Has anyone tried sucessfully to restore a worn or pitted bearing surface on a rear axle shaft by having it built up with hard chrome and ground to specs? I have an otherwise good axle shaft that I am considering using for a pin for horse shoes but cannot bring myself to stick an original model T part in the ground and throw steel at it. The axle came from an old trailer and has good threads, good taper, good key slot, but has some rust pits on the outer bearing race about .01" - .03" deep
I'd rather put the money into floating hubs, so the pits won't matter.
rdr
Same here Ralph, I am having my axles done by Loco Larry and we are saving the good ones for later. But I will never be allowed on the Montanna 500 even if they are safer.
Hard chroming an axle shaft would likely cause the axle to become brittle in the area where the chroming was applied. Also the chrome would likely peel and contaminate the grease, causing rapid failure.
Either a sealed bearing or floating hubs would be a superior solution at less cost.
How about a picture? It might could be polished a little and used as is or maybe not.
If you plan on using Hyatt bearings, you can't hard chrome the bearing surface- the contact stress will roll the chrome right off the shaft.
Dan
Thanks for the replies. So many axle shafts at swap meets have one or several flaws, either the threads are no good, the taper is worn, the key way is wallerd out or chiped out, the outer bearing race is worn or pitted and I even have one with the key way broken out at the gear end. Looks like it wil be used for a horse shoe stake.
Hey, if the taper and key are good, that makes it good for floating hubs, and worth keeping; unless of course, you don't approve of floating hubs for anybody.
rdr
I do not plan to use floating hubs so it doesnt work for me, I will take it to Chickasha and sell it if anyone wants an otherwise nice axle.
Jeff
IF the taper is OK, then just cut another keyway at say 90 degrees.
Is the pitting bad. I am not sure a few .010 or .030" pits would make me call an axle bad. Now if it was the entire surface...that would be a problem.
Keyway is good, taper is good, threads are good, but there is pitting on the outer bearing journal surface. I will see if I can get a good picture and post.