Adjustable Axle

[Smokeycub]

I went to Barnyards Bash this past weekend and came home with an adjustable front axle for my Cub. I basically traded a non adjustable for it. After surfing through a bunch of posts on taking these things apart I was pretty anxious/nervous about taking the "new" one apart. Even though it had been in a barn for a number of years (buried under other stuff) I could see where it had been parked in the weeds for a very long time before it was pulled off. There was some green algae looking stuff over much of the main tube and a bunch of rust around the clamps and pins. Much to my amazement I was able to get it apart without days/weeks of fussing with it.

I put the axle in a bench vice and used the base off of my C60 front pulley puller over pivot pin housing.

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I put the jacks on the plate with lots of Blaster in the joints to aid in loosening things up.

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...and began to push the extensions off. One 6 ton and one 12 ton jack, it took nearly all the 6 ton had. Even pressure all the way up. To my amazement no heat required.
I used two separate lengths of wood blocks (not at the same time) as it came apart because the jacks alone aren't near long enough, being careful they didn't kick out.
Had the tubes been made of something other than high tensile tubing it would have been ugly. I paid great attention not to bend anything, although I did bend the 1/2" plate back and forth a couple times!

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...off they came. I got one off Sunday evening and the other Monday morning.

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After a bunch of wire wheeling with a wire cup on the grinder and about an hour cleaning the rust out of the main tube, threw some primer and paint at it.

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I even cleaned up and painted the steering housing a bit.

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Interestingly even after cleaning the rust out of the main tube, cleaning the outsides of the extensions (by cleaning I mean grinding, sanding, and honing), and spreading the main tubes at the slits the main tube is still about .020" smaller than the extensions ?? I'm planning to use a bunch of anti-seize when I put it back together but I can see that I'll need to convince the extensions to go back in the main tube.

My thanks to Bill and the guys at the Bash for helping a guy out. ...and thanks to Bill for putting on a great event, I especially enjoyed the covered dish cookout, good eatin'! I think tonight I will go out tractor tippin' with "Mater" and "Speed" now that I know how!