While most of you were watching football and eating leftover turkey sandwiches Thanksgiving night I went over to the machine shop to drill out my rear axles for 1/2" wheel studs. The race classes I plan on running in require 1/2" studs so that's what I asked Baer to send my set ready for. The fronts were already installed in the new assemblies. I called Baer tach support to be sure I got the same style ones for my Moser axles. Don't want the hassles others have gone through with different thread size or appearance of front vs. rear studs.The gentleman on the tech line that day conferred with a bud at ARP and they decided which studs I needed which I then ordered. The steps below are the old school way of doing this and modern machines can do this much more quickly but if you've got access to a big drill press like I do and want to do it yourself, here's how.
At the machine shop there's a big ole freestanding drill press that's rarely used. Many years ago the shop owner made an adapter to allow drilling out axle flanges which he told me about when I asked about drilling mine. Neither looked like they've been used in 10 years and I've been there 3 and haven't seen anyone use them. Anyway since I knew they were available I figured I'd use them.
First step drag out the press and shim it at the bottom so the drill bit would be straight up and down. I used a small square and a level on the drill bit at 2 sides 90 degrees apart. Shimmed the press at the floor with wood shingles till the drill bit was square with the world.
Next I set the table adapter that would support the axle flange so it too would be flat and square with the world. The table adapter has a couple holes in it that allow offsetting the axle shaft so the hole that needs to be drilled can be lined up with the drill bit.
First step is taking out the "little" 7/16" studs. Support axle flange on a vice and plink them out with a big hammer.
Next set up the axle on the press adapter and install a bit the size of the original holes (7/16" in my case) in the chuck. Then double check the axle flange and bit to be sure they are square to each other. Because I'm reusing the axle bearings I had to use apacers to support the axle flange because the bearings wouldn't fit through the axle hole in the table adapter. For each hole the 7/16" bit gets lowered and lined up through a hole to be drilled and then the flange is clamped in place. To be sure the hole is lined up perfectly with the bit after clamping, release the bit, then lower it again and make sure it slides cleanly through the hole.
With an intermediate sized bit the hole is opened up. Go gentle at the touch off and check the cut to be sure the bit is centered. Use cutting oil to lube the bit. After the intermediate hole is finished repeate the process using the final bit which should be sized for a 10 thousandths interference fit.
Once all the holes are drilled use a flat file on the flange to clean off the burrs from drilling. Then Install the new studs by supporting the axle flange on a vice and using the big hammer to plink them in. If you did everything right the studs should all be parallel. Check out the size difference in the studs in the bottom pic! I'll put a spot of weld on each stud when I get a minute during the next couple days, it was late by the time I finished so I figured I'd do that later.
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