I'm into a '98 front end right now, looking to stop a pretty bad gear oil leak as long as I'm replacing ball joints.

I completely failed to realize the intermediate shaft had or needed support near the CAD, but it makes sense. So I slid the intermediate shaft out and saw a needle roller bearing in there. "Aw, that's cute I thought," and went to spin it with my finger just to check condition. Well, one roller fell out the second I touched it, and so began the saga at 5:30p to find a replacement I could get quickly.

Online info seems to indicate all the 1500s starting in '94 should have a received a bushing. Apparently the bearing and bushing are interchangeable, and the bushing is cheaper so I would have been fine with that. The only part # for a bushing I could locate was 43337, and there was no way I could find to get this quickly -- like, overnight.

Now, the bearing appears to be a 566008. My NAPA could find it as a part # but couldn't actually obtain it, and couldn't cross it over to anything else.

Also, when I downloaded the Spicer .pdf "bible" for these axles the exploded diagram seems to not show or mention ANYTHING at this location. No bearing, no bushing (although both 43337 and 566008 are Spicer part #'s, found elsewhere)

I was about to fire up the lathe and grab a chunk of Delrin and just make a bushing when I decided stop, think, and actually remove the existing bearing and look for a part #. This proved an excellent decision because the bearing itself yielded a part # of BCE228 which interchanged with a B228 at O'Reilly. $11 and both my local stores -- in relative BFE -- stocked it. In fact, the store I went to had TWO and I bought both just in case.


The old bearing in place. Note one roller already trying to escape.

Yeah, that's not great

BCE228

National B228. Most O'Reillys stock

 

I decided I had to be able to improvise some way to install this alone, and this is what I did.


1/2" dr 18" extension plus 1" deep socket slid over the handle of my inexpensive import seal/race driver.

You've got to assemble the disc onto the handle once in the CAD opening. Then I elevated it with a random socket to act as a spacer to keep it somewhat concentric with the bearing

At the inner C I again crudely elevated the extension to be ROUGHLY concentric -- then, just tap away with hammer of your choice

 

Nothing like searching for a part with the actual part number in hand! Nice job and thanks for sharing the photos, tools & techniques.

 

Turned myself an Al disc to push or drag through the axle tubes to clean them up a bit

 

There is a company that makes dust shields for those..... search might turn 'em up.

 

Does anyone make the shields for the Dodge Dana 60 front axle?

 

I remember seeing them somewhere. Might have been torque 4x4?

 

So for the RH axle seal I decided to go the route of "pulling" it in using allthread.

I'm swimming in import ball joint press kits similar to the Astro 7865. This is a piece in most press kits. I turned it down until it just fit inside the metal framework of the seal; length of this feature was .270" IIRC. I also tapped it 5/8-11 which was much easier than using a nut.

Machining the cup from my extra ball joint press kit(s)

Next I grabbed a drop of 2.5" round Al stock and machined this to fit the axle tube. Thru-drilled 5/8" for 5/8" allthread.

As seen inside the CAD cavity. I didn't get a shot of the modified cup actually in the backside of the seal, but it fits like a glove

This worked sooooo well. The modified cup being tapped means it doesn't matter if this outer nut turns or the entire pc of allthread spins

 

Ya know, having a lathe, and making your own tools is cheating.

More power to ya!!

 

I pulled the LH seal in in the same manner. Also, if you have a ball joint press kit (required for a man card anyway, so get one!) the stepped discs contained in the kit can be used to center your allthread in the axle tube

Stepped disc provided in all ball joint press kits

Stepped disc in use. One of the steps centers up with tube ID

Pulling the LH seal into place using my modified (with a lathe) disc shown above.