Hi I purchased the puller in the image bis ebay and per the instructions, the castle nut is to be flipped and screwed vack on "flush" with the axle when using the tool. The guy that was helping me did not do that and stripped about half an inch as seen on the pic where the cotter pin goes. I'm able to screw on a new castle nut as Instructed in Reverse, BUT it's shakey it's a bit thinner now. I did buy die to re-thread, but as I mentioned the axle is now thinner by a hair and the castle nut does screw on. I have a tire below the drum while the car is jacked before I attempt this again, but I'm reaching you all for any tips/feedback before doing so. Most of the force will be placed on the axle since there's not a firm grip between the nut and the axle. Thanks for all your help
Quick thought: how about skip the nut and put a piece of br*** or copper maybe 1/8” thick between the axle end and the steel cross piece on your puller? Would preserve threads and protect axle end while getting the job done. I’m thinking you will need to hammer on the steel cross piece once you’ve applied pressure to break the hub loose. Keep in mind that when you put it back together you need about 275 ft pounds of torque from that axle & nut combo.
This ! I got a couple different thickness pueces of aluminum at work I use for this purpose . I have never liked forcing on a nut or a bolt ( using a puller ) , does not happen often but I’ve had threads deform under to much stress . And that stress ‘ me out trying to fix it . As far as your thread issue I had the same issue in the rear of my 53 Chrysler , what I ended up doing is pull the axle and my machine shop chucked it in a lathe , cleaned it up , built it back up with weld and cut new threads .
If you were do this again better to use a nut as per picture then screw it down till the plate hit the shaft then the pressure is on the shaft and not the thread.
I gave up on early Fords 25 years ago just because of things like this. I sold all of my specialized tools. A**** them was rear hub puller which was reproduction of the original KR Wilson tool. I seem to remember that it had a "blind" nut to screw on the threaded end of the axle. It looked like a hex nut about 1" long with threads about 3/4" deep. It would seem that one of these would be ideal. If you can't beg, borrow, or steal one, you could make one if you had a welder, some 5/8-18 nuts, and a same-sized bolt.
Ive looking for one of these. The bolt to bolt contact seems less damaging than the axle to the steel plate on my tool.
I like this approach. Will give this a try. Thank you. I was about to cut a piece of tire to soften the contact between the steel plate on the tool and the axle end. I wonder why the idea of a backwards nut flush with the axle is even suggested by the puller tool seller as this creates risk to the threads as it did. Old school pullers have a direct axle to bolt contact.
You probably will need to hammer on it and any rubber in there will reduce the shock load and defeat the purpose although a soft metal like br*** should be ok. Heat is your friend. With the puller cinched down tight heat the hub with a torch so it's hot, but not too hot, then retighten the puller and hit it with a big hammer. Be careful it doesn't all fly off and land on your foot.
Well that worked my friend. Tha k you. I removed the castle nut and Wedge a br*** door hinge plate to soften the stress. As you can now on the pics the bearing seal was fused to the backing plate thin seal and carved out some sections. But I also discovered there has been some welding done(or lack of) onto the backing plate. I still have the axle end thread issue, but I'll try a die.
Uh, more pics of the inner backing plate please. Looks like you might have an axle retainer (safety hub retainer) in there. An aftermarket racing part used to keep the hub in place if the axle breaks. That would explain the difficulty in getting the hub loose.
Looks like there is a "safety hub retainer " that was welded in place. That caused the damage when the hub was removed without removing the nuts at the backing plate. Also looks like the brake shoes are installed wrong. Short shoe is to the front, should be at the rear.
This is how purchased it, and youre absolutely right. I was bout to remove the backing plate to get it cleaned up etc, but I'm for A big surprise. Here's a few pics. I'll add more. I'll definitely take your guidance as the original goal was to just replace the cylinder. I'll be buying a new bearing set with seals, but how do I address the inside seal behind the welded on hub. Removing won't be a problem, but getting the new one in there want pose a bit of trouble.
I meant pics of inside the drum side of the backing plate. Usually the safety hub retainer rings use a long stud on opposite corners that replace the square headed bolts holding the backing plate to the axle housing. But you have those aftermarket tube shock mounts (with no shock on it!) on there as well so I’m not sure what is holding the safety ring in place. And by breaking the ring that was welded to the inner edge of the hub off, you might have ******ed up the hub enough that you can’t just replace the bearing and seal and hope it stays together correctly. There’s a snap ring that fits on there last that should hold the seal in. How’s the groove for that ring? I’d suggest removing the safety retainer and taking it all back to original. It’s really rather stupid to be installing racing parts on a fordor Merc sedan anyway.
You're correct. No need to have that on a towne 8. HUB- you're right the top of the hub port look damaged around near where the snap ring would go. It seems it can hold it, but clearly not very securely. The cost of new hubs makes me wonder if upgrading to a new speedway kit may be more affordable? Or how would I fix that to retain the snap rings. SAFETY HUB- You're correct. The safety hub appears to be welded at two opposite corners with long studs and nuts on to the axle. The other two are square headed bolts, BUT one of those is a long bolt since it also holds the aftermarket shockless mount in place. You can see this on the picture. Is this mount even needed or what would you replace with? STEEL RING: The ring between the safety hub and the backing plate are both loose/broken off on both wheels. One of them still has a flat shape, while the other is bent. It seems they were welded on the backing plate, although not clear if they were welded to the safety hub. I ***ume I can just cut these and trash em, since they were aftermarket to begin with? BACKING PLATE- Since the safety hub is welded on two opposite corners, I wonder if you'd just replace the backing plates or grind off the welds to allow for the original square headed bolts? Keep in mind however that one of these has a long bolt to hold the shock mount. I just want the cheapest way to put this back together. Without causing more damage. If my hubs are now trashed due not being able to seat/secure a snap ring for the bearings and the backing plates weld points are going to be a pain, doe it makes sense cost wise to buy new kit Your time and feedback is valuable and appreciated, and I'll be more than glad to jump on a call and pay for your call/guidance. Thank you
Grind off the junk, remove the shock mounts since you aren’t using them, and see if a snap ring will fit in the groove. It doesn’t really need to hold any weight, just insurance that the seal won’t walk out. Do not buy hubs from Speedway as a HAMBer showed us how his cracked in half. If you think you need to replace it, find a good original one. Seems you are missing the grease shields that fit inside the backing plates. Find a pair of those too.
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