Suspension dismantling - balls and shafts

[cantankrs]

Dad tried to cut one of his oxy'd shafts in the power hacksaw across the collar that the centre spring retainers bear against (to check if it was a sleeve) and it just rubbed back and forth with NO cut progress.

When he tried to part a bit of rod off from one of the ball/cones in the lathe it took the tip off the parting tool.

So he cut through the collar with a cut off wheel and found that it's definitely a sleeve as you can see the join but as to how it's fastened he's not sure. He didn't find a cross pin, nor bronze. He concedes that it was in the dark so possibly he may have ground away the pin with the width of the disc..

He wonders what process they used to heat treat these? The parting tool got under the surface of the rod O. K. but had trouble further in. Maybe some sort of spring steel? They were made of good stuff!

Regards

Alex