I realized that the leaf spring pins that the spring shop used to assemble the restored spring leafs were too short a while back and I knew they would have to be replaced later. The head of the pin acts as a rough guide for the axle housing placement on the leaf spring assembly. Fortunately, these pins are available and I was able to replace them before installing the axle housing.
On the left is the correct bolt, on the right is what the spring shop installed initially after re-arcing the individual leafs to original specifications. Most shops won't have these correct longer head bolts.
And finally there it is installed.
I made sure that the bolt was precisely centered in the middle of the leaf spring mounting plate, as well as the upper head of the bolt in the axle housing mounting pad. The yellow mark is an inspection mark, duplicated exactly as it was shaped and applied originally. There is a pic of the plates before restoration in an earlier post.
And finally the install of the axles, after installing new seals. Care has to be taken when putting these in so that the splines don't damage the seal. Note the original orange mark on the shaft. These were cleaned and new bearings in stalled. The original brake backing plates were restored so that the flat contact points where the brake pads rest are nice and smooth. Not everyone does this, but I can tell you if the wear grooves in the plates are left unfilled, the brake operation will be impacted. The other thing I see are restorers gobbing powder coating on these inside of the plates...this will screw up operation as well.
Really happy with the way this rear axle components came out after restoration and install. Still more details to add, but the immediate objective is to get everything under the car installed while up on the RV jacks. Once off the jacks, the motor, trans and driveshaft are going in.
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