Next we were off to the guys at
Gears & Rears to get our trucks
12 bolt rear end rebuilt. These guys know their stuff for sure.
The technician Rod has been doing this for over 20 years and was
a wealth of knowledge. I learned A LOT about differentials while
I was there. This is something that needs to be left to
professionals; I wouldn’t trust a back yard guy to do this. Go
and see them.
Rod took the time to take everything a part carefully, inspect
every part while taking notes and measurements about what was
inside the housing. Someone had been inside it before and took a
few short cuts with shims and some other parts.
Cool Tool TIP: An old deep fryer basket makes for the perfect
holder for the parts to be put into the solvent tank.
All of our new parts for the rear end were supplied by
Gears &
Rears. We are using a Detroit Truetrac posi from Eaton, a
Quality Gear install kit, National bearings and Quality Gear
axles. With our housing gutted it’s time for a steam bath to get
it all clean. When assembling a rear end, a shop press is a much
better option then a 2x4 and a hammer. Rod used it to
press all of the bearings onto the posi. You want to make sure
that everything has the right torque and load applied is
something that only a professional has the tools and skills to
do.
Our Baer rear brake caliper mounts installed along with the
National Bearings. There is one thing I learned is don’t cheap
out on bearings. If you can get OEM ones, they are better then
anything else (but aren't made anymore) because they are
original and designed to work perfectly with the housing. If you
can’t get them get something like National, don't cheap out here
at all. Once again, Rod used the shop press to install our wheel
studs into our Quality Gear axles.
If need rear
end or transmission work done, you need to go see these guys. We
will be taking our Ford 9" for Project Stress Relief to them to
have it all assembled.