I'm assuming this is for link material and that you'll be using weld-in thread inserts?
CK5
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'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build
- Thread starter Greg72
- Start date
This is the build description. I will improve this later. (GB)
Almost right, I'm cutting the threads into the links directly.
With a lathe or...
Better than either of those options.....
I have a machinist friend with about 30 years experience and a LOT of cool machine tools...
I have a machinist friend with about 30 years experience and a LOT of cool machine tools...
Better than either of those options.....
I have a machinist friend with about 30 years experience and a LOT of cool machine tools...
I'm glad you said that because i don't think you would have ever successfully hand tapped those threads.
It's definately nice to have "friends" to get some stuff done.
2010.01.31 - UPDATE! - 10 TONS OF "FUN".... MAYBE MORE?
Not.
There are times when I applaud the genius of those German engineers, but today was not one of those times. I had the dubious task of trying to remove the 6-lug wheel hub from the UniMog portal housing to prepare for an inspection and rebuild with some new parts.
The first thing I learned (the hard way) is that the hubs are pressed on with the same machine that drives bridge pilings to the center of the earth. To pull them, you need to buy a special $1200 tool from Mercedes Benz...but the tool has been obsoleted since the early 80's and cannot be purchased for ANY price.... swell.
Plan B: Make my own.
All I needed was a strong piece of steel with the correct bolt pattern and a cutout to fit over the stock hub..
The plasma cutter made the first part easy. Drilling out six 1" holes with nothing more than a Uni-Bit and 2 cans of WD-40 was tougher (and more time consuming)
The next step was welding my new ring/square onto a "tower of (pulling) power". Basically a 3-legged puller with a GR-8 bolt down the middle. This allows me to press against the fixed part of the hub, and draw the outer wheel mounting portion of the hub away from the portal.
As luck would have it, I don't own a socket large enough to fit over that GR-8 bolt so I had to use a pipe wrench instead....
.....and a LONG breaker bar!
After probably an hour of hanging off the end of the breaker bar, moving the bolt 1/4 turn at a time, resetting the pipewrench....turning another 1/4 turn.....sweating, swearing, etc. I started to see progress...
Not long after that, I finally got the money shot.
At this point, I had the hub removed (which gets replaced with a new 8-Lug Chevy style one) but I still had the axle shaft sticking out the back of the portal and a huge drum brake backing plate connected...
What I eventually realized is that there is no way to remove the shaft until you actually seperate the two halves of the portal housing itself...so I removed all of the perimeter bolts, made a big greasy mess and got this view....
Pretty neat, actually.
The final step was removing that huge dust shield. It turns out that the shield is actually connected to the portal backing plate with a series of glorified rivets. I unglorified them with my 4-1/2" cutoff wheel....
With that success behind me, I have devised a few improvements and changes that will be made to the Tower Of Power (patent pending)
I've got the link material to build the suspension, but the Evolution Heims are making their way from Canada to the US, and I don't want to thread the tubing until I can verify the threading, etc.... so that probably won't get an update until next weekend.
Until then, I need to go source some parts to build Tower of Power v2, since I still have three more hubs to pull and I certainly don't want to struggle for hours the way I did for that first one.
Not.
There are times when I applaud the genius of those German engineers, but today was not one of those times. I had the dubious task of trying to remove the 6-lug wheel hub from the UniMog portal housing to prepare for an inspection and rebuild with some new parts.
The first thing I learned (the hard way) is that the hubs are pressed on with the same machine that drives bridge pilings to the center of the earth.
To pull them, you need to buy a special $1200 tool from Mercedes Benz...but the tool has been obsoleted since the early 80's and cannot be purchased for ANY price.... swell.Plan B: Make my own.
All I needed was a strong piece of steel with the correct bolt pattern and a cutout to fit over the stock hub..
The plasma cutter made the first part easy. Drilling out six 1" holes with nothing more than a Uni-Bit and 2 cans of WD-40 was tougher (and more time consuming)
The next step was welding my new ring/square onto a "tower of (pulling) power". Basically a 3-legged puller with a GR-8 bolt down the middle. This allows me to press against the fixed part of the hub, and draw the outer wheel mounting portion of the hub away from the portal.
As luck would have it, I don't own a socket large enough to fit over that GR-8 bolt so I had to use a pipe wrench instead....
.....and a LONG breaker bar!
After probably an hour of hanging off the end of the breaker bar, moving the bolt 1/4 turn at a time, resetting the pipewrench....turning another 1/4 turn.....sweating, swearing, etc. I started to see progress...
Not long after that, I finally got the money shot.
At this point, I had the hub removed (which gets replaced with a new 8-Lug Chevy style one) but I still had the axle shaft sticking out the back of the portal and a huge drum brake backing plate connected...
What I eventually realized is that there is no way to remove the shaft until you actually seperate the two halves of the portal housing itself...so I removed all of the perimeter bolts, made a big greasy mess and got this view....
Pretty neat, actually.
The final step was removing that huge dust shield. It turns out that the shield is actually connected to the portal backing plate with a series of glorified rivets. I unglorified them with my 4-1/2" cutoff wheel....
With that success behind me, I have devised a few improvements and changes that will be made to the Tower Of Power (patent pending)
- Replace the GR-8 bolt with a 12" length of GR-8 Allthread. Running out of threads is lame and wastes time.
- New bolt to thread into... the nut ended up horribly galled from bottoming out the threads so it takes a pipe wrench to move the bolt even when it's not attached to anything.
- Get the right socket! - The pipe wrench shuffle got tiring after about 30 or 40 times.
- Get a 3/4" or 1" drive breaker bar - It will be safer and easier than sliding an old piece of 2" DOM over a pipe wrench.
I've got the link material to build the suspension, but the Evolution Heims are making their way from Canada to the US, and I don't want to thread the tubing until I can verify the threading, etc.... so that probably won't get an update until next weekend.
Until then, I need to go source some parts to build Tower of Power v2, since I still have three more hubs to pull and I certainly don't want to struggle for hours the way I did for that first one.
Ummm, you didn't have a socket in your torque multiplier set?
I would try to use that multiplier set before you get a 1" or 3/4" breaker bar.
I would try to use that multiplier set before you get a 1" or 3/4" breaker bar.
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None of them were the right size....mostly too small, and a lot of them were duplicates of the same size (1-5/8")
The 55mm I bought for the hub nut was too large.
I will get it sorted out better for next time.
The 55mm I bought for the hub nut was too large.
I will get it sorted out better for next time.
Any chance having the correct socket on the end of an uber high torque impact would do the job?
Possibly..... but I have neither!
I was actually starting to get pricing for a good quality 3/4 or 1" impact gun that can do over 1000Lb/Ft. Pricey.
The other thing I'm trying to figure out is if it's acceptable to use an impact driver on that Snap-On torque multiplier I bought??
I don't know if the impact driver will shatter that planetary set inside the socket head or if it's designed to be used that way.
If it was OK, my current 1/2" impact MIGHT be able to do the job next time around.
I was actually starting to get pricing for a good quality 3/4 or 1" impact gun that can do over 1000Lb/Ft. Pricey.
The other thing I'm trying to figure out is if it's acceptable to use an impact driver on that Snap-On torque multiplier I bought??
I don't know if the impact driver will shatter that planetary set inside the socket head or if it's designed to be used that way. If it was OK, my current 1/2" impact MIGHT be able to do the job next time around.
bp71k5
3/4 ton status
If you're accepting recommendations for breaker bars, I was able to bend a 3/4" craftsman bar from Sears pretty easy with a 48" extension trying to remove d60 kingpins. If that thing is on any tighter, I'd recommend a 1" bar made by some place other than Sears.
Greg, you can make another one and use them as jack stands when not in use for their intended purpose.
Greg, i would suggest a sliding t-handle over a breaker bar. The pivot pin of a breaker bar will probably "break" before you get the job done.
Here is one from Snap-on, they aren't cheap when you get into the 1" ones but then again nothing in our hobby is cheap. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...5&group_ID=447&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog
Here is one from Snap-on, they aren't cheap when you get into the 1" ones but then again nothing in our hobby is cheap. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...5&group_ID=447&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog
Well he can get a cheaper one from Harbor freight or northern tools, it's not like he has a shop and will be using these every day and his life depends on it, Snap on is good in that department but for a T bar I would go with a cheap one, they all work fine. Sockets on the other hand I always get a good ones.
Wow, $200 for a sliding t-handle? Would the 2" DOM scrap you have be strong-enough if you somehow welded a nub of metal to the outside-end of it, this nub would then fit in the socket. Just a thought, I can't weld and I'm not anything more than a shade-tree mechanic that takes 2X as long as anyone to do anything but I would figure out some other trick even if it meant continuing on with the pipe-wrench. It's good exercise at least...
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It get's to a point where you waste so much time trying to find a "free" or cheap solution that it just gets stupid... I only get about 16 hours a week in the shop to work, and I don't like spending all that time building tools or jigs. It sure seems like that's what I've been doing lately though... yesterday was another infuriatingly bad day in the shop trying to pull another Mog wheel hub.
My "Version 2" puller was a section of Grade B7 Allthread, and some new GR-8 nuts along with a new matching socket so I wouldn't have to use the pipewrench anymore. Unfortunately, after a bunch of time retrofitting the puller with the new parts I still couldn't pull the hub. This time at least the problem was different.... the allthread ended up galling at the very end where it presses against a hub insert....almost creating a welded connection there. The forces are unbelievable to get these hubs to pull off.
The only thing that cheered me up was a delivery from Evolution Machine in Canada, eh?
I'm not an iced-tea drinker so I decided to do my own photograph to show the relative scale of these heims...
Here's the artsy one...
These are the large ones for the lower links, the medium ones are being machined now and should be here in another week or so... that gives me some more time for swearing and fussing with the stupid hub puller.
My "Version 2" puller was a section of Grade B7 Allthread, and some new GR-8 nuts along with a new matching socket so I wouldn't have to use the pipewrench anymore. Unfortunately, after a bunch of time retrofitting the puller with the new parts I still couldn't pull the hub. This time at least the problem was different.... the allthread ended up galling at the very end where it presses against a hub insert....almost creating a welded connection there. The forces are unbelievable to get these hubs to pull off.
The only thing that cheered me up was a delivery from Evolution Machine in Canada, eh?
I'm not an iced-tea drinker so I decided to do my own photograph to show the relative scale of these heims...
Here's the artsy one...
These are the large ones for the lower links, the medium ones are being machined now and should be here in another week or so... that gives me some more time for swearing and fussing with the stupid hub puller.
sexay!!!
don't be discouraged bud, you'll fight thru it.. if it was easy, it wouldn't be satisfying...
I've was feeling guilty cuz I've been somewhat taking a break from mine since x-mas.. then realized I deserved a little reprieve and am building up my motivation to start pounding it again..
don't be discouraged bud, you'll fight thru it.. if it was easy, it wouldn't be satisfying...
I've was feeling guilty cuz I've been somewhat taking a break from mine since x-mas.. then realized I deserved a little reprieve and am building up my motivation to start pounding it again..
fix galling issue then puller + heat + PB blaster?
Those are some nice heims...makes you want to build something out of them to hang on the wall like some fine art 
Been following this thread for a long time, can't wait to hear how you get those rest of those hubs off.
Been following this thread for a long time, can't wait to hear how you get those rest of those hubs off.
2010.02.08 - UPDATE! - 9TH ANNIVERSARY....
I'm a few days late. I bought this K5 on Feb 4th, 2001 but I figure it's close enough to still mark the occasion. Nine years and countless dollars later, and I've managed to transform a completely driveable $7000 truck into a motionless sculpture costing many multiples of that number!
With any luck, it will be driveable by the 10th anniversary.... 
Tonight, I managed to rework the hub puller. I wouldn't really call it "v3" since it was all minor adjustments....but I reground the base of the allthread and welded on a nut to give it a larger surface area to push against, and smoothed it out as carefully as I could. I polished up the hub insert (a simple cut-down socket) that rides in the hub area and applied a liberal coat of wheel bearing grease to the contact area as well as the threads of the puller to keep things as smooth as possible.
The results were much more satisfying. I still needed a breaker bar to keep things moving, but the process of moving at 1/4 turn at a time was much faster and smoother....
Total time to victory was probably about 20 minutes once I had the puller modified and attached. It was certainly better than the pipe wrench setup and it did somewhat make up for the frustrations over the weekend.
For those keeping track.....that's two down, and two still to go.
I'm a few days late. I bought this K5 on Feb 4th, 2001 but I figure it's close enough to still mark the occasion. Nine years and countless dollars later, and I've managed to transform a completely driveable $7000 truck into a motionless sculpture costing many multiples of that number!
With any luck, it will be driveable by the 10th anniversary.... Tonight, I managed to rework the hub puller. I wouldn't really call it "v3" since it was all minor adjustments....but I reground the base of the allthread and welded on a nut to give it a larger surface area to push against, and smoothed it out as carefully as I could. I polished up the hub insert (a simple cut-down socket) that rides in the hub area and applied a liberal coat of wheel bearing grease to the contact area as well as the threads of the puller to keep things as smooth as possible.
The results were much more satisfying. I still needed a breaker bar to keep things moving, but the process of moving at 1/4 turn at a time was much faster and smoother....
Total time to victory was probably about 20 minutes once I had the puller modified and attached. It was certainly better than the pipe wrench setup and it did somewhat make up for the frustrations over the weekend.
For those keeping track.....that's two down, and two still to go.
