I have had my '33 chevy jacked up for a week with jack stands under the front axle and stands under the rear axle springs. It is equal height front and rear. I just found oil leaking from the right rear axle housing where the ubolts hold the housing to the springs,down the stands and onto a big puddle on the floor. What causes this? Is the housing Possibly worn through. I hope not. It never leaked there when it was on it's wheels.
My 37 wore through the housing. It comes from lack of grease. It is a major major job to fix. I have seen it done by cutting the wore part out and welding in a half pipe. Would be a pain to keep the housing straight. Your best bet is to look for another housing.
We decided to seperate the spring seat from the housing to take a look at the area where the spring seat rotates. We have the u-bolts off but can't seem to seperate the spring seat to take a look. What holds the two halves together? We tried a chisel at the joint but they are not moving.
It turns out there are two slotted round head machine screws holding the two halves of the spring seat together. There was so much grease in there we couldn't see them. Boy were they hard to get out without damaging heads.
Glad you found the two screws. You were so quick that we couldn't reply fast enough. That area is often a problem as it rarely gets lubrication and is exposed to water, rocks, sand and whatever the roads provide. Another problem is loosening the rivets that hold the arched locating plate. The elongated holes can introduce all that road crud into the axle housing interior. Not a good thing.
Chipper you nailed it! The rivets in the arched locating plate are loose causing the leak..The housing and rest of the parts look fine. Now what can I do? Got any good ideas? Is this a problem in years other than 1933 or do other years have rivets also?
Two options: Weld the rivet holes and then weld the arched plate to the axle housing. Take the whole rear end apart, weld up the holes, redrill to proper size and then install rivets or bolts. There may be a few others but can't get my mind around any of them.
Oh! That, yes... It possibility slides back and forth. Why is that needed? I have never figured it out. I did successfully re-do mine by taking it to a tractor repair/machine shop to have it re-done. Farm tractor repair places seem to like doing this type of stuff over an auto or hot rod place. Good luck with your repair job.
The saddles with grooves and locating plates keep the rear housing from moving too far front to back and side to side. They allow the critical need for some flexibility in movement.
I wonder if I packed the saddle with heavy grease and reassembled if that would prevent the oil from leaking out for awhile. Terrill suggested pumping grease into the saddle in the first place. I remember when I cleaned up that area 10 years ago when I bought the car there was quite a bit of oil or grease on the spring on the right side but not enough to be a problem. It was only when I jacked up under the spring and let it sit for a week that oil leaked out.
Had a similar problem in that both the saddle seats on my '28 LP truck were badly worn,as were the bores of the saddles themselves,and leaking oil through the rivet holes in the diff housing. The saddle seats being cast steel rivetted to the diff housing were welded up after the removal of the curved saddle guide plate,and machined back to an oversize diameter after measuring the saddle bores. I then milled 0.020" of both faces of all 4 saddle pieces,screwed them back together and set them up in the lathe as true as possible,then machined the now smaller bores to suit the new saddle seat diameter on the diff casting part,and the grease grooves were burred out deeper for more lubrication. As the rivet holes were a nominal 5/16" hole,I drilled & tapped the diff housing rivet holes out to 3/8" UNF,and bolted the curved saddle locator to the diff housing using grade 5 high tensile bolts and Loctite sealant on the threads of the bolts to prevent any further oil leaks.There was plenty of depth to the groove cast in the lower saddle half to give me clearance for the bolt heads.All this was done with the housing out and thoroughly cleaned of shavings etc before re-assembly. This was done approximately 25 odd years ago,and it hasn't leaked or given me anymore trouble since then.
