1958 Tourer Rear Axle and Diff Removal

[Stewart291TMM]

Hi All,

An update for those of you not yet fed up with all of my questions

I’m taking my rear axle to a shotblasting company who have recommended vapour blasting to remover all of the dirt and rust. I’ve stripped the axle down to leave just the housing and really pleased with how the entire rear brakes, hubs and various other bits all came off without too much of a challenge.
I used a basic hub puller and socket set to get the hubs and bearings off and it all worked really well.

I’m going to clean the diff but not sure if taking it apart and cleaning gives any real benefit over a simply clean with something like brake cleaner, still researching this so if anyone has any thoughts I’d welcome them.

Thanks for stopping by, the strip down continues!

[philthehill]

Whilst you are going to have the axle casing vapour blasted I would advise anyone against having the bare axle casing grit blasted. If you must have the axle casing grit blasted the axle casing must be tightly sealed to stop any grit getting inside the axle casing.
I am in the process of replacing my axle casing and bought a very good used axle casing that unknown to me and previous to my purchase had been grit blasted.
No problem there BUT the internal side of the axle casing is not just straight and has several pockets were the grit can get trapped and was trapped. If that trapped grit gets free and out into the main part of the casing the diff and bearings will soon wear out.
As a result of the trapped grit I had to go and purchase a second axle which had not been grit blasted.
To make matters worse the grit inside the axle casing had been painted over with what appears to be an epoxy paint which held the grit together and to the axle casing making the removal of the pocketed grit a near impossibility.

[svenedin]

I was at at a combined (two branches) of the MMOC yesterday. About 18 cars and lots of spare parts and tools. That diff looks very nice! Sawa lovely flat top (side valve)