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rear axle 1918 Stanley
Posted by: Eric Gleason (IP Logged)
Date: August 26, 2004 01:27AM
<HTML>Hi,
Well, as I was waiting for the new boiler to get here I decided to look into a few other projects on the car. After I had gotten it fired up from its long rest I ran it for a while on a jack, just to make sure everything worked OK. While it ran on the jack I noticed that there was kind of a rumbling noise from the rear axle. I made sure to well lubricate all the bearings but this did not change the sound. So, during this lay up I decided to pull the engine thinking that maybe the inside axle bearings were bad.
After the engine was out it became clear that there was not enough clearance between the axle gears and the ring/spider gears, it was binding a bit as each tooth came into full contact. I pulled the axle with the idea of adding a thicker gasket between the cases to increase the clearence. I took it out and split the cases. At this time I noticed that the axle end play on one side was considerably more than that on the other side. The left side had almost no end play and the axle runs smooth in the bearings. The right (pump drive) side has about an 1/8" of end play even when everything is tight! So, I took everything apart, looks good, both axles the same length, however the housing on the right side is about an 1/8" shorter than that on the left!
Is there anyway to adjust this? The end play on this side means that the outside bearing moves out to the end of its housing when the inside bearing is properly seated in its race. At this outside position the pump drive gear is also in the correct location. Both sides were put together the same, circular nut, cone shaped spacer/bearing carrier, and then a spacing washer riding up against the turned lip on the axle shaft. On the right side if I switch the spacing washer to the outside of the cone shaped spacer (between it and the nut) it eliminates the end float and the axle rotates freely. Is this the correct fix?
When I disasembled things after I pulled off the wheels the circular nuts were finger tight, is that the right adjustment? Do the wheels and the nut at the end of the axle serve to lock this nut into position? Any hints on adjusting the truss rod once I get everything else back together? Sorry I am so long on these questions. Everything else on the car seems fine. When I had the engine cover of last year I adjusted the engine to get it in proper alignment with the ring gear, way out of square and too close. It is also a 740 engine so I know at least this part of the car is not how it came from the factory.
Thanks for your help. Eric</HTML>
Well, as I was waiting for the new boiler to get here I decided to look into a few other projects on the car. After I had gotten it fired up from its long rest I ran it for a while on a jack, just to make sure everything worked OK. While it ran on the jack I noticed that there was kind of a rumbling noise from the rear axle. I made sure to well lubricate all the bearings but this did not change the sound. So, during this lay up I decided to pull the engine thinking that maybe the inside axle bearings were bad.
After the engine was out it became clear that there was not enough clearance between the axle gears and the ring/spider gears, it was binding a bit as each tooth came into full contact. I pulled the axle with the idea of adding a thicker gasket between the cases to increase the clearence. I took it out and split the cases. At this time I noticed that the axle end play on one side was considerably more than that on the other side. The left side had almost no end play and the axle runs smooth in the bearings. The right (pump drive) side has about an 1/8" of end play even when everything is tight! So, I took everything apart, looks good, both axles the same length, however the housing on the right side is about an 1/8" shorter than that on the left!
Is there anyway to adjust this? The end play on this side means that the outside bearing moves out to the end of its housing when the inside bearing is properly seated in its race. At this outside position the pump drive gear is also in the correct location. Both sides were put together the same, circular nut, cone shaped spacer/bearing carrier, and then a spacing washer riding up against the turned lip on the axle shaft. On the right side if I switch the spacing washer to the outside of the cone shaped spacer (between it and the nut) it eliminates the end float and the axle rotates freely. Is this the correct fix?
When I disasembled things after I pulled off the wheels the circular nuts were finger tight, is that the right adjustment? Do the wheels and the nut at the end of the axle serve to lock this nut into position? Any hints on adjusting the truss rod once I get everything else back together? Sorry I am so long on these questions. Everything else on the car seems fine. When I had the engine cover of last year I adjusted the engine to get it in proper alignment with the ring gear, way out of square and too close. It is also a 740 engine so I know at least this part of the car is not how it came from the factory.
Thanks for your help. Eric</HTML>
Re: rear axle 1918 Stanley
Posted by: Eric Gleason (IP Logged)
Date: October 17, 2004 12:46AM
<HTML>Just thought I would give an update. I put in a thinner shim on the "short" side and got it to a point where the bearing had just the right amount of endfloat (barely any and still free rotation) and then made up the difference with a shim on the other side of the bearing cone so theat there was an equal amount of axle shaft projecting on each side. Then put the cases back together several times until I got the spacing just right on the ring gear (rotates freely on the spidergears with out too much play). Then put the axle back into the car and put the brakes back together. Bolted on the wheel on the un modified side, no problem, but when I went to put the left side wheel on the brake drum rubbed on the backing plate. I ended up shiming it out with shims placed on the shaft between the bearing retaining nut and the wheel hub. Took a wide shim. Now everything seems to work fine. Will road test it after everything else gets back together.</HTML>
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