My 1939 Ford Standard Coupe - The Restoration

Page  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20

 

The Ford 8" rear end I chose came from a 1965 Mustang. I changed out the ring and pinion to a new 3.00 ratio. I also ordered a rebuild kit with new bearings and seals. A friend who has rebuilt many rear axles did the rebuild, including cleaning up the axles and installing new wheel studs. 

Before all the new goodies were installed, I had the empty housing sandblasted clean. We welded the new spring mounts in place after checking the pinion angle. I then cleaned the housing out with heavy duty degreaser and sturdy pipe brushes, and then pressure washed everything clean.

Another friend put a nice black paint job on the housing for me in his garage.

Here is the assembled rear axle sitting on the new parallel leaf springs. The pinion angle was set for about a 2 degree variance from the two angles (engine/trans angle to the rear axle pinion).

The shock absorbers are loosely mounted to their upper brackets, but have not been attached to the lower mounts yet.

I had to install the new outer grease seals in the axle housings before putting the axles in. I used a thin coat of blue RTV sealant on the gear carrier-to-housing mount surface along with the gasket.

The housing was then filled with 90 weight gear lube. 

 

 I had both the brake backing plates sandblasted clean last year, and then powder coat painted. Like some of the suspension parts, I had a black base with a clear urethane top coat done to these parts. This gives these lower suspension pieces a rugged finish that will help withstand road chips.

As I stated before, we replaced all the wheel studs with new parts.

New brake shoes, wheel cylinders, and brake mounting hardware, of course. The 1965 Mustang 10" brakes had the automatic parking brake adjusters, which adds to all the bits and pieces of this assembly. You almost need 15 fingers to get everything in place as you put things together. A brake spring tool is just about a necessity. 

I really like the powder coat finish on these backing plates. It totally resisted chipping and scraping as I fought to put everything in place!

Voila! Axle U-bolts are installed and the brake drums slipped right on. These are brand new Raybestos drums.....I learned some time ago to spend the extra money on quality drums for my cars. The cheap stuff doesn't handle the job as well.

My poor garage floor is gradually becoming more grease stained with each day I work on the car. When all is done (someday!) I will have to clean things up.

Page 15 of the Restoration

Return to Page 1