This NOT what I did. I actually had new alu caps made without splines or
anything else. The axle just sits there. On a CCKW/DUKW/Chevy (and M38 I
believe), the bushing is in the spindle, so the shaft is somewhat supported.
>There is no support in the spindle so the axle must ride in the flange.
>Even with enough clearance, the flange will turn about the shaft causing
>undue heat and wear. After just a few miles, my friends hubs are too
>hot to touch. He has gained no appreciable increase in gas mileage nor
>any significant reduction of noise.
Again. He did it the wrong way IMHO. I noticed a great decrease in road noise
and an increase in mileage. The one concern I had was with the xfer getting
lubed correctly w/o the front shaft turning. I have had this on there for about
4 years (~8,000 miles) now with no problems anyplace.
>IMHO, this whole neutering thing is a bad idea. These vehicles were
>designed to run with the front axles turning. You aren't going to really
>hurt the vehicle by running the way it was built to run.
I disagree. One reason I did this was to save the front end from wear. Before I
did this, I was replacing the wheel bearing seals and the knuckle seals much
more than I wanted to. There are a lot of things moving in there. The givmint
had a lot of people to work on these vehicles and an unlimited supply of spare
parts. In addition, parts were replaced at regular intervals, i.e. the motor on
a CCKW was replace at 10,000 mile intervals.
>Another option would be to completely remove the front axle shafts. Of
>course, this is not a very practical method as is removing a rear axle
>shaft on a tandem axle truck.
You cannot do this as the gear oil will run into the knuckles and into the
wheel bearings and you will have knuckle seal leaks and wheel bearing seal
leaks with the associated brake shoe lubrication.
>If you really must mave lockin/lockout hubs, you need to replace the flanges
>with the correct selectable types.
Locking hubs are:
A: Expensive for a large truck
B: They are not nor do they look orginal
C: They stick way out and are subject to damage (see A above)
All my opinions of course, though backed up with quite a few miles on a few
trucks.
Steve
The 'fleet'
1943 GMC CCKW LWB closed cab cargo w/M32 MG mount
1944 GMC CCKW LWB open cab F1 aircraft refueling tanker
1942 GMC CCKW LWB closed cab shop van
1942 Chev 1.5t closed cab cargo
1944 Chev 1.5t open cab M6 Bomb truck
1945 Chev 1.5t closed cab telephone (auger) truck
1944 Clark Airborne Bulldozer
1941 Buffalo Springfield steel 250 gal water buffalo
1945 Buffalo Springfield alu 250 gal water buffalo
1944 M6 Bomb trailer
1944 Ben Hur 1 ton cargo trailer
1978 M151A2 Jeep
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