Suspension dismantling - balls and shafts

[Lynn Eades]

Put the rod assy in a press, on a plate with a hole it, and push against the spring. be careful. I,ve fought and struggled with mine, but it was a while ago, and at that time I had access to some good gear, like the 100 ton press.
The plates between the springs sit against a collar on the rod, so each comes off their own end. If your rods are rusted to the balls, then they cant have been too badly worn
David started with not much. He told me that he had all his springs made.

It would be good if you can run a few photos of the process. no doubt it will help a few people who havent done theirs yet.

[cantankrs]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

It would be good if you can run a few photos of the process. no doubt it will help a few people who havent done theirs yet.

Thanks Lynn,

Bruce pressed a bogie assy apart which was a a tough job and required plenty of heat too. Then he soaked a spring assy in citric acid bath for about 3 days and that cleaned up everything except where the balls were rusted to the rod. So then he tried pressing and also resorted to a lot of Oxy to heat the ball up trying to not get much heat into the rod or springs. Heating and cooling didn't seem to break the 'hold' of the rusted interface but finally his press got it moving and apart. He repeated for the ball on the other end of the rod. So this method got one spring assy dismantled and I'll post the job in two lots. The sandblasted and primed pics I'll put up soon.

Regards

Alex

[cantankrs]

Here's the remaining pics prior to sandblasting and priming. Pic one looks like a fair bit of an angle. Edit: The rod did bend.

Alex

[cantankrs]

per attached:

[cantankrs]

Second style of clamp plate for press. Didn't have a bought bearing clamp so made one to suit. Edit: Mk2 was unsuccessful at freeing the balls and he thinks that's because they were the lower ones and had rusted together worse than the top ball/cones. This Mk2 plate was in Bruce's opionion far superior to the original as it prevented the spring from being a factor where the Mk1 clamp gripped the outer sping and caused the ball and rod to lean in the press.

[cantankrs]

Rest of pics. Unfortunately this plate didn't result in a ball being released so Dad made the decision to cut the rod and mount each end stub in the lathe and drill out most of the rod before driving the remains out to free up the balls.

[JackM]

Alex,

I had the same problem when I restored a couple of carriers for the Museum in Fremantle.

I tried almost everything to remove the shaft from the ball/cone, but all I did in the end was to bend the shaft by applying too much pressure while trying to separate the two, in a press.

They are often rusted in very tightly, as you have found.

My solution was to find some spare suspension bogeys and cut the pieces I needed from them, ie I cut the springs off one set to get decent shafts and the shafts off another, to get the springs.

Wasteful I know, but there is often no viable alternative.


Jack