing diameter where saddles attach - see if it is round. Then have your local machine shop mill the saddle halves and rebore to sliding fit of axle housing diameter. Just my thoughts - good luck, let know how you solved the issue.