VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1937 1/2 ton axle housing

The rearend housing is wore through were it moves in the trunion. It is starting to leak oil. What is the best fix?
I know if you put weld on just the one side,it will warp the housing.

Some of the Hot Rodders have developed a way of keeping the housings straight when they are shortening the housing, if you know a Hot Rodder ask him as he may know of someone that could repair what you have.
Tony

Yea,but when they shorten a housing,the weld is even all the way around. Mine needs a weld about two inches wide on the bottom only.
Thanks for the reply.

The same jig can be used for your purpose. It will keep the housing straight.
Tony

Hello,

When you say where the axle housing moves in the trunion, I assume you mean where the spring perches ride on the axle housing. I dealt with this issue on my 40 1/2 ton, and I think the 37 is similar in construction.

What I did to repair the problem was to remove the worn section on each axle housing by cutting a "window" out of the housing. Using a Schedule 80 steel pipe nipple, I machined a bushing the same diameter as the original axle housing where it was machined round to carry the spring perch. I then split the bushing lengthwise so I had two halves, one to weld into each side where I had cut the windows out. The new pieces were tig-welded in and the welds ground smooth.

You are right to be concerned about warpage. As a vital step in the repair procedure, I set a dial indicator on the axle housing on the side being welded to track the warpage due to welding. The outer end of the axle housing warped up an astounding .100". This was corrected by laying weld beads on the opposide side of the housing from the repair welds. When the welding was completed, the indicator read "0". The extra beads were then ground flush.

The other part of the repair is milling the mating faces of the spring perches so that when assembled, they fit closely on the newly-repaired axle housing diameter. It's probably a good idea to machine off a little extra so that you have to shim the housings to get the correct fit. That way, you can remove shims in the future to correct for wear.

I've put about 15,000 miles on my 40 1/2 ton since making this repair and have noted no evidence of problems, such as pulling left or right or uneven rear tire wear. When I lube the chassis, I take the time to jack up the rear frame to get the weight off the spring perch so that grease will go up under the upper spring perch half where the wear takes place.

If you send me your email address, I'll send you photos that I took to document the repair procedure. They show pretty clearly how it was done. I don't recommend this repair for a beginner, and it would probably cost quite a bit to have it done by a machine and welding shop. If you don't have the skills necessary or don't have access to a machine/welding shop, you'll probably be better off shopping for a good used axle housing. I bought a spare used rear end for my 40 (after I had made the repair), and found it to be in surprisingly good condition in the area of the spring perches. It all depends on what kind of service the truck saw and whether or not the spring perches ever got greased.

Mark Yeamans
VCCA #35724

Mark: Thanks for the info. My e-mail jerryrydarowicz@att.net
J.R.

Wow: Mark, that was quite a job. I have been in the machine shop business for 40 years. I also worked as a welder-fitter for 3 years and I would think twice before a job like that. I have a Miller welder with a tig attatchment and my son has a milling machine. If I cant find another housing nearby,maybe i'll tackle it.

I have a rear axle assembly from a '40 car that came with my 38 coupe as spare parts that I'll never use. If it will work for you, you can have it free. I need to get it out of the way. Shipping would be high so if you want it the best bet would be to come get it. I live 50 miles south of Wichita. Let me know if you're interested. It would need new bearings and a good cleaning but to the best of my knowledge it has no cracks or holes.

Hey Chevy 1937, there is a guy on the 1936 Chevy Owners forum who just converted a '36 pickup to 3.55 gears using a '37 car rear end modified to fit. He found that car and truck rear ends are very different and rear ends of different years are different as well. You can use that to your advantage here if you can find a rear end housing whose spring perches are offset from yours. In that situation you could machine new spring perch bearing areas on an old housing with wear in a different part of the axle housing.

Mine are to the point that it leaks oil. Cant get much worse than that.

Flame spraying is a technique that is used successfully to build up worn areas on metal parts. It is even used on rotating shafts like gas turbine engine shafts and is a tried and true repair method when done competently.

Spray welding is commonly used to build up shafts that are worn in the area of bearing and seal fits. The shaft is typicaly ground, spray-welded, then ground round to the original O.D. It is a good process and can save lots of money on exotic parts that would be prohibitively expensive to replace. However, I'm not sure how satisfactory it is when building up more than .030". In the case of the axle housing, if it's worn clear through, it would take about 1/8" of weld to build it back to original. When applied that thick, and only half way around the housing (where the wear is), excessive warping could be a problem. Nevertheless, it might be an option worth discussing with a shop capable of doing spray welding.

The housing from a '37, '38, or '39 1/2 ton will fit your truck. I might have one but I have no idea if the condition is any different from yours. Let me know if you would like me to check it out for you.
I am in Columbia, Missouri

Mike Russell
573 595-1991 work
573 442-6759 Home
573 864-6539 cell

Mike: Your not very close to home, but if you got a good one maybe I could swing by and pick it up.