so this is the "unofficial rebuild thread" of my factory closed knuckle dana 44. the first pic will be of the problem....top of the drivers side tire leaning in on the top. i thought this was because of a cam that was at the top of the spindle used for alignment but its not a cam, just a bearing.
we took the tire off, had to drill out the screw to get the brake drum off. while im thinking of it, if someone knows where to get more of those screws let me know. off with the drum and brakes. two springs on the top and one on the bottom. also took off the lockout hub, six screws on the outside, two snap rings on the inside and a small set screw that holds in a spring loaded thing. pretty easy so far. the wheel hub was next. the jam nut for the wheel bearing was so loose i took it off with my fingers. then the lock and inner nut. all this came off by hand. NOT GOOD. off with the hub and bearings and on to the spindle. six bolts hold that on.

 

there is some kind of shield held on by three bolts that have to come off to get to the six bolts that hold the backing plate and spindle. next we pulled out the axle shaft then removed the tie rod end from the spindle. i should also note we disconnected the brake line and removed the brake cylinder from the backing plate a few steps ago. we then removed the upper and lower spindle arm bearing caps and removed the spindle. this is a pic of the hub and bearing and a pic of my right hand man. can anyone say they got to rebuild a 52 year old axle at the age of 12. he has done most of the work so far as i watch......and help with the bolts that his breaker bar wont get free.
as you can see this was pretty gross, might have had something to do with this day of fun. its a good thing the rust and water was in there because it was the only thing keeping the bearings lubed. i shouldnt have let it go this long. more to come later.

 

something i forgot to mention is that the wiper has to be taken off the back of the knuckle before you can remove it from the ball. eight bolts hold it on then just let it rest on the axle. i have the large ball, the f100 4x4 probably has the small ball with i think six bolts. lets see if i remember to put the new one over the axle before i reinstall the knuckle on the ball!

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic-63-65/6774398451/" title="004 by HiBoy63-65, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6774398451_7c53146f38_b.jpg" width="1024" height="723" alt="004"></a>

This may help a little. Hope it doesnt muddy the waters for you.

 

looks alot like the one in the shop manual but yours has the lockout and some other parts. that must have come out of the parts manual. i need to get one of those. someone also mentioned a supplement for the four wheel drive but i havent found one of those either. i noticed in the pic you posted that that shield in front of the backing plate is not there either. i wonder what the deal is?

 

Looks like great progress. I sure wish I had a right hand like that! Enjoy!

 

buzz44, can you give me the title of the parts manual or post a pic of the front cover. after i got to looking at the pic the backing plate is not shown either. i also noticed the inner and outer bearing are the same in the picture but on my truck the outer is smaller than the inner. the guys at the parts store will figure it out. and spur, my son is a big motivation for me as he wants to tear everything apart. problem is he doesnt really have any concept of time or money. it gets interesting sometimes. we have two projects going right now and he wants to start on the f2 MH. so far i have kept him off that. now he just asked where we are going to put his 63 next year when we bring it home. i doubt this will ever end.

 

SUBSCRIBED!

 

Well here is a pic of my rt front hub and spindle. This is from when I did a complete brake job on my 65. I kept my fingers crossed that the spindle bearings where ok as they felt smooth and not alot of play in them. I thought that this pic had that shield you mention still in the pic. Alas it is already removed and on the bench for cleaning and paint. If I recall correctly it is there or seemed to be there as a grease sheild for that rear bearing to keep grease from being flung around inside of the hub and break shoe area and maybe also a way for any water to drain away if it were to find its way in that area. I can look in my service manual and see if its there in the bake section on the 4wd for my 63. Ill let you know what I find.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic-63-65/6345559905/http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic-63-65/6345559905/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/vic-63-65/, on Flickr

You can just see the shields on the paper painted silver and ready for reinstall. I didnt do a very good job of photo documentation of the brake job. Anyway Im pretty sure those are the plates you are talking about.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic-63-65/6346298544/http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic-63-65/6346298544/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/vic-63-65/, on Flickr

 

buzz44, you can see the shield really good in the second pic i posted. you are probably right about catching the grease from flying. you never mentioned what manual that diagram came from. i need a picture of the cover so i can start to look for one. also took the diff cover off tonight...............alot of water came out but i think its gonna be ok. stay tuned!

 

The pic of the front axle comes out of the 1963 Ford Truck parts and accessories catalog. For the fleet sales dept. I also have the exact same break down in my 61-63 service manual. The complete breakdown is in book one covering 61. The 62-63 are in volume 2. In the service lit instead of part #s it lists the nomencalture for all the parts. I looked through the service lit as to that plate or its use. There is no mention of it either in the brake section or the axle section. There is one picture of a backing plate being taken off with that plate pictured between the shoes but nothing said about it. Are yours in bad shape? Are you thinking of not reinstalling them?

 

I just checked the '60 shop manual and it has a pic very similar to the one Buzz posted. I believe that the backing plates (anchor plates), will primarily be shown in the brakes section.

 

got some more pics. the first one will be the main problem. left bearing is the bottom knuckle. whats left of the center one is the top knuckle bearing and to the right is the bottom bearing cap.
got the bearing races out of the ball with a socket and extention. kind of a homemade special tool if you will
had the brake drum turned tonight. they said it had never been turned so that was good. it looked pretty good so that surprised me. i will order the bearings and seal saturday morning and start the clean up. it looks like it will go back together quick once the parts are in.

 

Looks like it was really over due for that overhaul. Good thing you are doing it now could have cost alot more in the not to distant future from the looks of the housing and bearings. The book shows some kind of slide hammer with hook arms to pull the bearing cups out of the knuckle housing. If they were hard comming out a little trick I learned from an old time mechanic was to freeze seals and bearing races before installing them. Shinks them down just enough to make the interferance fit just a little loose until they expand back up tight.

 

well........its time for an update. after waiting a while for all the parts to come in we had to wait a little longer because they only ordered the knuckle races and not the bearings. anyway, got all the parts in and cleaned everything up. painted what needed to be painted and all that fun stuff. had a few snags along the way during the rebuild. the bottom knuckle race didnt seem as tight as it should be so i loc tighted that in. the new axle u joint had needle type grease zerk so i had to by a new end for the grease gun. got the knuckle on and found stripped threads in one of the holes that the spindle bolts go in. thought about leaving it because it had to be stripped for the last 16 years and i never had a problem but then figured i better try to fix it since i was there. i didnt want to heli-coil it or retap for fear of cracking the knuckle. found that a 5/16 bolt could be slipped in from the back after grinding on the bolt head a little. then got the backing plate and spindle on, new brakes and wheel cylinder. had the drum turned and a new tie-rod end. the drivers side is complete minus the lock-out. dont know if im gonna do new ones or re-use the old warns. found a funky weld on the axle shaft yoke. waiting to see if the other side looks the same or if it had been repaired. and to make things better "someone" left the key on and it drained the battery so bad that now its shot and wont take a charge. mo money!! it dawned on me during this rebuild that the wheel bearings are grease packed, but the axle joint and upper and lower knuckle bearings are lubed by the 80-90w in the ball. if you run lockouts the upper bearing doesnt get lubed because the axle doesnt spin to throw the oil on the bearing. plus, my wiper seal was missing so it didnt have gear lube in it anyway. now all the bearings are packed and i will also run 80-90 in the ball to lube the wiper seal. when i replace the battery i will turn it around and start on the passenger side. that side should go faster. and if anyone knows what the steering stops should be set at let me know. i cant find it in the book.