Hi all, here’s the problem. I would like to use my ‘50 ford rear end as is, but the pinion bearings are corroded really bad. I have reviewed a lot of material on here regarding rear end swaps etc, for the shoeboxes. My question: is there any hope to find a crush sleeve and pinion bearings for the weird original rear end? Or should I just give that up? The gear set is totally immaculate. I hate to toss it away. I did the oil seal and made a stupid mistake of torquing the pinion nut down to 150 ft lbs. I should have marked the nut position. It started grinding right away just rolling it by hand. Having tore it all down, I found that the bearings are rotted anyhow.
Bearings and races should not be a problem just by part numbers through a Bearing supply house. The crush sleeve may be an issue. Some 10 years ago I had a center section rebuilt by a Gear and Diff shop I've used for some 40 years and he had no problem with parts. May not be the case today. Wish I could tell ya where to go shop for that part. My guy has since retired and folded.
Thanks for the reply, yes the same thing is happening in the valley where I’m at. The old guys are going fast, and I’m following closely. It’s all down to that sleeve I crunched like a nitwit. Hopefully there’s some bail out for that because the more car parts that get replaced with modern stuff, the less ghost there is in the shell later
Have you cleaned and looked close for a item number stamped on the sleeve? Could still be a part that a Bearing house could supply. You'll never get it by application. Worst case reuse it by making your own spacer shim out of .010 or .020 Shim stock so you can crush it that much further. It can't get out of pace and no movement against it trying to turn it. Food for thought.
yes unfortunately there’s no number on the sleeve at all. That’s a good idea on the custom shim. I’m looking at this thing wondering why I couldn’t get it to live again. Like you said, the bearings are easy to score.
You can use a solid spacer in place of the crush sleeve as well, the trick is to determine the thickness of the spacer that will provide the proper pinion bearing preload
this is the way out. Fortunately the carrier is on the bench and all the tinkering can be done there. Stoked that this is an option. I’ve been watching some YouTube videos on this and people are using crush sleeve eliminators
Crush sleeves tend to wear a little bit in use, because bearings seem to like to move around on the pinion shaft. Then you need a new sleeve. You might be able to use a shim, and re use the sleeve. I'd want to face the ends of the crush sleeve in a lathe to get them true first. How much searching have you done for a new sleeve? Some one might sell them...but I don't have the patience to look for very long.... Can you post a few pictures of the pinion bearings, just because we like to see what's going on?
More than likely the pinion bearings wore and corroded losing the pre-load, and beat the crush sleeve some. The looseness probably caused the oil seal to leak. Most parts have dried up since the rear was phased out after 1956. New bearings, shim it up, and reset the pre-load. An early Maverick 8" rear is pretty much bolt in should the need present itself.
I agree the best solution is the solid spacer. Next best is the shim using old sleeve. The real low budget repair I have heard of is to try and hit the old sleeve around the expanded area (on a mandrel of some sort) to make it a little longer and then recrush it. Not recommended if option 1 or 2 can be made to work, but better than no sleeve option. The bearings and races should be available, especially since you have the old ones. Take the numbers to a bearing supply and they should be able to get them. That rearend was not that rare as it was used in other vehicles, so that should help.
yes I’ve been searching till I realized there’s none available unless something comes up on eBay. There is one listed on eBay right now in the original packaging but it looks wrong and someone did a review and said it looks like a piece of rusted exhaust pipe which it kind of does. Here’s some close up autopsy photos of the pinion bearing. I guess I’d have been facing this anyways because the crush sleeve is “consumable” with every bearing change
that’s interesting because I was thinking about tapping on that bulge lol. Any idea off hand what this rear end is even called? The ring gear is 8.5” it’s difficult to find any reference to them because everything is about the 8.8 or 9” rears
I furnished the parts to a customer for his 50 coupe build. Rather that fight the original rear end he elected to go with a new 9 inch rear from Johns. While it may have been overkill it provided him with a bullet proof rear with larger brakes when combined with a front disc brake kit made his car much safer to drive.
What is the part # for the crush sleeve you need? Is this correct? B7A4662A? Here's an interesting thread. https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174475
If you can get some measurements on diameter and wall thickness, you may be able to purchase a generic bushing on ebay thats similar and the cut it to the length you need. If you can't find the exact size, look for correct internal size and then turn the outside diameter to size. Look under "bunting" in "business and industrial"and you should see lots of them available.
That crush sleeve is not the same unfortunately, the one I would need is quite long. That is a good thread you linked to, thank you
I could be mistaken here, but it could be this is being over thought. For instance, a sleeve is a sleeve, if it fits the arm, why can't it be worn? Your compressing a tube with a expansion buckle? Yours is quite long, attach a ring to a shorter one. As for fixing the old one back into shape...you can be a leader or a follower. Difference is your risk tolerance. I wonder what a piece of tubing with some holes drilled or cut around the circumference to allow for squish might accomplish? Anyways...you'll figure it out or in a few months it'll be winter and it won't matter much anyhow. When in doubt, ask yourself, what would MacGyver do?
I finally gave up on those original shubox rear axles after I found out the more modern Maverick rear ends are almost a bolt-in and you can use your original wheels. I used one in my 49 without altering the Maverick spring perches. My car was low so the pinion angle was wrong but if your car is stock height the maverick pinion angle should be just about right. I went to the local trailer supply house to get new spring perches and reset my pinion angle. All this happened 35 years ago so the availability of Maverick rear ends could be a problem.
Yeah I came across one of your posts regarding this last night. Nice car btw! I think there may be a maverick laying in the weeds on the street parallel to me. They are pretty rare around here, the last one I interacted with got an Incan bypass when I ripped it’s heart out and transplanted it into a 62 econoline
Try Kanter Automotive Parts. Online and paper catalogs 1930’s/1980’s . They have a lot of older car and truck parts. New parts .
I keep hearing Maverick for rear axle choice. Kind of hard to find a 5 lug Maverick being it would have been a V-8 car. Know that Granada is also a good choice and the right one will have a 9" under it instead of just the 8". No matter what you want to be sure to start out with a 5 lug unit.
That's the problem with using a meaningless arbitrary number like 150 lbs when retorquing against a crush sleeve- I cringe when I see that recommended. I have very good results by using a lever-style torque wrench to remove the nut, and then retorque it to the the removal reading. I also mark the nut location. Best of course is to save the crush sleeve and make a solid one to match it.
All the Maverick rears went to 5 lug in 1973 when they dropped the 170 6 cyl. and went to the 200. The wheel register changed also from 3. 325" to 3.750". While they are a little harder to find, they are still out there. I have two right now. Even the emergency brake cables work.
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