When you have the rear end housing apart how do you set the rivets to put it back together?
Bob, I have replaced some rivets which were loose. I made a tapered buck from some solid steel shafting and when the rivets were in their holes the tapered buck was driven into the housing to hold them there. I heated the protruding end of the rivet on the outside of the housing and set it with a rivet tool.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.
What year rear end? Which rivets?
It's a '13 and the ones that hold the backing plate casting to the tube.
You can take a piece of solid steel stock about the same OD as the ID of the tubing, and mill six short grooves, a bit larger and deeper than the rivet heads' height and OD in it, at the same position as the rivets. It will somewhat resemble a splined shaft when you've finished. At the terminus of the grooves, use a ball mill to make round dimples the same depth as the rivet heads' heights, but a little wider than the head diameter. Install the rivets, burr or glue the ends to stay in place, insert the grooved bar stock, heat one rivet's end with a torch until red hot, then take a heavy ball pein hammer and set the rivet by striking the end squarely. This should set the rivet tightly. Quickly take a rivet swaging tool, mounted in an air hammer, and swage the ends until they have the correct shape. Re-apply heat as necessary during this process. Then finish up the other five the same way.
Thanks guys...I'll pass this info along to the 'puter-less T guy that asked me about it.
A general question...
Would those "rivet jack screws" work in this application? I will have a one-time job to do, and I was wondering if the jack screws would work instead of having a piece of solid stock machined, etc., since I don't have a lathe.
Thanks for any input.
For my '13, I cut the tube and welded it in order to replace a backing plate. But, then, the end of the tubing on mine was damaged also. Pre-'15 housings are getting too difficult to come by.
If I were to do a one only rivet replacement, I would probably make a custom screw jack to back up the rivets inside the housing. But, then, I don't have a milling machine. Cutting the grooves to slip along the rivets inside with a grinder would be doable. But a lot of measure, cut, measure, cut, measure, cut, ad infinitum. Of course, it took a lot of that to do my cut and weld to make sure it was straight in all directions.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
"a lot of measure, cut, measure, cut, measure, cut, ad infinitum."
It sure is. But then, you'll have a tool that will last a lifetime and which you can donate to your chapter or loan to others who will then in turn loan their tools or skills to you.
"Rivet Jack" - About $4 in hardware and access to a drill is all you need.
Ken, That's great! THANKS!