Rear Axles & Brakes

Well, I got the axle seals out this morning.

 They had a piece of leather covering a spring, which kept it sealed to the axle shaft.  They might still be OK, but since I have the axles out, I might as well replace them.  After all, the bearings were shot, so the seals can't be far behind, right?

 Looks like I can pry it out with a sufficiently long "convincer"

 Not working.  Need a new tool

Harbor freight to the rescue.

 Very clever tool.

 Now to clean out the housing, and get ready to install the new seal/

 Permatex on the edges, and the big socket to seat the seal in the housing.  Hammer not shown.

New seal in place.  Still has a spring, but neoprene instead of leather.

The brake backing plates are sandwiched between the axle housing and the wheel bearing cover.  Backing plates have gaskets on both sides.  Notice how there is a 5th hole on the bottom, but there are only 4 bolts on each side.  That bottom hole drains any axle oil leakage away from the brakes.  I thought it was a clever safety feature!

 Here it is in place, complete with painted axle.

 My first attempt at assembling the rear brakes.  I checked with some previous shots, and realized something was missing.

 That's better.

Here with the drum in place.  These will eventually need to be replaced, but they should be serviceable for the time being.  I adjusted the brakes, and then the parking brake cable.  Looking forward to getting the wheels on, and rolling the car out into the sunshine.  That should make working on the cabin much easier.

I had one medium size piece of heat shield left over.  I found an area in the rear of the tunnel that it would fit.  After trimming the piece and then cleaning the tunnel area, I put it in place.  I can now call the lower heat shield complete.  The mechanism on the right is the shifter and linkage.

A good day, but I'm afraid I'm coming down with a cold.  Going to bed early.  Goodnight!