MTFCA Forum

I put new bronze thrusts in the rear axle. Amazingly they fit with zero clearance with out having to thin the right washer. I put it together with a gasket and ended up with .012" clearance instead of the .005" expected per the book. I took it apart to check and it was the same ,no clearance with no gasket.
I then measured the gasket and it is .012. I had 4 gaskets all the same thickness.
I don't know whether to use it as is, or if a thinner gasket is available or, if I could find thin gasket stock and make one.

John

There are multiple options.

Call around to suppliers and ask them to mic their gaskets and maybe buy a thinner gasket
Buy a thrust washer shim and install your gasket with a thrust washer shim
Don't install a gasket...just sealant, and surface grind a few thou off a thrust washer or both

I'd mostly consider the first two, but there is nothing really wrong with the third choice

I recall a post where a small diameter wire was laid in a circle in one of the mating surfaces to act as a shim and a liquid sealant applied to seal the joint. Not a recommendation, just an observation.

If this was my T, I'd look for paper/cardstock of the desired thickness and try to trim a 'gasket' that was slightly narrower on
the inside of the pumpkin so there was a metal-sealant-metal junction to insure the paper did not weep oil.

I do not disagree with Scott's suggestions, just adding to list. jb

I was the person that did the “mig Wire” solution. It was a desperation case on a car needed the next day. It ran all summer with no issues!!

Thanks for the ideas.
I am going to check for a thinner gasket. Since I indicated the end play exactly,I could thin the washer a known amount and use sealer.

John

My 2 cents worth. I have not done as many (a dozen plus) rear axles and Ruckstel's as other members but I NEVER use a gasket between the axle housings. I always use only sealant (Ultra Black). I prefer to adjust the thickness of the brass thrust washer instead of using shims, I believe I only had to use shims once. I prefer that no gasket also makes the pinion bearing housing opening just a little smaller but still fits and thus less error in alignment.

Terry

+1 on using no gasket and Ultra Black. The gasket is not needed.

I am with Terry. Don,t use a gasket .

The concept of cutting a thin gasket from some “parchment paper” from mothers kitchen occurs to me

Les

that thought occured to me, too. My wife finds all sorts of uses for that stuff, and it really is the right thickness given the information the OP has provided.

I just measured some. One roll is.001” thick. Another roll is.002” thick. The stuff is quite tough!!

We set clearance at .010, you will find that .005, will be hard on some parts, especially when New ring gears are warped, as they are, when operating temperature, is reached. You don;t want the gears with hard spots, or clicking, in one spot, when rotated. Both ring, and pinion should be even, on both sides.

So what would be left is a .002 thousandths Brass shim on the very outside, on the side of your choice. Then you can keep your .012 thousandths gasket.

Herm.

If a rear axle assembly goes together with two new bronze thrusts, and there is little to no clearance, I would be wanting to know why. I have yet to build a rear axle that has not required some machining/adjustment to the thickness of the new thrusts.

When adjusting the thickness of the thrusts, I like to make one around .010" thicker than the other. That way I can swap them from side to side to get a better crown wheel and pinion mesh. It's not all just about backlash.

Allan from down under.

Alan,I wondered about that too. The other rear end that I did had to sand washer thinner considerably. These new washers were thinner than the original babbit thrusts. they were .198" and the babbit were thicker.
I ended up milling the bronze .005 and ended up with about .007 clearance. It turns free and it has pretty good gear contact.

John

Did Ford workers scrutinize the fitment of thrust washers to this degree on the assembly line back then?

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:50 pm

Did Ford workers scrutinize the fitment of thrust washers to this degree on the assembly line back then?

New parts at the Factory should have been approximately, the same. So, if the clearance wasn't exactly right, the softer thrust washers would fix any thrust problems, shortly, like a babbitt rod.

Herm.

Herm, Thank you for the explanation.