Posted by Doc Dave on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 at 8:59AM :
You won't find much mentioned in the manuals about how to do this if you are forced to replace or repair this on your flatfender. The only thing I found was..."you must use a arbor press to perform this".
The fellow that had the truck before me started the restoration and then quit, and sold the truck to me. He had taken everything apart (very rusty) off the brake backing plate.
I got replacement parts (Memphis equip) to rebuild it but then many questions surfaced.
At first glance one might think the job is an easy one of swaging the neck down with a hydraulic press to hold the cam.
It is not that simple.
First, the spring must be under compression when it is all put together to properly hold the adjustement and keep it from moving due to vibration. Second, the pin tends to bend in the middle while it is being compressed, distorting the assembly.
Through trial and error I came up with a simple solution that worked well.
First, I inserted the pin, washer and spring as a unit into a short piece of pipe with an inside diameter just very slightly larger than the outside diameter of the spring. This pipe acted as a "splint" during the swaging process, keeping everything straight and verticle.
Second, I used a 1/2" hardened flat washer on the top of the cam. The hole in the washer surrounds the pin neck. The washers thickness allows the ram of the press to exert some compression on the spring before the swaging causes the neck to hold tight to the cam.
I lubed the cam underside first, and the process worked very well. I did 4 adj cams this way.
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