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Fixing a Rearend Fill Hole

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Has this ever happened to you? According to seasoned wrecking yard counterpersons who’ve been there, it used to happen a lot. And on customer-friend Danny Stinson’s ongoing 1955 Chevy, second-series, half-ton shorty project, it’s happened once again.

Sometimes it’s difficult to resist the path of most resistance. As y’all may recall from a few issues back, we’d chosen the harder road. The object of desire was a proper-width 8-inch Ford rearend. Rather than ordering one our way and ready-to-go from Currie Enterprises, we got ours the old fashioned way. We built it—beginning with used parts.

As the story goes, we used the best bits from two like-kind rearends. In the process yours truly overlooked one small but important detail. Some 8-inch Ford rearends have their fill plug in the back of the axle housing. Others have their fill plug in the cast-iron carrier housing. Either-style axle housing will accept either-style carrier housing, but when mix-matchin’ we’d best pay attention because we could end up with the wrong combination of components—and oops, no access for gear lube.

At times like these, cheatin’ comes to mind. Our subject truck’s 8-inch is now good as new. With its brand-new gaskets and seals, this tight assembly won’t leak, so will future fluid-checks really be necessary? I could just shut up about the whole thing, calculate the exact amount of gear lube, add it via funnel through the vent, and be done. Other than us here, who’ll ever know?

This is where the voices chime in. The little voice on the right shoulder disagrees with the little voice on the left shoulder and the dummy in the middle is reminded that we don’t do our customer-friends that way. Let’s do the right thing. Let’s ’fess up and fix it—for free.

Just pondering our options; it seems as though a new entryway through the backside of the axle housing would be the easiest approach. We already have a 3/4-inch steel bung ’n’ pipe plug on a shelf in the shop—the kind we’d find in the plumbing section of our local hardware store. They’d do the job, but they’re not much to look at, and, of course, welding or brazing would be required. If I had my own way, I wouldn’t make a burnt mess of our freshly painted axle housing. A low-profile aluminum bung could be affixed to ground-clean steel with panel bonding adhesive, but naw—let’s stay open for suggestions.

In such uncertain situations, it’s good to have a go-to guru. Mine is “Guardrail” Willie Martin, third-generation proprietor of Riverside, California’s Ed Martin Garage. Again, as y’all may recall from a few issues back, it was Martin who rebuilt our 8-inch pumpkin, while Mrs. Rotten and I worked on the axle housing at home. It wasn’t ’til later, after final assembly, when my own carless mismatch was discovered.

Kindly willing to cover my oversight, Martin has offered to swap our freshened-up internals to a proper bungholed carrier housing. Now, with parts already painted, I’d prefer not to go so deep. So, as a Plan B fix for the fix we’re in, Martin suggests a push-in rubber fill plug from our local Dodge dealership—the kind we’d find under, let’s say, a 2006 Durango.

There’s just something about fixing my bungles that makes me want to get to work. Here it so happens, this’ll be the first bit o’ work to take place in our new Montana-based shop. Although we’re still setting up, and although a good portion of our tools are in storage far away, we’ll affordably fill some tool gaps and get this little job done—with a little help from Harbor Freight. On that there note, let’s put a plug in it.


Before we dig in and deal with our—OK, my—little mistake, let’s recapitulate the chain of events that led us here. Our axle housing’s center dimple was declared “ugly” and steps were taken to make it go away. In the end it turned out bitchin in smooth, shiny black acrylic urethane.

As we re-enter the present, our rebuilt 8-inch Ford rearend assembly is all buttoned up, fully assembled and pretty much ready to roll. Now, I ask you, what’s wrong with these pictures? Yeah, you got it—no access for gear lube.
Since we’ll be here for a while or two, we might as well get comfortable, right? Raising the rear of this rolling chassis helps. A little padding could save us some lumps ’n’ bumps. The high-mileage adjustable stool (an older Harbor Freight score) might look inviting, but first we’ve got some research to do.
Here, quite conveniently, we find an early Mustang on a lift at Ed Martin Garage. Its filler dimple is even uglier than the one we’ve smoothed away, but we can use this plug’s location as our initial guide. Using a square, we determine that the center of our new fill plug’s hole should be 4 3/8 inches above the axle housing’s low point.
Back at our own shop, let’s begin by locating the smoothed-away dimple. With a square and a magnetic mil gauge, we’re looking for the deepest spot of filler, which should be pretty close to the dimple’s center.
Chucked up in a drill, a 1-inch wire-end brush aggressively turns filler to dust. Using available fingers, the drill is braced firmly at first. Once it’s dug in, manual guidance is eased—and by the way, we have a bull’s-eye!
So, here’s our new rubber fill plug—a Dodge dealer item. For the hole, we have a big Unibit, but a hole saw might fling fewer shavings inside. Of course, all of ours are in storage far away, so hello Harbor Freight. We now have a backup set of saws, and providin’ we can separate this magnet, it’ll make a cool tool as well.
The idea here is to avoid trapping shavings inside our assembly. Once the filler is feathered back out of the way, the business end of this 2-inch circular magnet could be the day’s hot tip.
Before we make our hole for keeps, let’s test the new hole saws—mainly to be sure we’re choosing the appropriate size. The sealing surface of our new plug measures 7/8 inch od. It’s a loose fit in a 7/8-inch hole. In a 3/4-inch hole, the plug fits snug.
Once again, the square helps us with our height measurement. This time a dull Sharpie is aimed to mark the center.

In order to be kind to our new hole saw set, let’s begin with an 1/8-inch pilot hole. Sharp 1/8-inch bits can fall through quickly, without much feel or warning. We don’t have drill stops, but here a short section of rubber fuel hose will suffice.

There will be some paintwork to do later on, so for that reason we’re drilling dry without cutting fluid. Even so, the sharp new saw cuts steel like butter. Notice how the magnet is doing its job? It’s captured a whole bunch o’ shavings, and it’s also prevented the slug from falling down inside.

This is where curiosity kicks in. I’ve just got to know how much metal our magnet has held inside. As it turns out, the accumulation of shavings is close, right around the cut. Next, with the magnet still in place, we’ll need to dress down the new hole’s sharp inside edge.
This set of files was discovered amongst tools that actually have made it from storage all the way to the new shop—and it too came from Harbor Freight. According to its labeling, the set includes half-round bastard, two-way bastard, round bastard—every now and then, it’s kind of fun to use the word bastard.
With the inside dressed down smooth, we can now remove the magnet, which most of the shavings will follow. The stragglers are easily swept up with an old telescopic stick magnet.

Again, curiosity kicks in. I need to be satisfied that there are zero shavings inside this assembly. A swiveling stick magnet fits the bill here as it’s poked around wherever it’ll reach, with extra attention paid to the bottom of the axle housing. After three or four minutes, this is what’s retrieved. We’re done.
At this stage we could set the chassis down and add gear lube, but yours truly still has a little spot repair to do. That won’t be rocket surgery, but we’ll end up with a functional fill plug that’s prettier than stock. Bungle? What bungle? Other than us here, who’ll ever know?

The post Fixing a Rearend Fill Hole appeared first on Hot Rod Network.


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