8N front axle assembly

   / 8N front axle assembly #1  

Eyecatcher

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2012
Messages
368
Location
Pomona Park Florida
Tractor
Yanmar EX450, Ford 8N/2N, Case 580C backhoe, Massey 185
Finally got t the stage of spraying the main tractor red. I had removed about everything that would come off, got it up on jack stands and painted her red. Base coat of red oxide primer, and a couple of pretty good coats of Majik enamel. Started bolting all the pieces back together, gonna give it one final coat with everything assembled to insure it's all the same color and sheen. Of course I took the two stub front axles off, removed the hubs from the spindles, new seals and cleaned and repacked wheel bearings. Now putting back together, which axle half goes on which side? Are they identical? The site that tells you all the little hints, says one spindle keyway at 5 o'clock and the other at 7. With the two halves hung temporarily in place, both keyways point directly to center as far as I can tell. Anybody help me out here? How can you tell if you have them reversed?
 
   / 8N front axle assembly #2  
Grease fittings point towards operator.
 
   / 8N front axle assembly
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanx, soundguy, you always have the answer.
 
   / 8N front axle assembly #4  
if you would have had a very early 9n, then they'd point forward. ;).. but those front axle extensions are a bit of a different beast anyways.
 
   / 8N front axle assembly
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Got the final coat of red paint on today, and I must say I'm impressed with the Majic stuff from TSC. Goes on nice, glosses up nice and covers well. Now if they could just figure out how to make it dry in about an hour - - . I didn't try to get the front axle in it's final position. I got the tires all remounted yesterday, and again I'm impressed with the Majic paint. The old replacement top hat wheels I got from Oak Hill, one was in pretty good shape, the other was a little rough. The had both been sandblasted and painted when I got them, but had so much paint (and runs), I ground the runs out of the good one, it must have been coated with epoxy, it was hard. Stripped the poor one and ran a layer of glass cloth and resin to cover up the holes in the sheet metal hat cover, then coated the inside of all 4 wheels with brushable gel coat and then painted with light ford gray. I let them set and dry several days, then had the tires mounted, and they didn't hardly even scuff the paint around the edges. The carriage bolts around the perimeter of the poor wheel were in pretty bad shape, so bought 6 new ones. The ones in the other wheel are in good shape but don't want to come out, so they are going to determine wheel spacing. Looks like 52" will work fine. When I get the rears on, I'll space the fronts to match. I'm assuming the fronts should line up with center line of the rears. I'll post a couple of pix of "red belly" tomorrow.
 
   / 8N front axle assembly #6  
more hardner will speed up dry time.


I used carquest qwik cure hardner and was able to unmask in an hour.. etc.
 
   / 8N front axle assembly
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Never did get pix posted. Wife had to have a new cell phone, and has taken all kinds of pix, but I can't figure out how to get them from the phone to the computer to TBN. I hate this modern stuff! I didn't take note of how the 3 piece front axle was assembled prior to removing, so have been having a bit of a difficult time getting wheels aligned. I assumed that the front wheels should track in the center of the rears.
I have the rears mounted with 52" center - center width. Tie rods won't collapse far enough to allow front width anywhere close. Moved the end axles out 1 hole width, and I think I've finally got the turnbuckle section completely short as it will go, and looks like it'll work. Boy those guys didn't want to turn after all these years! Manuals aren't very specific about how to do this. There's an alignment notch in the control arm, but I don't find a corresponding notch in the axle.
As I have it now, looks like the fronts are pretty much in alignment with the o/s of the rears. Don't know how you can measure center to center for toe in, can't measure thru the engine. Maybe pull a string down the o/s of the rears across the o/s of the fronts?
 
   / 8N front axle assembly #8  
measure from back of the tire to a fixed point, measure from the front of a tire to a fixed point. ie. back of both front tires front of both front tires.
 
 
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