Rear Hubs Renewed.

[dcarlg]

I want to thank everyone who has posted advice regarding rear hubs.
Today, I finally tackled this project on my Tri Carb. New rear bearings, oil seals, O-rings, brake shoes and springs.
I would have been reluctant to attempt this repair without the expertise and encouragement available here.

These were the suggestions that I found useful:
Have all parts on hand including duplicates, if you have a habit of buggering things the first time.
Impact wrench. Mine is electric.
Grind the end of the lug nut socket so that the engaging teeth are flush with the face.
Put the new bearings in the freezer prior to placing in hub.
Use a slide hammer type hub puller. Borrowed from Advance Auto. No charge.
Place hub with new bearing and seal in oven to heat. I thought 225 degrees for 15 min. was safe.
Spray the stub with a coolant before replacing the hub.
Forget the paper gasket. More damage than benefit.
Left side hub nut has reverse threads. I noticed this also mentioned in the manual. Key piece of information.
Don't pound on the new oil seal or the bearing directly.
Correct oil seal orientation.

This suggestion was less helpful for me:
Reverse the axle shaft and tighten lug nuts to remove hub. I still needed the slide puller to finish the job.

The right side was leaking oil. I found a paper gasket and ruined shoes.
The left was not leaking oil. No paper gasket there. No sealant either. Just an O-ring
I applied a small bead of oil resistant non-hardening Permatex between the hub flanges and the axle shafts, instead of new paper gaskets.

Of course the second side took less than half the time of the first side to complete
I had planned to place new drums, but they seemed to bind. My originals are fine and are stamped MOWOG.

Lessons learned:

Probably a good idea to get new eight sided hub nuts and borrow the proper spanner. Mine were chewed up, but usable.
Good time to renew lug nuts (Wire wheel hub adapter nuts?). Didn't think of that.
Wish I had a lift. I used ramps up front, jackstands in the rear.
My old oil seals had metal jackets, the new ones didn't. I spent considerable time trying to cut them out before I realized this.
I'll top up the differential oil tomorrow.

Thanks again, Douglas