A (pre-paint) shot of the weld on the knuckle:

I found it very interesting to look at the weld on the brake hose holder (and the ones on the spring mount a few inches out of the shot) and compare them to the one holding the knuckle onto the axle tube.  The former are clearly done by hand, while the latter really doesn't look like it.  But I don't think they had computerized welding in 1949...

Here are the painted 25/41.  Just the POR-15 coat is on now--I'll paint over that with a matte paint tomorrow.  (POR-15 has to be painted over unless it's somewhere that will not see any light.  I'm painting over everything, regardless.)

The carrier saddles and differential cover bolts are all in place because the bolt holes go out the back side, and I didn't want paint getting into those holes.

Another thing to note is that the pinions have been removed.  That was both to make it easier to clean the axles, and because I'm going to be replacing the bearings anyway.  The Kaiser-Willys service manual says to remove the pinion by hammering on it with a brass punch.  Tried that--didn't have much luck.  Moses Ludel's book says to use an air hammer.  Don't have one of those, and I doubt the neighbours would appreciate it if I did!  What I did instead was to use my press.  Worked like a charm--didn't even need much force.  Obviously that can only be done with an axle that's been removed from the vehicle, but mine were...

And here are the four knuckles (since I haven't decided which two I'm using yet), and the four 9" backing plates.  Also the two covers.  The cover for the 25 isn't the one that was on the Jeep when I got it, but it came in the spare parts collection that came with the Jeep.  The one on the Jeep was chrome, but since the chrome plating was half gone, I decided to revert to the original one with a fresh coat of paint.

For curiosity and record keeping, here are some casting (and other) numbers off various parts.  I'm only including the 25 and 41 axles, since they're the original ones, and are being reused.

 The 41 axle still has its ratio tag (43/8=5.375).  (The 25 did, too, shown below.  The 27 and 44 did not.)  Also in this picture is a code 9-65.  I don't know what it means.  The 41 is also visible.

 Also on the 41:

This one is the 25.  The code at the bottom is totally illegible.

 Here's the ratio tag on the 25:

 

The 9" brake backing plates (41/25, L&R) all had the same number on them:

 

 This is on the 25:  It's the only one of the four axles that had numbers on the side of the differential away from the cover.  The 25 is clear; I don't know what the 48 means.

I can't see any date stampings on the axles where http://www.cj3a.info/tech/datecode.html says they should be.  There is a "6" stamped on one of the "donuts" referred to in that page, but it's in a bigger font.

I've been remiss in keeping this up to date, but really not much has happened.  I've sandblasted the axle tubes, brake backing plates and knuckles, and then painted them.  I'm going to put some details in multiple posts just to keep things straight.

Unfortunately, I discovered the 44/27 axles didn't both have 11" brakes.  The 44 had 11", while the 27 had 10" brakes.  It really doesn't seem like a great idea to have the more powerful brakes on the rear, but that's what they had.  One of the 11" backing plates had also been repaired--fairly well, mind you.

I think, all things considered, that I'm going to stick with the 9" brakes that the CJ-3A came with.  I really don't want different brakes front and rear.

I haven't made up my mind on the knuckles yet.  I was planning on using the knuckles off the 27, since one of the tie rod connections on the 25's knuckles was a bit worn.  But other than that wear, the knuckles from the 25 are in better shape.  Funny, though:  if I decide to keep the knuckles from the 25, then the effort I've spend disassembling and cleaning the 44/27 pair of axles will be entirely for naught, as it had been for the brake backing plates and knuckles...

Sandblasted brake backing plates and knuckles are shown in the picture below.  You can see the three different sizes of plates (2 each of 10" and 11", and 4 of the 9").

 And here are the axles tubes (25 and 41).  The rust is from dew.  I sandblasted at the cabin, and we spent the night there.  By morning, there was rust...  But it was just minor surface rust and cleaned off easily.

Ah ha!  Success!

I really had to bear down on that jack handle in the press, though.  And when the hubs separated, they were like gunshots going off!

The funny thing is that that was just a point of pride.  I needed to get either the shafts out or the hub off--either one would allow me to get the brake backing plates, which I need for the 11" brake upgrade.  And the shafts were pulled days ago.  But I couldn't just let it go, either...

Anyway, I've also been pulling the seals on the 25 and 41 axles (the ones off my Jeep, which I will be reinstalling.  I need to order new seals, and decide which (if any) bearings I need to order.  In the meantime, I will be cleaning and prepping those two axles for painting.

The other day, I took the D44 to a mechanic to see if they could pull the shafts and/or hubs.

The shafts came out fairly easily with a slide hammer.  (Need to get one of those!)

The hubs, OTOH, still won't come off.  The mechanics broke their puller (stripped the threads) trying.  (It wasn't one of the heavy duty $375 pullers, though.)

But with the shafts out, I can put them in my 20 ton shop press...  First attempt--no joy.  I probably didn't pull hard enough on the jack handle, though.  Instead, I left the shafts sitting with ATF/Acetone.  Out of the axle tube, I can have them both sitting vertically, so the ATF/Acetone can seep into the joint instead of just dripping away like when the axle was horizontal.  I'll try again this weekend now that they've been soaking for a few days.

That Dana 44 axle (the rear axle that did not come with the Jeep) is being darned recalcitrant.  I can't get the hubs off, and I can't get the axle shafts out.  On the D41 (the rear axle that did come on the Jeep), the hubs popped off easily, and the axle shafts slid right out after undoing the flange bolts.  I have no idea what to do differently...  (There's not supposed to be anything different between the two axles when it comes to disassembly.)

So I moved onto the front.  I got both knuckles off the D25 (the front axle that came on the Jeep) and disassembled.  No difficult parts to that at all.  (Now I'll have to try the D27--the spare front axle...)  After being stuck so long on that D44, it felt good to actually get something done.

One weird thing, though.  The washers inside one of the front hubs were totally mangled.  The splines on that shaft were also slightly mangled.  I took some pictures, and I'll add them to this post at a later date (when I get around to it...)  No idea what could have caused that--it even looked like it had been assembled that way from earlier damage.

Edit:  Here's the pictures.

The outer washer:

 And the inner one:

There were no bits of metal in there...