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What's on your Work Bench?

Late start today, and a fly in the ointment, or maybe more like a turd in the punch bowl. Who would think a Spicer u-joint for the front axel , correct part number at least on the box, would give that much trouble. Fractionally longer cross than could be inserted. Luckily Raymond had 3 others in the spare parts box. :cheers: IMG_4497.jpegIMG_4496.jpeg
 
40 year old spindle bearings and front axle u-joints. Only two dry u-joint caps, spindle bearings still had some life left!!

20251014_182328.jpg

Front axle u-joints, my nemesis!!!!

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One axle, no problems. Second axle, bitch. Turns out one of the new U-joint's cross was a hair too long to fit through the shaft ears. Never seen this before. Had to measure with the calipers, no way it would.go, even removing the seals off the cross. Wasted about two hours of my life with this issue. Even slightly spread the ears with a 1/2" fine thread rod, no Bueno. All three u-joints, including the 40 year old original, were Spicer. Another issue, even beyond the out of spec part, the newer Spicer U-joints for the stock Dana 30 shafts are larger in all dimensions. Cross is wider, body is beefier. Makes a tight fit with original parts even tighter with the newer Spicer parts. Just a heads up.
 
spankrjs said:
40 year old spindle bearings and front axle u-joints. Only two dry u-joint caps, spindle bearings still had some life left!!

View attachment 119213

Front axle u-joints, my nemesis!!!!

View attachment 119214

One axle, no problems. Second axle, bitch. Turns out one of the new U-joint's cross was a hair too long to fit through the shaft ears. Never seen this before. Had to measure with the calipers, no way it would.go, even removing the seals off the cross. Wasted about two hours of my life with this issue. Even slightly spread the ears with a 1/2" fine thread rod, no Bueno. All three u-joints, including the 40 year old original, were Spicer. Another issue, even beyond the out of spec part, the newer Spicer U-joints for the stock Dana 30 shafts are larger in all dimensions. Cross is wider, body is beefier. Makes a tight fit with original parts even tighter with the newer Spicer parts. Just a heads up.
Click to expand...
I hate doing u-joints anymore. I take them to someone else.
 
get a press. so easy.
weird that the ujoints were different. especially being Spicer
 
An old set of Superwinch lock in hubs. A buddy of mine gave me these probably over 15 years ago when he was cleaning out his shop.

20251020_173410.jpg

No damage, just old grease and some slight corrosion. Will clean them up, relubricate them, keep them for spares.

I kept one hub assembled to use as reference to reassemble the one that I disassembled.
 
spankrjs said:
An old set of Superwinch lock in hubs. A buddy of mine gave me these probably over 15 years ago when he was cleaning out his shop.

View attachment 119264

No damage, just old grease and some slight corrosion. Will clean them up, relubricate them, keep them for spares.

I kept one hub assembled to use as reference to reassemble the one that I disassembled.
Click to expand...
I love spares !
 
I have a set of Superwinch hubs on my green CJ7. They work great and will fit factory center caps without issue. I haven't had any problems with them and picked up an extra NOS set when I found a deal on them (gotta love spares)
 
IMG_1978.jpeg

Actually on my gang box. I picked these up with an aluminum radiator for my EB. I’m going to drill and tap them for screws for my full float rear end.
 
mhinchliffe said:
View attachment 119276

Actually on my gang box. I picked these up with an aluminum radiator for my EB. I’m going to drill and tap them for screws for my full float rear end.
Click to expand...

The only issue with the lock in hubs on the rear is the dials will leak gear oil out. If you have inner seals and run the outer axle bearings in grease then no worries, as long as the inner seals keep the gear oil out of the bearings.
 
Spent a few hours working on the old spare Superwinch lock in hubs. Degreaser soak, then Evapo-Rust soak, then CLR soak on some parts, then wash, then dry, lightly oiled all the steel parts with motor oil to prevent flash rust. On the dial and dial body, Dremel stainless wheel, then wet sand with fine emery cloth, then wet sand with 600 grit sand paper, then polished with metal polish. The first one came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Before:

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Some rust, old grease and gunk, clay stains, general blah. No damage to any of the parts.

After:

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And assembled.

20251026_144247.jpg

I could have got fancy and repainted the steel bases but decided against it. The first one looks great, all lubed up, and works great. The dial assembly on these hubs is very fiddly, patience definitely required. If you don't have to pull the dials apart don't. Took me an hour or so to figure it out and get it working properly. These old hubs had so much gunk and rust that I had to disassemble it.

One down, one to to go 😆
 
I got these with some wheels I bought about 8 years ago. Got them off the shelf and decided to work on one this afternoon. All hand powered cleaning up first with soap and a toothbrush then some polishing powder and wet cloth. Had to get some paint off also. Think a little more work and they will be good enough for the trail. IMG_4544.jpegIMG_4543.jpegIMG_4542.jpegIMG_4541.jpegIMG_4540.jpeg
 
What’s on my work bench is working on a new work bench/tool chest, 56” base chest and a 27” top chest. I’d run out of room and organization was going downhill. So l’m eliminating 3 small tool boxes and adding this in with my other existing good box and chest. Currently, reorganizing everything, trying for everything to make sense where it ends up. One note to anyone getting new tool chests, open the box at the store and inspect them for damage. I had to return the top chest twice due to damage, the third one I had them take it out of the box and let me inspect it before I’d take it. I did cut to size and finish the butcher block top since I didn’t want a metal work surface with a rubber mat.IMG_7026.jpeg
 
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