Running without front axles

[IRON HORSE]

Hello Friends,

   I wanted to share a way to drive your Eagle without the front axles. You need four 2" dia. washers with 3/4" hole.    Also need two 5 inch long x 3/4" bolts, if you are going to drive it use the 5" ones... nuts and lock washers for the bolts. Cut two pieces of 3/4" inner dia. heater hose about 3" long.   Place one washer on each bolt ... then slide the piece of hose over each bolt .....  a little grease will help slide the hose over the bolts ....then push the bolt with the hose thru the hub hole from the inside outward.  Put the remaining washer on the exposed thread end of the bolt then lock washer and nut... Tighten untill the lock washer is fully compressed ( both sides ) and you,re ready to drive away.  This is only intended for temporary use because it won't keep the water and dirt out of the bearings, but keeping that in mind you can drive your Eagle without the wheel falling off until you get the parts to fix it right.    .......Pict added......

   I figured I better add this disclaimer: ..... based on the expected sheer, tension and torsion loads on the hardware used, a failure is unlikely ... but it is not in keeping with the manufacturers design ... so it is up to the user to determine suitability and safety if this modification is used ..  and by using this idea you are accepting the outcome of its use, good and bad.
  

what it looks like  ( 5" bolt used )

[IRON HORSE]

Hello again Friends,

     I have a more permanent solution to driving with the bolts in place of the front shafts ..... you have to machine this... and use it in place of the inner washer mentioned in the above post ... it will seal out the elements by contacting the  seal on the inside of the hub assy.......use the 5 inch bolts .. use thread lock or drill a hole for a cotter pin !!!



                                                                                    Regards, Iron Horse

[vangremlin]

Thanks and eggs to you!

[captspillane]

I drove my new Kammback home last night without CV Shafts. It drove for about a half hour at speeds over 50 mph before the two halves of the wheel bearing seperated. The caliper was the only thing holding the rotor and tire from falling totally off the car. Luckily I was going slow through a town when it popped. In the past I've limped Eagles home for over an hour worth of driving without CV shafts. I can now say conclusively that was a terrible idea.

If you have to drive without these, its possible. It won't hurt to move the car around in a parking lot or driving it up onto a trailer. In all cases you should follow these directions and prevent damaging your wheel bearings.

By the way, the car that I drove over an hour without them is also the only car I've ever had a wheel bearing fail on. It was fine for at least 3 years, but I now suspect it was damaged enough to let water get in. It eventually became a rusted mess and the car could barely be driven until it was replaced.

[mick]

Glad to hear it wasn't a really bad situation.

[shanebo]

Even though the front axles are what differentiats an Eagle from its Concord sister, many of us simply never use 4x4 and especially when the front axles are starting to cause problems deleting them is a great way to go assuming you wont ever need to use the 4x4.

[carnuck]

The absolute BEST way to do this is have a shop pop the ends off old axles (Chev S10 and many others use the same outer joint) and bolt it in like normal. (I'd clean the grease off the back so it doesn't fly around too) That's what I'm doing when I turn the Spirit into a pre-runner but I did it before on my Eagle wagon (I packed a pair with me in case I wrecked an axle wheeling)

[captspillane]

Instead of using the bolt solution from this thread I had an old set of CV shafts that I popped apart and cleaned all the grease out of. I'll definately be keeping that pair of joint ends for the future. Most of us have old rusty CV joints with dryrotted boots laying around, but the bolt solution is great for the newbies who haven't bought  a parts car yet.

I put the Kammback back together this morning with those reinforcing the wheel bearing. I'll be driving it without a front axle until later this week when I fix the exhaust and put the T5 in. The SR4 is bound straight for the scrap heap where it belongs.

[carnuck]

Instead of using the bolt solution from this thread I had an old set of CV shafts that I popped apart and cleaned all the grease out of. I'll definately be keeping that pair of joint ends for the future. Most of us have old rusty CV joints with dryrotted boots laying around, but the bolt solution is great for the newbies who haven't bought  a parts car yet.

I put the Kammback back together this morning with those reinforcing the wheel bearing. I'll be driving it without a front axle until later this week when I fix the exhaust and put the T5 in. The SR4 is bound straight for the scrap heap where it belongs.

Someone on the AMC board was looking for one of those

[mach1mustang351]

Instead of using the bolt solution from this thread I had an old set of CV shafts that I popped apart and cleaned all the grease out of. I'll definately be keeping that pair of joint ends for the future. Most of us have old rusty CV joints with dryrotted boots laying around, but the bolt solution is great for the newbies who haven't bought  a parts car yet.

I put the Kammback back together this morning with those reinforcing the wheel bearing. I'll be driving it without a front axle until later this week when I fix the exhaust and put the T5 in. The SR4 is bound straight for the scrap heap where it belongs.

I have a set of these too... I call them "plan B axles"

[IRON HORSE]

Hello

     I agree .... the best workaround if you don't have replacement front axles is to use the old CV joint end that goes thru the hub .... if ya got 'em.  My driver has the  old CV ends, has worked  for years that way .... original design hardware is always best.

                                                               happy holidays .... Iron Horse

[doc65]

So here's a question, does anyone know if the outer segment of the cv jount is the same spline & dept/length as the jeep XJ/ZJ/TJ etal outer stub axle?

[standup650]

I'm thinking about doing this. How had is it to get the axle apart from the joint end? What holds it together?

[captspillane]

It has a metal cage that goes around several steel balls. The steel cage is hard and brittle. The easiest way is to push the shaft all the way to one side to make a ball come close to the outside and then hit the cage with a hammer until a chunk of cage breaks off. You still can't get the ball out and you need to do that to the cage around 3 or 4 balls before you can get one to pop out. Once all the steel balls are out it comes right apart.

[carnuck]

Ever do a front wheeldrive axle? They have a circlip (similar to a snapring) inside the head that is pressed in with the shaft (it sits in a groove) and pops up into a matching groove of the outer joint to keep them engaged (since it's sort of oval, it sits in both grooves at the same time to keep it engaged) Taking them apart can be easy in most cases. I had a tall old horseshoer's anvil with a notch cut into it that I slid the shaft into after cutting off the outer boot and wiping off as much grease as possible. Then use the shaft like a slide hammer to knock the end off.