Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.  I had the rear axle fully assembled, and I thought I'd just double check the fit of the brake drums before painting them.  They don't fit.  More specifically, they are designed to go inboard of (behind) the hubs, not over top of the hubs, the way any newer brakes would be made.  (Even the Willys manuals I have show the drums going over top of the hubs, but I guess whoever made these drums wanted to go back to the original way...)  So now I have to figure out if I'm going to exchange these drums, or press them onto the back sides of the hubs.  (I sent a note off to the supplier for their opinion.)

A little progress
22. Sep 2013 at 17:36  

I finally feel like this project is going somewhere.
On the weekend, I finished assembling the rear axle, after replacing every seal and gasket, along with the carrier and shaft bearings.  The brakes have a lot of new parts, too--everything that comes in the overhaul kit from Walcks.

Only one part got wrecked in the process--the pinion seal, which is, of course, the very last thing I was installing.  I put it in backwards.    Damaged it trying to get it in, and there was no way it was coming out intact either.  Took me a few minutes to figure out what I had done wrong.  Oh well, I just used the one I had bought for the front.  I've got more things to order before I can finish the front anyway.

Been working on the rear differential:  getting the pinion bearing preload right, and getting the backlash on the ring gear within spec.  I need to do a contact pattern test, and then thoroughly clean out everything with kerosene before closing the cover on it.

But first, I built a differential spreader, since it's a pain in the butt to do differential work without one.  (It involves pounding on bearing  cups with a dead blow hammer...)

For scale, the big tubes (2" heavy wall square tubing) are 16" long.  The threaded rod is 3/4".

And here it is, in use:

Building brakes

Brakes.  Four units, with new pads, cylinders, springs, and anchor pins (with nuts and lock washers).  I still can't figure out why the overhaul kit included the anchor pins but not the cams, which go on the anchor pins.  (And they're brass--if you were selecting which parts to put into an overhaul kit, wouldn't you pick the soft parts?)  Original parts are the backer plates, eccentrics (and their nuts and lock washers--again, why include the anchor pins in the kit and not the eccentrics?), and the anchor pin plates.

The moving parts (i.e., those bits around the anchor pins) are greased with brake lube.  The nuts (on the anchor pins and eccentrics) have anti-seize on them.

But this marks the first time in this process that I've actually assembled something!  Yay! Axles come next...

Parts finally arrived!

Just dropped $1375 on parts...

A good chunk of that is new brakes (drums, pads, springs, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and some of the hoses--the flexible parts of the lines).  The rest is bearings, seals, and gaskets.  All for the axles.  (Other parts come later.)

Next comes reassembling the axles.  A bit more cleaning is needed first and I think I might need to do some more painting (on visible areas on the hubs, at least).  And then I need to get springs and shackles before I can get the axles onto the frame.  Oh, and new tires.  And I have to sandblast and paint the wheels.  This is not exactly a fast process!

Okay, So I have selected for replacement the following:

From the 41 Rear:
1 shaft cone
1 shaft cup
1 carrier cone
2 carrier cups

From the 25 front:
2 carrier cones
2 carrier cups
2 pinion cones
2 pinion cups
4 king pin cones
2 king pin cups (the upper one from each side)

The pictures below show parts of all of these:
41 Carrier Cone


41 Carrier Cup(s)


41 Shaft Cone

41 Shaft Cup


25 King Pin Cone(s)




25 King Pin Cup(s)



25 Pinion Cup


25 Pinion Cone(s)



25 Carrier Cone


25 Carrier Cup(s)



The ones I haven't chosen to replace all look good, and feel smooth.  I haven't been able to look at the inner races, though.