1999 November 6 (Saturday)
I was running late the 6th and went directly to the restaurant instead of stopping by Groeger Special Tooling first. So what’s the first thing Joe says to me when I get there… great news: he’s pulled my rear end off the shelf and getting ready to tackle the job of putting it back together. It’s been on the shelf for a year but I’ve not been ready for it yet so it hasn’t been a cause of restoration slowdown.
Final drive parts
Final drive parts
More final drive parts
Just checking the parts to see what needs to be done. Unfortunately Joe is busy this afternoon, so we’ll tackle the job next week.
1999 November 13 (Saturday)
Final drive bearings
Pinion gear w/new bearing
When I got to the shop Saturday morning Joe had already verified that the small needle bearing was bad… it’s what I was afraid of. He pulled the needle bearing, the inner race from the pinion, and the outer race from the housing. This was difficult even with heat and special tools to hook onto the race. The picture shows the replacement bearing on the pinion.
Since one bearing was bad we double checked the others. Good decision. The two ball bearings will be replaced. Joe doesn’t have them in stock, so everything is put away until next week.
1999 November 20 (Saturday)
Final drive rebuild
Bad pinion needle bearing
Re-built final drive
Alas, I forgot to bring my camera to the shop. New bearings were installed and Joe showed me how to re-shim the drive. The end result is a rear-end ready to go. The pictures, taken November 21st, show the bad needle bearing and the rear-end before the brake shoes are mounted. Note that the drive splines are in good condition.