Ball Joints: Home-made press

LD1 · Sep 2, 2014

mikehaugen said:
Good to see I'm not the only one that goes through the trouble of making stuff that only gets used a couple times. I made a differential housing spreader about 5 years ago... used it once to rebuild my rearend and it has sat on the shelf ever since. Took me as long to make it as it did to do the rebuild

Funny you mention rear ends.

I still have a set of set-up bearings for a dana 60 rear axle.

The bearings get pressed on the diff with the shims behind the bearings. And no good way to removed them once on to make adjustments to the the backlash and preload. So I had a set honed out for slip fit:thumbsup: Only used them once...

mikehaugen · Sep 2, 2014

LD1 said:
Funny you mention rear ends.

I still have a set of set-up bearings for a dana 60 rear axle.

The bearings get pressed on the diff with the shims behind the bearings. And no good way to removed them once on to make adjustments to the the backlash and preload. So I had a set honed out for slip fit:thumbsup: Only used them once...

You are very right, after struggling with them last time, I said if I ever have to do it again, I will do exactly what you are describing. One of the bearings spun on the carrier so I had to replace the carrier, and the shims were destroyed. I had absolutely no baseline to start from and all of the info I found said to match what was there to begin with. I did a lot of measuring and ended up right on the second try- so I wasted one set of bearings. The second time I had the gear mesh correct, but I felt that the pre-load was a little tight, but I let it go. I wished that I had planned ahead and had dummy bearings... but I guess I know for next time. At least I will have the spreader :laughing:

franklin2 · Sep 2, 2014

FarmWrench said:
Why can't I get the pictures? This site did the same to my tile plow build.

Sometimes you have to go into your profile and into the settings, and make sure you have the "allow" pictures turned on. There is a lot of junk in there that can mess things up.

SPIKER · Sep 2, 2014

About the only thing I would have done a bit differently is to make ONE set with adjustable side brackets so you can squeeze the two uprights tight to the part.

Make two box shapes with 4 "T" nuts then use all thread to hold the two boxes together (slide the threaded rods close to the A-Arm so less bending forces when pressing.)

The center threaded rod would then be the press & could be thru a 5th "T" or welded solid.

I built a spring compressor doing it just like that using the center rod for keeping it centered and two outside ones for compressing the spring. That was a LONG time ago (1991 or so) and I DID find one of the threaded rods a while back but that was it..

Mark

LD1 · Sep 3, 2014

I thought about making the sides adjustable, but then thought it through some more..

In practice, even if sides were adjustable, it would still be easier and quicker to just grab something to space up the bottom or top, or longer piece of pipe, etc. Like I did with the pieces of flat steel under the tubing in picture 3.

jwmorris · Sep 3, 2014

I had to make a "C" style to swap out a u-joint where the shaft could not be removed from the machine.

I used a 10 ton porta power ram instead of threaded rod.

The machined insert allows you to press out and in without having to turn it the other direction.

Not one of the things I use a lot but it works when nothing else will.