Leroy the EK Ute

[Mick]

you were to quick for me re the solder blobs, i tried a few times holding tank upside down and shaking hoping for them to come out filler neck some did but eventually did the vacume and hose tipped tank to one corner all gone in seconds

[thebrotherj]

you were to quick for me re the solder blobs, i tried a few times holding tank upside down and shaking hoping for them to come out filler neck some did but eventually did the vacume and hose tipped tank to one corner all gone in seconds

Yeah me too! I reckon i had the vacuum cleaner running for about five seconds all up

Cheers Joe


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[thebrotherj]

Great day today, rear axle is all but finished.

Kicked a hangover with an early morning 100km round trip out to visit Greg (EK283) who is making stellar progress on his EK Sedan. Go check his thread if you haven’t, the driveline and subtle body mods on that thing are very tidy.

He donated me another 2.89:1 diff centre, 2 axles, some brake shoes and a couple of drums that have a lot of meat on them. As I mentioned earlier, I would prefer a taller diff ratio, however, let’s just say that the price was right... To help further sell the short ratio to myself, I just need to remember that I’m going to be doing a lot of pulling away from very low speeds in second gear, cos I live in the city. Should be a zippy little Ute.

So this bunch of parts is now all assembled (I also found a home for that hair-of-the-dog tinnie too):



I used a couple of long bolts to line up the C-brackets, drum backing plate, rubber seal, handbrake plate and final locking plate... while lining up the half shaft and tapping that home with a rubber mallet. Doing this on the table, out of the car made it real easy in the end (phew). I used some old SAAB anaerobic sealant on the wheel bearing o-ring, figured I should put something on it. I didn’t disturb the regular inner seals installed in the diff housing, see how it all goes I guess.





Pretty stoked, as the wheel bearings on the donated axles must be brand new - they’re tight and completely smooth. The splines are less worn than mine also. The donated diff also has less lash than my one, no sign of serious pinion leak and the three teeth on the crownwheel with minor pitting cleaned up nice with a wire wheel on the drill.

Tomorrow I’ll finalise assembly and paint it up (if the rain stops) then maybe tackle the rust ahead of the LHR spring mount.
Cheers, Joe


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[ardiesse]

Joe,

Well done. But I'm a little mystified . . .
The rear axle housing has oil seals in it, inboard of the wheel bearing bores? I thought that GMH deleted them for FB-EK, and then realised they'd made a tactical error.

Are the seals the full diameter of the bearings' outer races? (In which case, they're the EJ-HG type)
Or are they smaller than the outer races, and sit in the rear axle tube inboard of the bearing bores? (in which case, they're the FX-FC type).

The EK shop manual I have shows a special tool for fitting a special oil seal between the bearing inner and outer races, on the outboard side of the bearing. Plus there's an "oil slinger" aka rubber ring which sits inside the rear brake anchor plate. The rear wheel bearing is lubricated by diff oil. The O-ring, exterior oil seal and the "oil slinger" between them are supposed to discourage diff oil from getting into the rear brakes.

Rob

[In the Shed]

Howdy Joe,
Do you mean Greg donated a 3.89 diff? Do the sedans run the same diff ratio as the Utes? All these diff no's are a bit confusing? Looking good by the way too!

Regards
Stephen

[EK283]

Good stuff Joe !

I could see you were itchen to get that stuff cleaned up and together, I hope it works without any noise as the centre is unknown bearing wise.

Just as a matter of interest for Rob and Stephen the housing that the bits came from also have inner seals that appear the same size as the axle bearing surface, slinger or seal not sure.
Also the centre was from an automatic car so that could explain the 3.89 ratio although who knows if it was changed in its early days ?

Regards Greg

[thebrotherj]

Joe,

Well done. But I'm a little mystified . . .
The rear axle housing has oil seals in it, inboard of the wheel bearing bores? I thought that GMH deleted them for FB-EK, and then realised they'd made a tactical error.

Are the seals the full diameter of the bearings' outer races? (In which case, they're the EJ-HG type)
Or are they smaller than the outer races, and sit in the rear axle tube inboard of the bearing bores? (in which case, they're the FX-FC type).

The EK shop manual I have shows a special tool for fitting a special oil seal between the bearing inner and outer races, on the outboard side of the bearing. Plus there's an "oil slinger" aka rubber ring which sits inside the rear brake anchor plate. The rear wheel bearing is lubricated by diff oil. The O-ring, exterior oil seal and the "oil slinger" between them are supposed to discourage diff oil from getting into the rear brakes.

Rob

Hi Rob,

I’m familiar with the later type seals from the HRs and KTGs I’ve built. The ones in the Ute are not concaved, they have a flat face and appear to sit further inboard than I remember of the later models. Basically, the diff tube is a different design from what I am make out:



and you can see where the seal was running on the axle:



Cheers, Joe


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[thebrotherj]

Howdy Joe,
Do you mean Greg donated a 3.89 diff? Do the sedans run the same diff ratio as the Utes? All these diff no's are a bit confusing? Looking good by the way too!

Regards
Stephen

As Greg has mentioned below, the 3.89:1 he donated came from an EK Sedan with auto trans. I’ve never driven or investigated an early Grey motor Holden equipped with a Hydramatic, but I’m sure the taller ratio was needed to so they could actually pull away from a standing start on a steep hill... maybe someone on here could clarify if Hydros were sold with taller ratios?

My bro’s 327 Imapala with 2.73 and Powerglide was pretty sluggy, dad’s 307 Kingswood with 2.78 and Powerglide is even slower to be honest!
Cheers, Joe


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[thebrotherj]

Good stuff Joe !

I could see you were itchen to get that stuff cleaned up and together, I hope it works without any noise as the centre is unknown bearing wise.

Just as a matter of interest for Rob and Stephen the housing that the bits came from also have inner seals that appear the same size as the axle bearing surface, slinger or seal not sure.
Also the centre was from an automatic car so that could explain the 3.89 ratio although who knows if it was changed in its early days ?

Regards Greg

Hehe yeah, when I get motivated, I don’t muck around Thanks again so much for this Greg.

The diff centre in my Ute was an unknown quantity for me also, I never drove the car before the build. I needed to fix the pinion leak for rego, so it had to come out... and discovered it was about to break the rest of that spider gear.
The one you’ve donated is clearly in better shape overall, so I’ll take my chances... and a noisy carrier bearing won’t fail me for rego. As we discussed, we’ve both changed these on the side of the road before, I’m not afraid to try this one and find out

Cheers mate.
Joe


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[thebrotherj]

Rear axle assembly painted up and brake lines massaged into place, looking like a hundred bucks, probably cost me about half that to make this happen



Will set this aside now, next to the fuel tank, while I finish work on the floor pan. Can’t wait to bolt it all back in!




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[59wagon]

Ripping along there, Joe. Great stuff


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[Blacky]

Good stuff Joe !

I could see you were itchen to get that stuff cleaned up and together, I hope it works without any noise as the centre is unknown bearing wise.

Just as a matter of interest for Rob and Stephen the housing that the bits came from also have inner seals that appear the same size as the axle bearing surface, slinger or seal not sure.
Also the centre was from an automatic car so that could explain the 3.89 ratio although who knows if it was changed in its early days ?

Regards Greg

all grey powered vehicles were fitted with 3.89:1 ratio diffs

[ardiesse]

Joe,

Your rear axle oil seals are the "early" type. It's been waaaay too long since I last pulled the half-shafts out of an EK.

Rob

[thebrotherj]

Joe,

Your rear axle oil seals are the "early" type. It's been waaaay too long since I last pulled the half-shafts out of an EK.

Rob

Well if it turns out that this diff centre whines like my neighbours dog when it's locked out, you are most welcome to come over and reacquaint yourself with this fun task!
Cheers, Joe

[FireKraka]

Great work Joe you are really ripping through it.

Neil