2N Axle End-Play

[KM WFTX]

Hello All,
I pulled the axles on my 2N to clean up my greasy brakes and install Sure Seals. I’ve gotten everything cleaned up, including burning the oil off the brake shoes in my propane grill set on high. (I found that tip in the archives, and it worked great!) I originally was going to replace the bearings and outer seal, but after looking at them, they seemed to be in good shape. The bearings turn smooth and tight if I pull the bearing tight against the race by tugging on the bearing retainer, so they “seem” to be OK. I could feel the outer seals with my fingers by reaching under the bearing retainer, and they seemed to be intact. I lubed the bearings using a syringe tip on my grease gun and installed the Sure Seals after beveling the lip. I seated the step on the Sure Seals flush with the top edge of the bearing retainer.

Now, here’s my problem: I reinstalled the brake backing plate and buttoned everything up. I followed the instructions in the FO-4 manual to set the bearing load. I started with no shims to see if I could get both hubs to turn the same direction, then planning to add shims as needed to get the bearing load correct. To my dismay, there is at least a quarter inch of end-play at each hub! The axles are touching in middle, because pushing inward on one hub immediately pushes the other hub out by the same amount. For some reason, it seems that the bearings are not seating all the way in the races. I even tried installing the hubs with the brake plates removed to check to see if it would allow the bearing retainer to be pulled more inward and take up more of the slop. I can’t tell that it helped at all… I also found a reference in the archives that the Sure Seals can contact the axle trumpets and prevent the bearing retainer from fully seating if they are not seated far enough, so I drove the Sure Seals in a little further on both sides. Now, the steps on the Sure Seals each sit about an eighth inch below the lip on the bearing retainers. This didn’t seem to help the end play at all… FWIW, the bearing and on the left side seems to have been changed at some point, because it was leaking a lot less, and I can see punch marks on the bearing collar from the installation. In the archives, I found a suggestion that if the collars are not seated all the way against the bearings, this can give excessive end play. Also, bearing wear is certainly a possibility, but they “feel” fine and it’s hard for me to imagine bearing wear causing so much end play. Is there any way that I can check to see if the bearing collars are fully seated? Is there some measurement that I can check? I’m out of ideas and am hoping that the experts on this forum can give me some advice.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to cover everything that I’ve done and observed . I’ll be glad to post any pics if it will help…

Thanks in advance for this great resource.
Kim

 

[russbWA]

Kim, I am having trouble understanding. My experience with bearings works like: When things are tightened up the bearing cups bottom out. That is to say if the bearing are unseated everything will be tighter.

That leads me to wonder if the axles are too long, stretched. I am not familiar with this specific problem. I hope someone will clear this up for you and me too.

 

[KM WFTX]

Hi Russ,
My understanding of how the system works may indeed be completely wrong, but the the bearings not seating seem like what would happen if the axles were too short, if anything. I can pull outward on the hub and the bearings seat properly, but then that leaves about a half-inch gap in the middle between the two axles (I can feel when they contact). Pulling outward on the hub kinda simulates what would happen if the axles were longer so they came together a lot sooner and pushed the bearings outward into the bearing retainer. But I don't think that the axles are too short, because the slots in the axle ends appear pristine.

The closest thread that seems to match my problem is one found in the archives (hopefully) linked below.
From that thread, it seems to me that I may have one or more of the problems that Don T listed:
"At this point, I would think there are only 3 possibilities left,
1 - bearings are loose/bad
2 - One/Both collars have moved
3 - Its just old and wore, should have just replaced all, then installed S-Seals."

Considering the level of poor previous maintenance that I have found all over this new-to-me 2N, it would not surprise me a bit if the collar(s) are not fully seated, or even the wrong bearings may be in there. At least one of the bearings could be ~65 years old, so it is entirely possible that it is completely worn out. I was hoping that someone might have some advice on how to tell if the collar is in the right place. The one collar that appears to have been replaced has been whacked on quite a bit, implying that it didn't get seated properly right away during installation...maybe they just gave up and left it as-is. One thing I thought about trying is to heat the collars with a torch and whack on them to see if I can move them as mentioned in the linked thread.
Thanks again,
Kim
Topic: Adjusting axle bearings what am I doing wrong?