Installing Pinion Bearing Cups

Well, I've accomplished a lot in the past couple of days.  I totally cleaned and re-organized the garage to give me a better place to work, and, in addition to cleaning up a lot of little odds and ends hardware, I installed two new bearing cups for the inner and outer pinion bearings into my front axle.

First, I am still amazed at how the chemical process works on cleaning this stuff up.  See a previous post on this.  This stuff - I call it "soaking" works awesome and leaves the metal with a really nice finish that does not rust and takes paint great.  I am also going to try powder coating some of these small parts when I can get the right color (more on that in a future post).

Here are some shots of the bearing cup installation ...

Inner cup and shim stack - my previous shims measured a total of 0.031, so I am going back with new shims that total that exact amount.  When I get everything installed, I'll test pre-load and gear tooth contact pattern:

 

Clean bore - ready for some cups to be installed:

 

Some tools I'm using ... 3/4 inch threaded rod is used to gently pull cups into place:

 

Cup installed - inner:

 

Cup installed - outer:

 

Pinion and Outer Bearing (with pre-load shims) - ready to go in ... (I'm waiting on my yoke to "soak" and get painted or maybe powder coated):

 

By the way - HAPPY EASTER!

 

So, I will not be working tomorrow, going out of town next week, and up to SC to visit my mom and dad next weekend, so it will be a while before I put up another post, unless I get restless and try my hand at using my new powder coating set up ;-)