From Veeduber@aol.com  Mon Sep 25 01:00:25 1995
msgnum: msg16320
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 02:00:22 -0400
From: Veeduber_at_aol_dot_com
Subject: Grendel, Sunday


Grendel now has tail & stop lights, plus one back-up light.  Her driver's
side front spindle is installed.  This is the third spindle I've tried.  The
first was complete to the drum but once the drum was removed I saw the thing
was trash, the king-pin and link pins frozen.  The junky allowed me to pull
another.  It showed some motion and a good axel but when it was dismantled
the needle bearings were junk.  That was it, with regard to easy to get at
spindles (ie, taken from pulled front axel assemblies).  I had to dig #3 out
of the ground.  The axel was badly rusted but I hoped to salvage the link
pins & bearings.  In fact, the bearings were like new and the link pins had
only a small amount of discoloration.  Treated with authority, the king pin
eventually loosened up.  That left the axel.  Cleaning got me down to a black
oxide surface that was fat enough to NOT accept a new bearing.  I worked on
that for most of two afternoons, using steel wool and toothpaste until I
could get the bearings to fit with a hard push.  But that axel... lord, what
a mess.  My smallest Swiss file wasn't fine enough for the thread so I
sharpened my pocketknife on sandpaper and began cutting the thread, twisting
the knife around and around, chasing it with the axel nut off the old
spindle.  All tolled, I think it took about ten hours of work to get the nut
to spin on.  It wasn't difficult, just time consuming.  And it was the sort
of thing you could do sitting down.

That's the spindle I'll be coming home on.  The old spindle was destroyed
when it spun the outer bearing, welding it to the axel.  Someone cut it off,
roughly ground the axel, hammered on a new bearing and sold it to me.  Good
condition.

Due to collision damage to the rear of the vehicle I wasn't able to install
stock tail light fixtures.  I found some sheet metal at a hardware store and
used my Makita to drill a series of holes that outlined the shape of the
fixture opening, fastening the sheet metal over the opening with #6 machine
screws, lock-nuts and washers.  With the engine compartment sealed, it was a
simple matter to drill the sheet metal plates to attach a pair of boat
trailer tail lights, which are inexpensive in this area.  Once I'm home I can
knock off the bondo, beat out the dents and re-install the original fixtures.

The front brake cylinders should arrive tomorrow.  While waiting for the
truck I'll get after the cabin heat problem; maybe make a start on the
interior wiring.

Total work time today, about eight hours.  The people I'm staying with took
me out to dinner.  Sunday, my day of rest.

-Bob