From: Bruce White - [email protected]
Date: 29/05/00
Time: 7:39:25
Remote Name: 129.96.230.236
What a small world, I am doing a similar job at the moment. The taper I am using is 3 degrees (as measured from the centre line). I had a collection of damaged axles and hubs but the gear end of the axles were excellent. We decided not to go the old way of normalizing the axle, building up the material and then remachining it etc... We cut about 8 inches off the old axles, turned up new axle ends with the 3 degree taper (using a modern steel suitable for this work - I can look up the number if you want). After measuring the correct overall length, we took them to a local welder here that specializes in axle welding. We then cut new parallel keyways. The new materials does not need heat treating after this process. This process is used on v8';s and speedway cars here with no problems. As for the hubs, we just machined the centres out completely and welded in new-machined inserts with the matching 3 degree taper. Once again we needed to use an outside source to cut the internal keyways in the new hub centres. The other thing I have done on the hubs is to replace the damaged outside threads - that the hub puller would normally use - with a ring (about .250" thick and .250" wide). This is neatly welded on in a position forward enough to allow standard puller fingers to fit behind. This suits a special were hubs may be pulled fairly regularly. I will add over the next few weeks photos and a better description of this work to the mechanical drawing section of the site. As you may be aware, new axles are available for about $250 (Australian) from a number of sources. Including the cost of having the keyways cut, this costs about a third of this cost and is a lot of fun.
Hope this helps.
Bruce