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| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Short Cuts | |
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By: Terry L. Howe - 11/2001
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| The front and back of the Ford spindle nuts. The flat dark side goes in and the light side has the teeth for the spindle nut socket. |
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| Trimming the alignment tab on the Ford spindle nut. |
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| All the parts involved. On the top is the two Jeep spindle nuts and the locking washer, in the middle is the outer lock-out, retaining ring, and inner lock-out, on the bottom is the baling wire tool to remove the old spindle washer, the Ford spindle nut, and the spindle nut socket. On the left is the hex wrench. |
If your Jeep has half ton internal hubs, chances are you have the three piece spindle nuts. The inner nut sets the tension on the bearing, the lock washer slides down the slot on the spindle and a pin on the inner nut goes in a hole in the lock washer, and the outer nut holds it all in place. Sometimes, you get lucky and that lock washer slides right down and the pin in the nut goes right in a hole in the lock washer, sometimes it doesn't. Some Ford Dana 44s use a self locking spindle nut that does not require aligning the pin and makes installation much easier.
If you have the 3 piece Jeep spindle nut, a good trick is to try the lock washer and if it doesn't line up, flip it over and try the other side. The holes are lined up a bit different when the lock washer is flipped over. Often this will do the trick, but sometimes nothing seems to work. Especially, if you are trying to fix a broken axle on the trail.
The Ford spindle nuts eliminate these problems. The Ford spindle nut ratchets down and locks on every click. You can set the perfect load on the bearing with no worries of aligning the pin. You have to press in on the spindle socket to engage the teeth in the ratcheting nut. Works a bit different, but easy enough.
The only down side to the Ford nuts is the cost. They run about $15.50 brand new at the Ford dealership. The jobber price is probably a lot better than that, but most of us ,like myself, have to pay retail. It probably is not too hard to get the nuts at the junk yard, but to save time, I just purchased two nuts brand new at the dealership. My local dealership had them in stock, so there was no waiting. When I went to the dealership, I asked for the nuts for a '94 Ford F-150. I got that make and model from a tip from Dave on our Jeep Forum. I'm not sure what range of vehicles they might have been used in. The Ford part number is E7TZ-1A134-A.
One thing I had to do with the Ford spindle nut is remove some material on the tab that slides in the slot in the spindle. I guess the Ford spindle has a wider slot it it. I did this with an air cut off tool, but a file or a hack saw would work.
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