Front axle.....success at last.....

[Bob Carriere]

Here are some pictures of a.... finally.... disassembled Rzeppa joint.

With a lot of help from Grant Bowker who found some detailed instrcution in a Ford manual..... there seems to be some indication that Ford favored the Rzeppa and GM went to the Bendix a lot sooner....

Any ways.... the trick is to cleanup the hole at the very end of the axle where the big nut goes on...... behind the gunk is a set screw seen as a small black dot on the pictures..... once that is removed a skiiny screw driver can push out the center pin and the spring plunger that is behind it... only then can you rotate the cage and bearing enough for the... in this case rusted... ball bearing can be removed than the cage comes apart....

I am totally facinated by the fine machining and tight tolerances in these old parts..... no wonder they went for a simpler Bendix or tatra design.....

So here are the pictures....