I thought I'd share more on the axle bearing replacement process:
This reminds me of a good story: A few years ago, I was servicing a 7 1/4" axle in a Dart. One axle bearing badly needed replacement, but we lacked a suitable shop press so I took the axle to the old time shop down the road. "No problem, I''ll have that thing off in a second" the guy says as he lights his oxy-acetylene torch and proceeds to flame cut the old bearing off the axle! I had never seen this done before and it looked super sketchy, but it worked!
The whole time I was in his small, dirty shop, I was standing beneath an old 55 Chevy truck on a lift. Well, I thought it was on a lift, but when I looked around I realized I didn't actually see a real vehicle lift. I saw a few 4x4 chunks of wood leaning here and there underneath the truck frame. As I gingerly stepped out from underneath the truck I saw, to my horror, a cable jack wrapped around a roof truss and hooked to the bumper on each end of the truck! A single cable jack on each end of a 5,000 lb truck supported by 4x4's seven feet off the ground! How is this guy still alive?!
While I made it out in one piece with a new axle bearing in place, I also learned something important about shop safety: Always back up your farmer's cable jacks with multiple chunks of wood while supporting the full weight of a vehicle over your head! Redundancy saves lives!
(But seriously, I'm kidding, don't do this!!)
I do my bearings a bit differently:
I cut the cage and rollers off, then carefully made a relief cut out of the inner race ( 1/2 to 3/4 thickness)
This is the shoulder that the bearings seat against to properly locate them.
As you can see, this one came apart a little bit.
These should be the correct bearing numbers for 1928-1931 Plymouths: Cup 14276, Cone 14138A.
(See footnote)
Footnote:
If I just saved you hours of time and hundreds of dollars by listing these Timken part numbers, please feel free to buy me a burger and a milkshake!
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