Rear Suspension Disassembly

[scotty71]

I am trying to disassemble my rear bogie suspension and am having trouble removing the side arm assemblies. I have removed all the attaching nuts, but it seems that, because it probably hasn't been used for so long, the lower end of the arms which have the bogie wheel frame shaft going through them has decided that they don't want to come apart. I don't want to use too much force to try to get them to loosen up, so should I try using penetrating oil and wait or should I try something else.

Scott.

[Torque]

On mine I drove a chisel between the side arm and bogie arm then heated the side arm around the shaft red before they let loose.

[BombFarm]

Scott,
I'm not sure if it's all the threaded cross bars or just some, but they are tapered on the end just behind the visible threads. I had to use some serious hammer blows to get my stuff apart. To save the shaft threads I'll usually sacrifice a nut by threading it on 3/4 of the way so that you can tell when things "pop" loose, but still protect the exposed threads from a misplaced hammer blow. Strike the arm where the tapered part of the cross shaft is held, not the cross shaft itself. I feel that a higher velocity strike with a small to medium size hammer that you can swing fast and be in control of results in more success vs. a lower speed big hammer blow. Yes, the the torch had to come out a couple times too, and it takes a lot of work before I bring out a torch. Good luck.

[Outsider]

The shaft by the bogie wheel clusters are tapered. I use 2 chisels one on each side of the shaft, then with a good blow to the arm where the shaft goes through and they normally come loose.

Steve

[scotty71]

I had a thought of using a bottle jack. If I pivot the bogie wheels around for enough clearance to insert a bottle jack between the side arms this might work

[bright87]

I would only put a little pressure on it that way-you will still need to give the round part of the arm a good lick or two with a sledge to free it up (you can separate tie rod ends the same way).
Watch your feet if it comes flying off-ask me, I know!
Michael

[8683jb]

Mine were turning out to be a real chore to get apart. I tried the chisels and hammer procedure described in previous posts but apparently the taper on my chisels is too steep because I couldn't drive them between the bogie frame and arm with enough advantage to really get enough pre-load “pulling” on the tapered shaft to where the shock from the hammer blows would release the parts. Before I resorted to the rosebud, what I did was turn a close-fitting protective cap on the lathe that would slip over the threaded end of the frame shaft but leave about an 1/8” gap between its end and the bogie arm. I cut a centering hole in the cap to accommodate the end of a gear puller. I jacked the track off the ground, compressed the springs and then using a 13-ton, 2-jaw puller with the claws on the frame, I was able to put a lot more force on the end of the tapered shaft in the direction to push it out of the arm. A couple of the shaft ends just popped off by the force of the puller alone but the rest were pretty tough and after having tightened the puller to the point that you could almost play a tune on it (wearing safety glasses and a flak vest!) had to have the ends of the arms around the shafts smacked several times with a large hammer before they'd pop loose. Anyhow, this method worked pretty well for me and may be another option if you're not having any luck driving wedges between the parts.


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[mfrance]

Buy a portable porta power jack.   Best way I've pushed apart.  Rose bud little heat. Couple of pumps on jack between arms and pop.   Then put nut back on few threads. Spin porta power around and do opposite arm same way.   
Gets them off in minutes... handy tool for many things

[47lincsled]

 Back when I was building my half-track I parted out one with a really nasty frame,I never got around to stripping it completely and now I needed the bogie cluster to do  building process so yesterday I torched off the front and rear sections of the frame to make the crab more managable,I used a snap on heel bar and drove it in down on the bogie axle as far as I could,one hit of a big hammer and the taper popped off,then a chisel up at the top to pop the side arms  out,took me an hour and half to get all four bogies off! The only problem I had was that the springs pushed the cross piece out so it bound up the side arms,but even that came apart with a five pound hammer,it helps if you can do it all standing up!

[Smadge]

Tried taking one off last night with no luck. Came home today and used a chisel, hammer and propane torch and it worked just fine.
Drive the chisel in and heat around the end piece (not the bolt) for about 3-4 minutes and give it a shot of PB blaster and give the chisel a few good whacks. Pops right off.  Some came out once heated enough.