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Finally, a quiet rear.....

AzPete

AzPete

Well-Known Member
.....axle. After basing some research on the PO's statement as far as the rear end being bad in my '66, it is now silenced. This last week, I made the effort to really look things over and listen to the noise I had. There was no gear noise/whine. More of a clunk and grind type noise more from the axle bearings being bad. The noise was loud enough to drown out the dual 40 series Flowmasters so I really never heard the pipes. Decided to order in new axle bearings and seals and swap them out today. Drivers side was a real clunky sound and feel after removal. It slid right out. Passenger side was a bit more difficult. Had to locate a slide hammer and with that, it came out. That bearing had a grinding sound and was rusted into the housing. All done now, much better. The good part.....not needing to replace the chunk and saving $300-$600. Of course, this was all done on Midlifes hoist so I must thank him for the use of his little garage.
 
Well, thank you, Pete, for teaching this ol' dog a new trick that he had never been exposed to: replacing rear axles. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.

We ran into somewhat of a backyard machinist in a local machine shop when the primary guy didn't have time to drill two 0.5" holes into 1/4" bar stock (which were to be used to shim up Pete's engine to level). We went down the street, and this machinist only wanted $5. Neither Pete nor I have a drill press, and I have pretty lousy drill bits for steel. Anyway, this guy starts using a bit designed for wood, and wasn't using a block to hold the steel in place. Instead, he used a vice grip to hold it in place while he drilled the hole. No cutting oil was used, either. The drill press kept on binding on the steel when it tried to punch through, so he went to another, beefier drill press and did the same thing. Turned out he spent about 10-15 minutes drilling two little holes using non-standard drilling techniques. Based upon what we saw, neither of us thought much of this machinist!

BTW, I enjoy Pete coming over and allowing me to help him on his car. It keeps me interested in these ol' vehicles and I'm always learning something new as well. I think Pete may learn a thing or two as well, mainly not to raise his head suddenly while under the car. Can you say "ouch"? Meanwhile, I have almost all the tools and garage space needed for many of the more uglier tasks Pete needs to be done, and he doesn't abuse me or the garage...much! *LOL* Sometime in the future, we'll be replacing his very butchered underdash harness, and I'll have to adapt the stock harness to his mods on the fly as we install it. That should be very entertaining and *ahem* "enlightening".
 
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that garage. ;D Seriously though Pete, that is great, axle bearings are much cheaper than 3rd members. I'm glad you got it squared away! Nice work gents!
 
Being a fly on the wall would have caused you to miss the adult beverage after a job well done. I don't think working is a requirement.....

The bump on the head hurt like h*** when it happened. No lump on my head or headache afterwords though so it was not long lasting.

The elec. will be a good undertaking from the way the PO modified the wiring to make the car lighter to race. lol

Ahhhhh, another day....
 
I wish I lived closer to some of you guys. It would be nice to have fellow Mustang/cars nuts to hang out with and "tinker" on the cars. Most of my buddys are hunters or wood workers or something other than car nuts, so I do most of my car stuff alone.
 
"tarafied1" said:
I wish I lived closer to some of you guys. It would be nice to have fellow Mustang/cars nuts to hang out with and "tinker" on the cars. Most of my buddys are hunters or wood workers or something other than car nuts, so I do most of my car stuff alone.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it! Until Pete moved into town, I was in your situation. It's much nicer to share doofuses...
 
Big difference for sure. In Az., I had car friends but our schedules missed most of the times. And now doing an attempt at retirement, it makes my schedule real free. Randy has his own schedule. Not sure his supervisor knows where he is most of the time but it works for us. Nice to share with someone who can relate....
 
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