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Disassembly and cleaning of the Dana 25 continues.
The yellow and blue paint is super thick. There are two different colors of OD green on everything too.

I had the axle and backing plates soaking and scrubbed over the last few days.

I still need to hit it with a wire wheel to get some rust, chipping paint and a little left over gunk.

Up on the horses





The carrier bearing caps are stamped its a D on both of them. I took a punch and tapped another mark into them.


I need to get some longer 1/4-20 bolts so I can attach my pinion tool to the yoke so I can remove it in the morning.

Stripped. Primed and painted.







I bought a second yoke so I could take the splines out to set my pinion, but found that my original is damaged and bass groove where the seal goes.



The two yokes are just ever so slightly different,

Spent time in the carrier and ring gear today. It was so nasty from the sludge, I took it apart, cleaned and put together again.




Set the kingpins.


With no shims and new bearings, I could pull 14 lbft

The half collar sweeper is a question.. which orientation does that go? Pictures I’ve seen didn’t show specifics.
Yes I know the oil ring goes toward the knuckle, then the felt seal, the the half collar. in the above photo I had the brake hose shield on when I set the king pin pull. I took it off again so I can install the sweeper.

I think mine are top and bottom. I’ll look in a bit.

Very nice project,
but what happened to the pic's in your thread ?
Can no longer see them

The half collar sweepers are pictured in the manuals top and bottom installed and it makes sense to mount it like this.

For the yokes, you can use "shaft protection sleeves", so you can reuse them after a blasting and paint job.

Works flawlessly and is easy to install.

Frank

I spent a bit of time today with a grinding stone to make my pinion setup bearings and also removed the splines out of the old yoke.



Set up pinion is in but I don’t have a 1/2” drive 1 1/8” socket to fit. I only have it in 3/4” drive and no adapter.
So torquing it can wait till tomorrow. Not even torqued and I can tell it’s too tight so I will need to keep adjusting the shims in order to get the preload right. No oil seal installed!

I will stop by a box store tomorrow after work, but I may just go looking thru the tools at work and see if we have one. I’ve got dozens of odds and ends in the vidmars

Once I set the preload, I will start on the carrier.

You are making good progress! Wont be all that long until you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Using what turned out to be a cheap soft piece of crap pinion nut, I sliced my finger really good. I didn’t even know I cut myself until I saw a lot of blood. I had ordered two pinion nuts from KW, which are beefier than this one that came with the axle rebuild kit from KW. It went in the trash ( the nut from the kit).


Setting up my pinion shims, using a set up bearing I made. The set up bearing is the same Koyo manufacturer as the bearing which will go in there.
. I’d prefer timkin, but ehh.... I don’t want to redo and rebuy everything. Live and learn.

I spent half the evening setting pinion bearing preload.


I will put my final yoke, bearing, seals and pinion nut at the end of this axle rebuild.
I made a set on carrier set up bearings and ordered two more bearings for final set up once I get my shims set.


The temperature started dropping rapidly. It was 90 yesterday, 75 today and probably 60 by the time I got to the carrier backlash point. I have zero backlash, and I read I need .006- .010. I will do this tomorrow.

It’ll be a week before my final bearings even get here.


So good news for me this week. I applied for a promotion to O3e. (Lieutenant (prior enlisted) and I was approved. I scored #3 of the 6 Naval Engineer Chief Warrant Officers the CG will promote on 01May2021.
Means a beefy pay raise, and a transfer of units. I am going to end up requesting another ship like the one I’m on so I don’t need to move. I will retire three years later.

You are moving right along at a very good pace.

I’ve got dozens of odds and ends in the vidmars

There's a term I have not heard in quite a few years. We used Stanley Vidmars at most of the USAF bases I was assigned to till I retired. I even bought one at my last base at a surplus sale.

Congratulations on the promotion!!
I made the jump from enlisted to O earlier on - miss the E part of life sometimes.... It does mean a nice bump in pay but more managing and planning rather than doing.
I'm out in 3 years as well, once, I've completed my 3 years at my current rank.
Again, congratulations!!

Adding congratulations! Mustangs make the world go round! And the M38 is shaping up nicely as well.

Wish I could be at the wet down.....assuming that's still a tradition?

P.S. I also wish I could find a couple of those "Bendix Joint" tags for my front axle......scarce as hens teeth!

RonD2 wrote:Adding congratulations! Mustangs make the world go round! And the M38 is shaping up nicely as well.

Wish I could be at the wet down.....assuming that's still a tradition?

P.S. I also wish I could find a couple of those "Bendix Joint" tags for my front axle......scarce as hens teeth!

Wetting down is still very much a tradition.

And guess what I found? When I took the Dana 25 apart, there were two of those bendix joint tags. I noticed only 1, and cleaned it up. I was out mowing the lawn and found a second one just lying in the grass. It’s dirty, but I didn’t damage it.

More work this weekend on the axles.

I set up the carrier bearings shims and did the backlash. It took a few times to try and get it, but eventually i reached between .006 and .010 on backlash.


I also set up the paint on the ring teeth and got a good pattern. Pictures don't show that well, but it is center on both sides.


I cleaned up the Dana 44 and spray painted it semi-gloss black.









it of course started raining right after- and thankfully i had my tent canopy up.



Bought a few more bearings to make set up bearings for the Dana 44.

Considering buying new spindles for the Dana 25. Those bushings in the two of them look awful chewed up, and honestly am fighting with trying to cut the old one out with a Dremel tool. The punch and hammer aren't cutting it on the second one. First one it came right out...

If I survive tomorrows gym work out, I will run by the Auto parts store on the way home and grab some more brake clean. I need to clean out the inside of the Dana 44 so I can start putting in the seals and bearings.

Oh and get this--- my steering tie rod arms were the wrong size.. they are smaller than the ones listed for a M38. The new tie rod ends didn't thread into the tubes. So I wasted either time or money on this.... I ended up just buying two new tie rod tubes. It was cheaper than trying to figure out what civilian model tie rods I needed.

These are a few days old since I had duty at the ship the other day.

I am waiting for two bearings to show up. I started working on the Dana 44 again by knocking the seals in, about to place the pinion bearing shim and cup. When I put it in place, it just slipped right in like it was precise fit and slid right into place. I was prepared with a brass bunch and ball peen hammer but—-



It’s too loose so I have to knock some pimples into the housing to help hold the race in place. I am also going to get Loctite green today in the mail.

That poor Dana 44 was so loose on every bearing that the Loctite green may be necessary on the carrier too. Those bearings just fell out when I took the carrier out of the housing.

I roughed up my rims and spray painted them Semigloss black rustoleum, I don’t need to make it perfect.





I also pressed the axle bearings on and I am not happy with one. The long shaft just seems to not want to sit all the way down in its place. I used my hydraulic press and it’s on there as much as my press will put it. When I knocked the old bearing off using the press, it sure as heck sliced my thumb so bad that it didn’t bleed at first, then it was a gusher! The key way on the spindle side is what caught my thumb and just diced it like Freddy.

Anyway I am going to peen the inside of that pinion bearing point on the Dana 44 housing and probably get my Dana 25 buttoned up since the bearings showed up when I was gone. Now just waiting on the Loctite green I ordered.

I called KW about the tie rods, they will take the ones they sent me back and ship me the correct smaller sized ones. I just need to find time to go to the post office.

Pressed the new spindle bushings in.



Another Kw problem.
It listed the closed knuckle Dana 25 ujoint. I bought it like a year ago..
Well, it’s the wrong one.
They didn’t come with the c clips for the ujoint. And buying a doorman set won’t work either. Just don’t fit,



You can see the size issues


Bought the correct ujoint but it won’t be here for a few more days.

The Dana 25 is almost back together with exception of the closed knuckle ujoint axle shaft.