Is the axle with the pitted seal surface but with better splines something that could be fixed with a speedi-sleeve after a new bearing is installed?

 

Speedi-Sleeve is worth investigation. I had never heard of this. A little research suggests that some pitting would be tolerated. If a groove has been worn that might prevent using a sleeve. I'll inspect in this context tomorrow. It its not an inexpensive solution. Nearly 1/3 the cost of a new axle. Also it looks like I would have to create some tool to push it in place as all the provided tools I have seen are for short shafts.
Thank you

 

Look closely at the internal splines both side gears and any other clutch components. Something might be just as bad as the axle. I say all internal axle splines because the bad axle could have been looks on the other side for a while and the previous owner swapped it to the drivers side. If you are fortunate, that axle was bad when removed from the 1958 Ford and your differential is just fine. I know the rear axle looks very clean inside, but, don't be surprised if digging reveals the reason the previous owner sold it.

 

My 9" had a groove on one axle, and I asked all the machine shops in town about a Speedi-sleeve. None of them were interested, the ones that could do it had a 6-week lead time on any work, and a minimum ticket of $150. I got a better axle for half that.

 

A quick update while I wait for some Windows software to up date.
Regarding the wear pattern on the splines: I did a bore-scope image investigation and found the spline are all pretty good looking. No evident wear. The splines on the Dana Locker diff are split into inner and outer sections. This is the cause for two different contact sections seen on the axles.
I am presently investigating the suitability of putting the '55 Dana shafts in the '61 axle shell with the limited slip as the '55 splines are pristine. The cause for investigation is that the shafts pulled from the '61 axle are about 1/8 inch shorter than the older ones.
I'll post a bit later with details.

 

Just grind a bit off the end of the 55 axles if the only thing stopping you from using them is they are a bit longer. Grind a short chamfer on the shortened spline ends so it basically like it did before shortening and make sure the ends of the splines are clean so they slide in the diff easily.

 

Stole my thunder, I think it is only a matter taking off a millimeter. Easy to do. My numbers-driven nature has allowed my to become distracted by trying to find corroboration of this in the Ford part number scheme. No such luck. In the mean while I have ordered and received the parts CDs, cleaned and painted the axle, and devised a scheme to measure the required axle length (next post).

I'll put it to the community:
In the parts CD "illustrations catalog" for rear end the axle is marked as 4235 for all years 1948-63 that I have looked at
In the parts CD "text catalog" for 1948-56 trucks the basic part number is given as 4234-5, and appears to be the same for all years.
In the parts CD "text catalog" for 1957-63 the axle shaft is given as 4234-35

What is the difference? Looking at them side-by-side the only difference is about 1/8 inch of length. Is this information available somewhere, buried in these CDs or elsewhere?

Forgive me if this is a novice question. I have only had these CDs for 24 hours and still have not even sorted how to build a full, proper part number.

 

The full P/N's are at the far right column for each year/model. The 4234-5 simply means both 4234 and 4235 p/n's are in that section of the table. All the dimensions are given in the 48-56 Listings, I don't have a 57-on CD.

 

The 4235 is the basic part number. When you see a number like 4234-5, that usually indicates a right and left. Evens are typically right side, odds are left, but that's not always the case 100% of the time. You need to go through the text catalog to find the application you want to find the full part number with the correct prefix and suffix. To add to the confusion, Ford has made a practice of changing and updating part numbers constantly. In my November 1954 catalog I see the axle and bearing assembly serviced for 48-55 F1/F100 trucks is 8M 4234-B. Basic part number 4235 is the number for F250 and larger axle shafts. Neither show a difference for left or right sides. Your catalog may have a different, updated or superceded part number.

 

Thank you for the clarification. I think I now understand how this parts catalog works. here is what found using both the 1948-56 and 1957-63 CDs

1948-56 is as Ross shows above.
Axle shaft P/N is 8M-4234-B, length is indicated as 26.69" (oddly measured from the back of the wheel flange!)

1957 it seems the Ford did not offer the Dana axle

1958-63
Axle shaft P/N is C2TZ-4234-A, no length is given

 

Here is a summary of my axle data and the fix to put older axles on limited-slip DANA 44

The axles shafts from 1948 to 1963 are identical EXCEPT for length
-----------The distance from the bearing shoulder to the outer surface of the wheel flange is 1.85 inches for all years
------------The difference is measured from the bearing shoulder to end of the splines
----------------------The years 1948-1956 are all the same
----------------------The years 1958-1963 are 0.216" SHORTER. ( This is from my measurements of two axles)

The result of this is that 48-56 axles will hit the inner cross piece of the limited slip dif in a 58-63 axle

I measured the fit by turning an aluminum ring of a width just matching the "critical" width of a bearing. When in place the ring holds the axle in the same place as a pressed-on bearing would. Thus I was able to check all four axles on both sides of the shell without actual bearings installed. here is the set up:



here is the axle with spacer pulled back a couple of inches. The black tape bumps outer the diameter a bit as I used some 3-inch round stock that I had on a shelf. The actual bearing OD is 3.15 inch.

axle with spacer pushed into location

I was then able to fit a feeler gauge into the diff between the end of the axle shaft and the cross piece
On the PASSENGER side the axle bearing seats with 0.006 inch gap at the spline end
On the DRIVERS the axle and bearing will not seat as the spline end hits the cross piece. When it hit the cross piece the bearing is 0.060 inch shy of seating.

Using this data I determined that to have the axle shaft end protrude halfway into the gap between the female spline and the cross piece I needed to
remove
- 0.090 inch from the length of the drivers side axle and
- 0.030 inch from the length of passenger side axle.

I did this by mounting the axle in the lathe and grinding. (Be care not to heat up the axle too much lest the heat treat be annealed.)



mounted in the lathe

Sticking out the back

I ran the lathe at the lowest speed while grinding. This is the result

I put them back in the axle shell and saw the happy result that the axle spline end now fit about halfway into the gap.




The red line points to the end of the axle shaft . The remaining gap is the dark region above and to the right.

 

Nicely done.

 

Moving on:

The next part of hanging a 1961 Dana 44-1 axle under a 1955 F100 is to compensate for he slightly larger tube diameter on the 44-1.
The original 44 has a 2.5 inch tube while the 44-1 has a 2.75 inch tube. The seemingly small difference is troublesome as the 1955 combo spring caps and shock mounts are too small to reach around he slightly larger tube. I thought for a while of modifying these original pieces but when pencil went to paper it just seemed like a poor approach.

It turns out that when F100s went to the 9-inch rear end that that entailed a bump-up of the tube diameter to 3 inches. And, for the 1957-60 years Ford used a spring cap plate located under the axle. This is similar to the 1956 and earlier trucks except that shock mounts were moved onto a separate bracket bolted under the spring caps. Now, it also turns out that these late-60s spring caps are quite hard to find. In my search I heard more than one story of a truck going out for a 4-link conversion and the spring caps and shock mounts not coming back from the fabricator. That said, one of our friends in the 57-60 forum came thru and sold me a pair of spring cap plates. He has shock mounts as well, but not for sale.

These plates arrived and all I have to do is fabricate a spacer to make up the difference 3-inch tube to 2.75 inch tube. For this I cut a section from a 3-inch X 1/8 inch wall tube. Here is the image.



The axle is sitting upside down on the bench, so the spring caps will sit below the axle and the springs up top.

I will need to "adjust" the U-bolts by spreading the forks to match the 2.25 inch hole spacing in the plates. This is 1/4 inch larger than the 1955 parts.

I will be fabricating shock mounts in coming days. These will essentially copy the Ford part from 1957-60 and locate the shocks in the same position as on the 1955 F100.

A nice benefit of this is that, should I need(desire) to to go a 9-inch rear end in the future, most of that conversion is done. I need only to remove the spacers. And deal with the required drive-shaft modification.

 

Are you going to weld the spacers to the tubes? Good luck spreading the U-bolts! Usually they are replaced, one-time use because of the tension put on them. Jackson Eqpmt on 2nd St. bends new ones to order for about $25 for a set of 4, including heavy nuts and washers.

 

no, I don’t plan to weld the spacers. I am using new u bolts. So far I have found them easy to manipulate. I don’t think the minor bend I need will be an issue. But......