greg g Posted June 13, 2012 Report Posted June 13, 2012 If posies are to light for your application, you have a couple stacks of springs that might be used to fabricate a set, right on the rear of your frame. Quote
ascinder Posted June 23, 2012 Author Report Posted June 23, 2012 Thats a good point with the overloads being put into good use. Right now I have the water pump off since it had a static leak. I already have a new one, but after reading a little more on this forum, I bet all I probably had to do was throw a little grease in it. Unfortunately, the old one has a cast in place bypass elbow, while the new one requires a removable elbow which of course was not included. Also, I was going to convert to a 180 degree thermostat since I hear it is recommended for less sludge buildup. The problem is that the thermostat is pretty well stuck in the housing. Anybody know any tricks to get it out? I already tried heating the housing up with a torch but all that did was melt some solder in the thermostat. I was also able to get the 1-1/2" lugs off up front(after breaking a 3/4" drive breaker bar). I am still waiting on the 13/16" Budd wheel socket to arrive so I can remove the rear dually stud/nuts. The place I am stuck at is for lack of a better description, the hub nut. It is a huge 8 sided nut which I believe is holding the drum on. Where do you guys find all the oddball old tools for these trucks? I am having a fairly easy time finding parts, but all these specialty tools have become pretty elusive over the years. Quote
greg g Posted June 23, 2012 Report Posted June 23, 2012 You might want to post your rear Axle Brake special tool questioins on the Pilot house board. The cars have a tappered axle withthe hub and drum riveted together rewuiring a HD puller. But I can not commet on the set up of the dual wheel axle and its particualrs. The elbow can be fabbed from standard pipe fittings from your local hardware store. Quote
ascinder Posted June 23, 2012 Author Report Posted June 23, 2012 These special octagon nuts are up front. The rears I was referring to just have the budd style dually nuts which are 13/16 square drive. I have a socket on the way for those already. So another thing to mention for the water pump is that the old one was all plugged up with rtv on one of the holes on the back plate while the new one has a very small hole in the same area. Was this for restricting flow for some reason? I can take some pics if no one knows what I'm talking about. Quote
greg g Posted June 24, 2012 Report Posted June 24, 2012 Post a pic of your thermostat housing. there were two kinds of bypass systems used for warm up one internal and one external. The pump's backing plates are designed for whatever system they are installed with. Quote
ascinder Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Posted June 25, 2012 The eight sided hubs are on the front, the rears come off pretty easily I believe. They are a full floating type axle, usually you unbolt about eight bolts, pull out the axle shafts, then take off a locknut or two and the drums come off. As for the actual eight sided hubs up front, I havent been able to track down a 2-1/4" octagon socket anywhere. I am just going to plasma cut one out of 1/4" or 3/8" steel and weld on a 3/4" socket. Thanks for the tip on the pipe fitting too. I was able to look into the drums up front through an inspection hole and determine that the shoes have quite a bit of life left in them, which hopefully means that I just have to make up some brake lines for the front and try them out. Quote
Young Ed Posted June 25, 2012 Report Posted June 25, 2012 If you go over to the truck side I believe there is a cad drawing of the tool you need Quote
Dodgeb4ya Posted June 25, 2012 Report Posted June 25, 2012 Are you talking about the front brake drum outer screw on grease caps? They measure 2-1/4". If you have a pair of 16" channel locks you can reach into the hub area and unscrew these caps. They shouldn't nor do they need to be real tight. I have shown the same cap except it is a chromed Dodge front axle grease cap. These front grease caps are all the same from 1 tons through the 2-1/2 ton series trucks. On the rear axle hub as you stated remove the eight 5/8" axle flange nuts and you will see a couple threaded holes in the flange. These are for installing a bolt-think a 3/8"X16 bolt size and then forcing the axle from the drum hub. The inner octagonal axle nuts (2) are I think 3-1/4". Shown are some of the OTC axle sockets I use to do these jobs. Bob Quote
ascinder Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Posted June 25, 2012 (edited) Sorry for the somewhat repeated posts, but for some reason when I view the forum in certain formats, it hasnt been updating with the latest posts. Below are the water pump and bypass thermostat housing pics. On the newer water pump, the small hole allows water through at a very small rate while the large hole in the same location on the older pump is totally clogged up with RTV save for a similarly sized hole in the same loation. As for the front hub nut, that is stellar news! I was about to fire up the plasma cutter Also great deal on the rear axle. I am just waiting on the socket to show up and I'll be popping off the wheel so I can change out the leaky wheel cylinder. Edited June 25, 2012 by ascinder Quote
ascinder Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Posted January 17, 2015 So a bit of an update to this aging post. I was able to get the octagon front hub socket and was also able to remove the rear wheels to get at the brakes. The brakes are super huge and appear to be in good shape. After I removed the suspect leaking cylinder(which was the actual culprit) I discovered that the piston had developed so much rust in the bore that it wasn't even able to be honed out. So I was able to find and install new cylinders, but what I would really like to do is clean out the years and years of accumulated brake crud. You know that stuff that is a combination of brake fluid, grease, dirt, dust, grime and probably a great many other evil substances that combine into a devilishly persistent, almost tar like sludge that stubbornly clings to nooks and crannies. How do you clean that off? It is stuck on THICK in some places, and immediately clogs up any wire brushes I use to try and get it off. I can feebly scrape at it with screwdrivers and such, but it is painfully slow and ineffective at best. I would ultimately like to deep clean and repaint the brake components chiefly for the ability to be able to more easily clean them in the future. The clincher is that they are riveted to the axle, so removing them to solvent tank is out of the question. I don't think abrasive blasting would work all that well either. Any ideas or insights would be really appreciated. On to the wheels. I have decided I wouldn't mind keeping the stock vintage goodness of the wheels, and having removed them, I had no problems removing the retaining ring and even unseating one of the tire beads, I am now stuck on trying to(in vain) remove the tube and other bead. It is kicking my butt. Should I just take these to a medium truck wheel and tire shop to have the demount them or is there some secret trick to these? I was also able to get some collision repair achieved on this bad boy. It had been previously used as a logging truck and way more than once, a log had slid forward and bashed the living bejeezus out of the rear/top of the roof. I have straightened out many of the most grievous dents, but there are still many smaller offenders waiting in line to be battered back into some semblance of straight. I have also gotten ahold of some copper slugs to use as backing to weld fill holes left where truck mirrors used to be mounted. Quote
deathbound Posted January 17, 2015 Report Posted January 17, 2015 You've been given a lot of good advice here, but may get more "truck specific" help if it was moved to the truck forum (moderator?). Some of them are scared to read/post on the car forum, but with the title of your thread, their ears will perk up. Good luck. BTW.....any updated pics? Quote
BigDaddyO Posted January 17, 2015 Report Posted January 17, 2015 Just spray bomb it black, paint the wheels red, put a wolf whistle on it and drive it around wearing x-ray glasses. Quote
pflaming Posted January 18, 2015 Report Posted January 18, 2015 That yellow is rad. DON"T cover it up with paint. Just rub it down with lacquer thinner, wet sand it with 6OO grit and shoot it with 3-4 coats of clear. Paint the rims UPS brown and the very outer rim silver. Then drive it. That is an original! Love it. Drive it to Carlisle PA for the Mopar show. Quote
Dave72dt Posted January 18, 2015 Report Posted January 18, 2015 You might try hanging that axle from one end and hosing the backing plate down with brake cleaner, letting it sit for a while. That might soften some of it up so scraping may be easier. Blasting it won't do any good until the goo is gone. Scrapers, brake cleaner, shop rags (cloth ) patience. Quote
austinsailor Posted January 18, 2015 Report Posted January 18, 2015 1. sandblast them. 2. put them in an engine/parts washing cabinet. Sort of like an industrial dishwasher. Either should clean the parts. Both work for me. Quote
ggdad1951 Posted January 18, 2015 Report Posted January 18, 2015 You've been given a lot of good advice here, but may get more "truck specific" help if it was moved to the truck forum (moderator?). Some of them are scared to read/post on the car forum, but with the title of your thread, their ears will perk up. Good luck. BTW.....any updated pics? hey now...I barely have time to read the truck side! Quote
ascinder Posted January 18, 2015 Author Report Posted January 18, 2015 Well, the trick of the matter with the axle is that whoever had it before me dropped the truck as you can see in the photos. To do this, they took the normally very long frame rails and cut them in half, then took the frame rails with leaf springs and axle still attached and set it up on top of the remaining frame rails which are still attached to the rest of the truck. They then welded vertical risers to hold everything together. So end result is the frame is now completely boxing in the axle, so hanging the axle is trickier than you'd think. It is also bigger and heavier than almost any rear end I have ever seen. The thing is a monster, so getting it up in the air is next to impossible without heavy equipment. I don't have any current pics because just after I got the truck, I headed over to Afghanistan for work and have been there since. I am due for a month rotation home in March and am trying to get everything ready to be able to get some work done on this. Quote
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