Steering Rods are Back On

I finally ordered and received the tie rod ends, so I set to work re-installing the steering rods and stabilizer.  I figured it would be an easy process, and besides one cotter pin it was.  It took about an hour to get everything put back together.  I will still need to get an alignment done in the future, but for now it looks like things are running pretty straight.  The good news about it...the front tires won't flop around since they are now tied together with the tie rod!  Makes for moving the chassis much easier.  I will be taking my steering box down to Classic Cruisers in Salida in a few days for them to rebuild it.  Everything I read said to have somebody experienced do it, so I'll let them.  Besides the price they quoted me is very reasonable compared to other places. 

Driver Side Knuckle Complete...

My goal for today was to get the driver side knuckle finished.  I must say, having down the passenger side first really helped, I knew how everything went together and how things went.  The passenger side took over 7 hours to put back together.  The driver side a little less than 5.  After pulling the driver side apart, I was really glad I decided to redo the knuckles.  Not only had the axle seal failed and allowed differential fluid into the knuckle, the oil seal and rear felt seals had failed and leaked water into the knuckle.  This solidified the grease and left the bearings in a bad state.  Just like the passenger side, the bearings literally fell apart as I took them out.  The driver side required much more cleaning effort.  Internal parts had dried and caked grease on them along with some surface rust.  But after a thorough cleaning and paint job, they look brand new.  All in all the knuckle went together without any issues.  I learned my lesson on the other side and installed the new wheel cylinder brake lines while the unions were still loose.  This made things a lot easier.  The only other issue I ran into was with the wheel cylinders.  I went off the web post I've been using along with the service manual and the old ones that came off...but adjuster clips were on the wrong side of the cylinder and wouldn't allow the shoe hold down springs to hook onto the shoes.  I did what made sense and flipped the cylinders so the adjuster clips were on the outside.  After further reading...I believe this to be correct.  My final step in the process was to clean the front wheels.  There was a lot of grease and caked dirt on both...so I scrubbed them cleaner than they were.  That is ok...sometime in the future I will get new wheels for the Cruiser.