Full Floater Full Rebuild (1 Viewer)

[jynx]

So I am trying to get the Full Floater that I bought a few months back fully rebuilt to swap into my 91 and I thought it might make a good reference for somebody down the line. With a one year old, time is kind of at a premium, so this will probably take a few weeks to get complete but I thought I would at least get it started.

First off, here is the rear axle after all brake lines, control arms, panhard and ABS wiring removed.

Drivers side - Had a lot of brake dust inside but seemed to be in good shape.

Passenger Side - Was very dry, had a lot of cob-webs and was pretty rusty.

Both adjusters came out with just finger pressure.

And the perfect tool for breaking loose the locking screws that haven't been touched since they left the factory.

The interesting thing is that once I removed the hubs, both outer bearing fell out and there was NO grease in either side.... they actually had to sit for a little while and let the gear oil drain out.
The outer bearings showed some slight signs of wear, and rolled freely, so I want to get the inner bearing out before I decide if they need to be replaced or just repacked.

So I stripped off both sides down to the the bare spindles, greased them down and then wrapped them up to protect them while I clean the housing.

All stripped down and ready for cleaning.

After all is said and done, most everything came out pretty good, but the passenger side backing plate left me with a question.

Is it supposed to have that little gap between the backing plate and the collar? This gap looks a little larger than the drivers side.

I already have a basic parking brake rebuild kit, new shoes and a set of rotors.
The original list included:
Reman'd Calipers & New Pads
and am still debating on bearings

Now after the tear-down, I will be calling beno or Cdan for new seals and gaskets, including the little seal that goes in the end of the housing as well as several of the small brake parts that are rusted out.

Overall the housing is in pretty good shape. This week I plan to pick up a parts washer and get the backing plates and other small parts cleaned up. Try and get the housing cleaned up and painted and get the rest of the parts I need on the plastic and headed this way.

I intend to make a pair of small plates to bolt over the ABS sensor holes since I don't need them anyway. Not sure if they even work, but if someone wants them and the harnesses, let me know and its all yours for shipping.

And lastly, my help... definitely Daddy's Girl.

I will try to update this as I get things cleaned up and start putting things back together.



Tucker

 

[guzzla]

when I finally get round to removing both centres to return back to standard gearing, I want to do just this - maybe even have the housings sandblasted and powdercoated.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Bjohnston115]

FF with drum brakes? i thought they all had discs. cute kid.. should she be standing in that drum? haha

 

[KimoSabe]

not much of a drum (but works great) for the e-brakes...got to train those apprentice early

 

[Bjohnston115]

not much of a drum for the e-brakes

ahh... ok now that makes sense.

 

[badmuthatrucka]

Good write-up and pictures so far!

Keep it up!!!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

How did you get her to balance that box on her head?!? That's amazing!

 

[jynx]

How did you get her to balance that box on her head?!? That's amazing! ************

Yep, she is talented for 15 months. I hadn't even noticed it, but that is awesome.

Anyway, I spent a good hour with a wire cup knocking off the crude and the surface rust. I need to pick up a wire wheel tomorrow to continue. Any thoughts on how to get the bottoms of the spring cups or down into the control arm mounts. I am thinking something like a parts washing brush and some solvent may be the best I can do under those. I also plan to hit the housing with a flap wheel to knock the factory weld spatter off the big areas. More pics to soon I hope.

Thanks,

Tucker

 

[serenity]

Yep, she is talented for 15 months. I hadn't even noticed it, but that is awesome.

Anyway, I spent a good hour with a wire cup knocking off the crude and the surface rust. I need to pick up a wire wheel tomorrow to continue. Any thoughts on how to get the bottoms of the spring cups or down into the control arm mounts. I am thinking something like a parts washing brush and some solvent may be the best I can do under those. I also plan to hit the housing with a flap wheel to knock the factory weld spatter off the big areas. More pics to soon I hope.

Thanks,

Tucker

try find a shop that can do sandblasting, got my front 60 series axle done for $50 and it was well worth it. just make sure they tape up the spindles and gasket surfaces before they start and blow out the housing with air after they are done.

 

[finderscuba]

And lastly, my help... definitely Daddy's Girl.

I hope that's not brake dust on her fingers. You wouldn't want her to get any of that in her mouth

 

[bricat]

And what a beautiful girl and that is the best age. Don't let her grow up as they become a PITA. Watching with interest as mine is 90 build..cheers Brian

 

[jynx]

And what a beautiful girl and that is the best age. Don't let her grow up as they become a PITA. Watching with interest as mine is 90 build..cheers Brian

Thanks man, yeah she is getting to be a lot of fun.

Anyway, took the housing today to have it sand blasted and coated in black epoxy. I hope to have it back next week, but week after at the latest.

Well I called CDan and ordered all the gaskets, seals and bearings as well as some other parts, and after tonight I will be calling him again for some other bits.

So if I learned anything by the events of this evening, I would say, please check and lube your brakes regularly.

I went to remove the cables that activate the shoes for the emergency brakes and I had to use the grinder to cut the pins and ends down just to get the cables off. Good thing I already have a pair of these and the pins and retainers on the way from AZ.

I was able to grind down the pins enough to get them thru the backing plates, but will have to drill out the ends once I get the new pins to make sure the holes are the correct size.

I broke two of the four bolts removing the brackets that hold the arms on the backing plates (you can see one of said bolts peaking out on the left side) and one of the brackets came apart at the pivot, and after taking a look at the other one, I think a new pair of these are on the list also.

I looked at the broken cross-section and it looks like the brackets are made of pot medal, but they are light and look more like aluminum, so I am not sure.

See the spot that looks like a booger weld from a previous repair....

The arms themselves are still in good shape, so they will be cleaned and reused.

And the best surprise, the backing plate for the passenger side looks a little mangled, so I may have to price one of those also.

Has anyone ever tried to take one of these apart? It appears that the lighter dust shield and e-brake backing plate are held to the heavier caliper mounting plate by the four bolts, which appear to be be pressed in similar to a wheel stud. So it would appear that one could press the studs out to have the three pieces apart for inspection. Anybody know?

The drivers side is in pretty good shape so it will be reused.

The boots are in very good shape, so they will get cleaned up and reused.

Anyway, after tonight, I think I have all the bad news, and have one bolt and two pins that have to be drilled out and I will definitely be checking the pivot points regularly. Any good suggestion on what to use for keeping things slicked up. I was thinking some white lithium grease or something of the sort.

Soon parts will start going back together.... I hope.



Tucker

 

[jynx]

Back from the Blaster!!

Well, I got the axle back yesterday afternoon. I am very happy with the results. I was told that the Epoxy would fully cure in 7 days, but at the current 95+ degree temps, I figure I will be good by Thursday or Friday. I am ok with that because I am still waiting on parts from CDan to get here, but the biggest thing I am up against is this backing plate situation.

I talked to Dan today and I priced a new backing plate and man even after the MUD discount those things are pricey, not to mention there are ZERO in the country and it would have to be a special order form Japan which would take several weeks, so now I am left with a couple of options, I either need to find a passenger side backing plate in good condition, which I am gonna get on, or I have to try and salvage the one I have.

SOO, I am going to attempt something that I don't think anyone has tried, at least from my searching this afternoon I couldn't find any info on it. I am going to attempt to press out the studs and see if I can separate the three pieces, and see if they can be cleaned, straightened and put back together.

Any body got any thoughts on this, or have a spare axle that they would want to sell some parts off of. Passenger side needed....

Anyway, here are a few pics of the axle all shining like a new penny, to bad it won't stay this way.

Thanks guys,

Tucker

 

[cahill]

Looking good and shiney Wish I could answer your questions about the backing plate, but have no experience there.

 

[busmup808]

That axle is night and day on the difference. Nice and shiny. I don't even think they came like that from the showroom. How much you got in the rear axle?

 

[jynx]

That axle is night and day on the difference. Nice and shiny. I don't even think they came like that from the showroom. How much you got in the rear axle?

Thanks, I honestly don't know if I even want to know how much I am going to end up with in it when it's all said and done. I will have to add up the receipts I've gathered over the past few months

The list currently includes:

Sand-blasted and epoxy'd housing
rebuilt rear chunk with Nitro 5.29 gears, koyo bearings and seals
all new koyo bearings, seals and gaskets
completely rebuilt parking brake with new shoes
new rotors, reman'd calipers and pads
gotta order some SS brake lines from Slee

On the wish list for another day are an ARB locker, Chromoly shafts and ARP hub studs. gotta have something to wish for.

Anyway, I have to give some props to Will at ACC for helping me source a pair of brake backing plates. I hope to have those sometime next week for a good cleaning and maybe a blast and epoxy session too, especially after seeing what happens if you don't maintain them....

Anyway, I have a stack of boxes with shiny parts waiting for me in the garage so hopefully I will get the reassembly started next weekend.

Thanks, I will keep you all posted.

Tucker

 

[jynx]

Well had to take a little time to get the spindle surfaces cleaned up, see " sandblasters and rear axles" Anyway, I got that all sorted and I spent saturday with several cans of brake cleaner and one of the bottle brushes from the kitchen trying get all the sand out of the housing. I think I got it, but I will probably change the oil every 100 miles a few times to make sure I get it all.

Anyway I got my backing plates from Will at ACC and they could've passed for new, and with a little paint on them they match the rest of the axle. I got them mounted up so the axle doesn't look so nakid now. I will try and get the pictures off my camera tomorrow and post them.

I hope to get the e-brake rebuilt this weekend and then load the hubs up with new bearings and seals and then drop in the chunk and slide in the shafts, and then out with the old and in with the new. And I hope it really does go that easily..

 

[Kernal]

I recently bead blasted my front driveshaft yolk, the outside only, but there was a bunch of the media stuck to the inner splines. I had to use an industrial strength detergent with disodium metasilicate and hot water to remove all the grease (which is what the beads were stuck to). Some others have pressure washed or steam cleaned the interior of their axle housing to get old gunk and debris out. Wondering if some of that blast media got into your axle housing it may not come out with just solvent?? FWIW.

 

[jynx]

Hmmm. I hadn't thought about steam cleaning, we have one and I may try that before I get it all back together. I will look into the disodium metasilicate also. Thanks kernal.

 

[Kernal]

Might not need an industrial strength cleaner but if you do use something like that I'd check first to see if it attacks your new paint job before you pour it in. I'm not a axle housing cleaning specialist so take it FWIW.