Today's progress: Disassembly of axle and prep for sand blasting. I didn't get to the leaf spring but will do that in the morning before dropping the parts of to be blasted. I couldn't believe how much "crud" came off this thing. The axle was literally double the actual diameter, because of the amount of this stuff on it. I think I've filled up my shop vac just sucking it off the floor throughout the day. The bright side is that it appears the truck was well maintained as far as greasing goes. He just never seemed to wipe up the old grease that came out!
Every nut and bolt came out with relative ease. No penetrating oil or heat was required, and much to Jimmy's dismay I pulled almost the entire thing apart with an adjustable wrench. I did need heat, oil and great force to get the tapered fittings apart. They weren't rusty but were stuck fast.
Let the disassembly begin!

- 1939 Ford V8 Front Axle
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Lots of yucky, nasty crud. I removed pounds of the stuff with an old screwdriver, just so I could find the fittings I needed to remove! This photo is after a LOT of scraping, so most of the gunk is already removed. For reference, the pin you see sticking out was at least 1/4" underneath the outer layer.

- 1939 Ford V8 Front Axle
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This was kind of scary. The wheel studs are almost completely without threads. The threads that are still there are only half height. Obviously original, but they have to go.

- 1939 Ford V8 Wheel Stud
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More evidence that the original color of this truck was dark green. I'm still looking for more evidence of light gray, but so far no joy.

- 1939 Ford V8 Wheel
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Think this shackle pin is a bit worn out? For those who don't know, this should be a smooth, round pin. Half of the pin is completely worn away! The other half is deeply grooved. Since there is only a single spring holding the entire front of the truck up, this made me glad I decided to rebuild everything in the front end.

- 1939 Ford V8 Spring Pin
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A sad pair of pins with their bushings. I believe these parts may be original to the truck, or at least early replacements. The rubber that is left in the bushing has cloth wound into it, which I haven't seen done in a very long time. The pins wore through the rubber, through the steel outer sleeve and into the axle housing. Fortunately it is still quite sound and a simple bushings replacement will suffice.

- 1939 Ford V8 Spring Pins and Bushings
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Wear in the right hand king pin, and either a deep groove or a crack forming. Again, I'm very glad to be doing this job right about now...

- 1939 Ford V8 King Pin
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The accompanying bushing, cracked in three places...

- 1939 Ford V8 King Pin Bushing
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Another original part, the inner hub seal. Neat! And it's a really well built item. Looks like I can replace the rubber bit itself to retain the original housing.

- 1939 Ford V8 Hub Seal
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And inside there's another surprise, original bearings! I wouldn't doubt that these have been in service since 1939 if they weren't in such perfect shape. The races look brand new. Maybe someone had some new old stock bearings back in the 50's or 60's? Since the truck has been sitting for 30 years in a garage, anything is possible.

- 1939 Ford V8 Hub Bearing
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That's it for tonight, tomorrow I may have to work on M.G.s.
