VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1928 truck

I have a customer sending me a ‘28 half ton truck to work on. He told me a year or so ago the rear axle was repaired. He said that the ring and pinion gears both had teeth break off. It was repaired at a reputable shop. He told me that just recently the truck made exactly the same noise that it made when it broke the gears the first time.
The truck is coming to me to diagnose the issue but my thought is if the problem has happened again that there’s a good chance there’s something wrong with the housing itself. The customer also told me that an axle was twisted some on the splines. I don’t know if the axle was replaced or not but I’m posting this here to see if others have experienced anything like this with their own 28’s. I believe this truck uses the car axles and are the same but again, I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable can speak up.
The customer is only the second family to own the truck and it’s been a Massachusetts truck since new. It’s driven often and the customer is an original type owner and wants to keep the truck that way. Where is the data plate normally put on these truck also? Any info is appreciated.

Yes, the 1928 1/2 ton trucks use the same chassis as the '28 cars. The only difference that I'm aware of is the location of the gas tank. In the truck, it is under the seat. For the car, it's in the rear of the chassis.

I had a problem with the differential in my '28 Canopy Express a number of years ago. The ring and pinion gears broke some teeth. When I opened up the rear end, the problem was apparent; the backlash space between the ring and pinion gears was close to 1/4" when it should've been around .010".

Luckily for me, George Childs had a spare '25 torque tube with differential in his garage and it bolted right in to my rear end housing. The gearing was the same and I've been running with this set up for many years now.

In '28, Chevrolet did not offer a factory cab for the 1/2 ton trucks, so chances are that this truck's cab was made by either the Springfield, Martin Parry, or Hercules body companies. That means the car number plate could be anywhere. The usual places to look would be on the dash/firewalll or on the seat support. My truck did not come with this plate, so I am speculating here.

In the list of Technical Articles in the Members area of the main VCCA web page, there is a scanned copy of Hercules Body Company's 1928 catalog. If the cab was made by Hercules, you might find the model in that catalog.

Let us know what you find and what your fix is.

Thanks, Dean

The 1/2 ton axle shaft is the same as the cars from 1925 - 1928. Series K,V,AA, & AB. P/N 344036. BTW the cost was $3.25 back in 1928. It might be a bit more now.

The metal in the axles is fairly soft so over time will twist the spine end. Eventually that is where they often break. It takes a significant amount of twist before they get brittle enough to break.

Thanks everyone. I’ll keep you posted. It should be here by the end of weekend.