Free Spin Hub Question

I pulled the knuckles off of the Dodge axle I am building. After cleaning the spindle and knuckle mating surfaces, the 1992 D50 spindle fits into the knuckle nice and snug. If it is too loose, I think some of the weight will carry to the bolts. Since it is snug, the 4 mounting bolts will only have to hold the spindle to the hub.
 
i have 79 F250 rotors, 89 F250 bearing hubs, 94 F250 spindles, new bearings and seals, the long passenger side shaft out of an 02 (treasure item for sure), set of WARN locking hubs and 1 stub shaft.... just gotta track down that last stub, get 2 u-joints and i'm rdy to see if she works
 
Jedeka, thanks for the info I figured they would all be the same, good point that Tate brought up though, would of been a really big pain in the arse to go through all this to find out they would not work. There's no way I would trust my like to a couple of 1/2" bolts holding the spindle to the knuckle. Also a snug fit now means beat the living crap out of next time to get it off. tight enough fit for me.
 
Once the knuckle bores are cleaned up the stock hub units do not press fit in. It seems like it does not take long for them to get rusted into the knuckle bore. If you did not like the tightness of the D50 spindles into the bore, I do not think it would hurt to take .002" off of the spindle flange.
 
this is what i was concidering.... now to track down a stub, a spcaer plate and an old knuckle for drilling / test fitting purposes
 
TB1 said:
Jedeka, thanks for the info I figured they would all be the same, good point that Tate brought up though, would of been a really big pain in the arse to go through all this to find out they would not work. There's no way I would trust my like to a couple of 1/2" bolts holding the spindle to the knuckle. Also a snug fit now means beat the living crap out of next time to get it off. tight enough fit for me.
Click to expand...

Get the knuckle good and clean and use copious amounts of never seize on the spigot. I've never had an issue with them being seized in before, but you guys might have more rust issues in BC than we do on the otherside of the Rockies.
 
Well after about 6 hours it's done, The U joints were seized beyond belief ended up cutting them off with a zip cut disc. The driver side unit bearing would not come off come hell our high water, bearing finally split in two and was able to press it off with the trucks power steering.putting back together was pretty straight forward. One pointer I wanted to give was that there is a spacer that goes behind the backing plate for the brakes,toss it and just use the backing plate or else it causes the caliper to bind on the rotor. Also found out the hard way if your backing plate/dust shields are rusty and worn don't waste your time with them try and find new ones or as I did just left it off for now. For mounting bolts I used 1/2" x 2 "allen head bolts with nylock nuts which is what EMS uses in there kit. I had everything ready to go before hand all bearing packed seal in place ect , it still took forever. Plan for a whole day in case there is the typical rust problems. These hubs will increase the trucks track width on the front end for sure. The lock outs do not stick out past my 35" tires, but I wish I had bought rims with more negative off set/ back spacing. Pictures to follow tomorrow when I get home from work.
 
sounds awsome buddy.... luckily the last time i had my front end apart i lubed the crap out of it (last year) still waiting for 1 mor stub and the u-joints though.....
 
I might have an EMS kit with the 35 splines for sale. Make me a good offer and I would sell it. It even has the drive flanges. Just not sure if I want to install it or not.

When you go to the one piece axle where do you put the seal at? Does it go at the diff, or out by the cad? Also do you need to remove the needle bearing if you leave it out by the cad?
 
Tate said:
EMS uses 14mm socket head cap screws with nylocks.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, and sorry for the mis information. 1/2" works out to be just a little under 13mm. I think I will go order some 14mm ones today just to cover my arse.
 
zstroken said:
When you go to the one piece axle where do you put the seal at? Does it go at the diff, or out by the cad? Also do you need to remove the needle bearing if you leave it out by the cad?
Click to expand...

I'm not real familiar with the EMS kit and don't have any experiences with their 1 piece replacement shafts, but I'll give you my opinion on the CAD bearing and seal based on my experiences...

1. The seal should be at the diff.

2. The CAD needle bearing should be removed.

Why? Because the shaft has runout while it is rotating. A seal and/or bearing halfway down a 1 piece shaft is going to cause binding and leaks.
 
Some pictures of the conversion
this is the passenger side axle.
ry%3D400


Knuckle with axle installed and lubed up to save the next guy alot of headache

ry%3D400


Passenger side ready for brake rotor and hub

ry%3D400
 
Front end shoot after it was all done

ry%3D400


Side view

ry%3D400


ry%3D480


Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out, I had stock fiberglass running boards on the truck which I thought was causing the rubbing turns out it is the tires rubbing the bottom edge of the fender which are also rotten so a couple well placed hits with a BFH and it will do for now. I will be going back to a 285/75/16 tire next time as well which will help out.
 
I just received in a set of EMS axle shaft seals. The instructions tell you to remove the OEM right side seal. The removal of the bearing is determined after sliding the new, one piece axle shaft in. You may be fine on a 30 spline, but thinking a 35 spline shaft will require bearing removal. The new NASCAR style seals are then installed 1/4" into the axle shafts from the differential opening.
 
jedeka said:
I just received in a set of EMS axle shaft seals. The instructions tell you to remove the OEM right side seal. The removal of the bearing is determined after sliding the new, one piece axle shaft in. You may be fine on a 30 spline, but thinking a 35 spline shaft will require bearing removal. The new NASCAR style seals are then installed 1/4" into the axle shafts from the differential opening.
Click to expand...


The diameter on the 2 piece shaft where the bearing rides it 1.64(IIRC) The one piece 35 spline axle is 1.5 ish. I haven't looked at it. If the seal goes at the differential you won't have any oil on the bearing, so it needs to come out.
 
So after a couple of days driving all is well except for the passenger side axle seal started to leak,so when I replace the 1/2'' socket head bolts with the 14mm ones I will change the seal. Now the money side of things the total cost with all the parts added up was $703.64 Canadian pretty close to the same in American coin with exchange so a savings of approx $300 over the ems kit plus the shipping cost which would have been the killer for me good old UPS just loves it when we buy stuff and they can add all there fee's to it becomes not worth the hassle and added expense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top