[argonaut]

Finally got my passenger side knuckle machined, ball joints pressed in, knuckles mounted, high steer arms installed, axles inserted, spindles loosely mounted... I need to strip and paint the caliper brackets so I can bolt them down with the spindles, I had completely forgotten about them! I also need to pick up a length of 1-1/4"x.125w DOM tube to make the drag link and tie rod.



Hub bearings are ready for grease packing tomorrow, and I reassembled the hub lockouts again after picking up some silicone grease to coat the ring seals on the plastic selectors. This should keep these seals alive for another 40 years.



Since I worked into the wee hours of the night it was too dark out for painting my caliper brackets. So I stayed inside, rearranged my work areas in the garage and started working on the transfer case. Lucky for me this T-221 is pretty immaculate inside now. But I didn't like the rtv type gasket sealer the previous rebuilder used on all the shim stacks and bearing caps. It was leaky and also the rtv that squished out was clogging up half of the oil passages to the bearing caps. I'll be using a spray on light copper gasket coating on the shims, and I'll be drawing out and cutting new paper gaskets/cork gaskets where they are needed.



The shifter rod seals has been staked in (who the hell knows why) which I found unnecessary and quite annoying. Annoying because it deformed the boss for the seals which would damage new ones upon installation. I'll all for staking disposable parts, like nuts and washers and things, but If anything they should have used some that rtv here. Anyway I was able to use a small steel punch to work these out. A little more light sanding and I think the new seals will go in just fine.






Got my space all set up to start cutting new gaskets tomorrow. Hopefully it'll all be back together by the end of the day.