1950 Willys Truck re-rebuild by 50wllystrk

3 minute(s) of a 620 minute read

mudcrawler90, there is no way that words could describe the workings of the spider gears as well as the you tube video you provided. I give you a thumbs up for your assistance.

SuperRliBerty, it will stay as it has been, a 4.56. If the ring and pinion was damaged with the bearing issue I would have changed to a 4.11. In which case I'd have to change the front also. So I left it as it was.

Inspiration, a word I've heard a couple times now. If this project has inspired anyone to try or attempt something new, then I've accomplished my mission.

We're finally gonna bring the rear axle rebuild to an end. I mentioned in an earlier post about 3/4 ton axle vs 1/2 ton or lighter duty axles. The idea was that the light duty axles have the axle shaft come out from the differential where they are meshed with the spider gears. Once they get to the end of the axle tube the axle shaft has a roller bearing then beyond that is the flange that the wheel bolts to. So in this case, all the weight and power is riding on the alxe shaft itself, then transfered through a single roller bearing.

Heavy duty axles do transfer the power through the axle shaft, but the weight of the vehicle is not carried by the axle shaft as it is on light duty axles. 

The heavier axles have a hub with two bearings within. This hub is what the wheel is bolted to, so all the weight is carried by the hub directly to the housing, then to the springs.

The power transfer is sent through 8 bolts that bolt the axle shaft to the hub. Now all the axle shaft is responsible for it transfering the power from the differential to the hub it bolts to.

We covered earlier also the numeric system of 4.56, 4.11, 3.73 ect. One other numeric value you will come across is how many splines it has. This is simply counting the splines on the end of the axle shaft, this rear end is a 30 spline.