axle repair?

[Tinman22]

Still more fun than the freightliner.

[Vladislav]

2 hours ago, Tinman22 said:

Maybe i'm as my wife says "just being me". I don't like vague or questionable. I like definitive. 

My jeep 6 died so it got a 440/727/dana300/dana60/14 bolt driveline. Its never left me walking.

Given the original assembly was spin welded and it seems to have all the innerds that make up 44k axles (at least according to mack) and it is definitely better than the trail fix it had before so I'll run it. 

My 94' has a bad trunion and We were going to make it air ride so maybe i'll use a housing from that if they are the same.

Still better than it was.

The housings for airride and Camelback may differ by the attachments. Pre-90 Neway usually had double "cleves" at the bottom side which were a kind of cast steel bracket with two ears for bushing welded onto the axle housing. Camelback axles have pads at the bottom to accomodate the rubber pads and clamping caps. The pads are cast together with the housing if its cast style or a weld on part for fabricated housings. Once I met interesting setup of Neway equalizer beams connected to "ears" which were steel brackets attached to cast iron housings by bolts. Actually the housings were the same style Mack use for Camelback. But these "ear" adapters allowed to use them with Neway suspension. And all looked like factory setup, not home made. Also different truck models had different width of the rear end of the frames. The most of earlier rigs such as R, F, DM and also B-models I belive had 33-1/2 measured at the outside of the rails (with small wariations due to the rail material thickness or presence of outer rails etc). But newer trucks like RW, MH and than further CH/CX had different distance between the rails. That means different distance between rear suspension parts and as a follow different positions of attachment elemens on axle housings. So all in all you should pay attention to style and location of mountings on particular housings you might be wanting to swap in.

Speaking the initial subject of the thread I'm with you on preference to be sure every important part in a truck or other vehicle has its properties according to industry standards and quality. We're supposed to belive factory things such as a truck or a car made in a plant were designed and build the way they should be to drive safe and reliable. And when we meet a fix which doesn't seem done correct big preference is to get rid of it by redo or swap. If a weak link takes place in a chain the fact it haven't broken yet doesn't mean it will never do.

[Tinman22]

I was hoping to find a cutoff that would fit the 94'. I don't know if that particular model was ever offered with air ride. Seems as though I remember seing one at one time.

Most of the cuts I can get around here have no carriers in them. So the challenge is to find a newer airride cut that will take my 94' carriers and axle shafts.

Sounds easy enough..hahaha.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Tinman22

[doubleclutchinweasel]

I looked at a Valueliner one time that had the rear air-ride frame off a Ford grafter onto it.  Looked like the Ford rails slid OVER the Mack rails.  I seem to remember Mack using a narrower frame than some others.  That one seemed to confirm that.

They did a pretty good job on it.  But, I passed on that truck because the roof had been replaced...and was...get this...pop-riveted onto the cab around the gutter.  That didn't seem too healthy to me!

Had a Cummins and an 18-speed RoadRanger.  Heck of a Mutt!

[Mark T]

There's lots of different housings. even the camel back ones are front and rear. Then there's different thickness' in the walls. Different wheel ends.  Very easy to get tripped up swapping the 46,000 pound ones around. As far as something out of another truck ?  may be as simple as a quarter inch shim on each side to make up for the skinnier r600 frame.  

[axle surgeon]

That repair is definitely unsafe. The national highway administration put it on a safety warning in 1992 and Mack in 1994. The nuts come off because it draws up not straight when it is welded.