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.................................--- Front Axle End Bosses ---
Continuing to work on the frontend I decided to make the bosses for the ends of the front axle. Since it is hard for me to find round tubing here I decided to use 2 inch square tubing for the front axle. Since It won't be out in the air except for the very end I decided there was no real disadvantage to using square tubing and it will be easier to weld brackets to.
I won't know how wide the front axle is until I finish the rearend and I want the track to be exactly the same on the front and back of the car so that the rear wheels are directly behind the front ones.
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I had a piece of 2 inch cold rolled solid bar stock and I decided to use it for the bosses. The square tubing that I'll use for the axle will have 3/16 inch wall thickness so the inside width of the square tubing will be 1 5/8 inches. I turned the piece of cold rolled I had down to 1 5/8 inches for a distance that would give me two bosses plus some for the cuts to cut it off the rest of the piece.
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Next I used my cut off tool to cut the two pieces I'll use for the bosses off of the piece I had just turned down. I used the slowest speed and cutting oil, but still managed to break my cutoff tool twice. It would be cutting fine and then just bind and break before I could do anything. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here. I wasn't using the live center while cutting and the piece was just in the 3 jaw chuck. I'm open to suggestions.
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After I had the two pieces cut to a length longer than needed I trued up both ends and then faced them to the final length.
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Measuring the inside distance on both spindles I found one to be about .005 longer than the other. I cut both bosses to the same length to fit the tighter of the two. Then I used one of the .005 shims in the rebuild kit for the spindle that was wider in the middle. I was going to make the bosses different lengths for each spindle, but a friend recommended I make them the same in case I ever had to get other spindles for the car. I thought that was a good idea and took his advice. In the picture above the spindles have the old wore out bushings in them and I pushed the new kingpins into them to hold the lower bearing. Of course there were no holes through the bosses at this point.
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I need to weld the bosses onto the square tube front axle and that will probably distort them a little. That means I want to wait to ream or hone them to the final size for the kingpins after they are welded on. I wanted to mock up the front axle to make sure it is the proper width so I decided to press in new bushings into the spindles and ream them out so that they are about .010 undersized (for the new kingpins) at first. In order to assembly things for a trial run I made two kingpins that are also .010 undersized. The photo above shows me turning one of the temporary kingpins to size.
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Here are the two temporary kingpins ready to use. I pressed the new bushings into the spindles and reamed them to fit these undersized kingpins.
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Next I went about putting the center bore into the bosses that the kingpin will pass through. I started by drilling a pilot hole then drilling all the way through with a 1/4 inch bit in my tailstock of the lathe. Next I went up in drill sizes in about 1/16 to 1/8 inch steps until I had a .750 hole through the boss.
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I used my boring bar to finish the hole to size and then lightly ran a reamer through it to get it just right for the undersized kingpins I had made.
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Here is one of the finished bosses.
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And here it is installed on the spindle with the undersized king pin. I'll be able now to set the spindle up parallel to the ground and weld the axle between the bosses when I determine the proper width. After it is all welded I'll go to the machine shop and have them hone the bosses and the bushings in the spindles to fit the new kingpins that I bought.
I've been putting it off, but now I have to get back to the rearend and work on it so I can get my final track width figured out.
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