42 Willy's MB Front Axle

[danlrhubarb]

I am starting a 42 MB rebuild. I pulled apart the axles, showing there age and total neglect. There are bushings in the front axle, kinda looks like they are two kinds and I think there for Bendix knuckles. See attached pictures. Do I get these pushed out, I cannot move them? Replace with one bushing if using Spicer knuckles? Sorry, hard to see, but there appears to be the outer brass bushing and another bushing further in. The other weird thing, a Rzeppa knuckle on the drivers side, that is the beat up bushing picture and a Spicer style knuckle on the passenger side. Do I replace the Rzeppa with a Spicer? I heard Rzeppa's are tuff on axles setup with Locking Hubs, too much play, which this axle has, Old School double lever Dualmatics, which I want to keep.

Appreciate any feedback.

88748875

OK, that's enough for my first ever post.

[bmorgil]

Wow dan that first one is pretty beat up! That bushing is there on the early axles until the early\mid CJ3A models. Then a thrust washer replaced it that goes up against where the bushing was. On the early axles you had to set the axle shaft "float" with shims. Later designs eliminated that. The way to go in my opinion is to switch it over to the new "Universal Joint" style shafts and don't worry about the bushings, they aren't required. On the early axle if the float of the axle shaft is incorrect, it can be very difficult to switch the locking hub.

[danlrhubarb]

Thanks for the information. I was going to replace the one Rzeppa axle. Should I just leave the bushings or remove them.

[bmorgil]

Just leave them in.