Broken Stub Axle

[Rogue Trooper]

If you can find someone with a CRS kit that hasn't been installed there is no reason why it can't be duplicated. Any engineer worth his salt should be able to do this and then if you have a template made at the same time they could just be replicated at will. Might be a good little money earner for someone.

[Bedfordcrazy]

trust me rogue, with the amount of bedford owners here in oz, and you guys across the way, i am so tempted to start something up. If i had the cash i would look at doing a new version of vancraft. We have got benny here that does the fibreglass, i have a mate that wrecks bedfords close by, it would be a case of finding the right people with the passion and know how to do the custom work, trimmers, sheet metal, my mate the mechanic did'nt say know when i joked about it a couple of weeks ago. The amount off problems i have had to solve with my van in the last 6 months, and we have, i'm tempted.
George.

[Rogue Trooper]

Unfortunately it isn't quite that easy. It's OK if the people having the work done are willing to just settle for tried and true modifications, then is there is generally a known amount of time for the work and a set cost but as soon as someone wants something outside the box there are hours of work in R&D that becomes cost prohibitive because there is no way that anyone would spend that kind of money. That's why those sorts of things are generally done by the van owners themselves.

When I look at the days I have spent on getting the cab of my van to its current state not to mention the work it is going to take to finish it there is no way in hell I'd ever be able to pay someone to do that kind of work for me.

Making mounting brackets for brake calipers isn't such a drama as there is generally a limited number of ways to fit a caliper correctly but as soon as someone wants to make cosmetic changes to their van it's a completely different ballgame. You're only limited by your imagination. I guarantee you that most of the guys on this site have done those types of modifications themselves or had a very good friend do them for them because the cost of getting a professional outfit to do them would be phenomenally expensive.

[Bedfordcrazy]

I agree rogue, if you look at most of the guys & girls here, it all comes down to cash, and bedford vans are a not for everyone. I know here in oz, those with the big money to spend, are going for hot rods and muscle cars, like the elenore, mustang or 68 chev camaro's. I like monaro's, and if i had the money i would build a HQ or HX monaro, but here in bris you can pay upwards of $20,000-00 for a plain no painted body. I wish monaro's were as plentiful as beddys, and price wise. I dont know about NZ but here in bris i know of only 3 real hot rod shops, that do everything from start to finish. We have one 10mins from me, OZ RODS, and they quoted me $10,000 to do my 4wheel disc brake and power steering conversion, if i had of gone with them, yes it would all have been done by now, but thats all that would of been done. I waited another 2 yrs, till i found my current mechanic, so far i have spent 2 grand ? and that is all the brake components and steering rack and labour over 6 months. Once i'm on the road again, and i add up the final bills, it wont be cheap, but i will have saved thousands by shopping around and getting the right guys for the job, and doing most of the work at home in my workshop.
George.

[Rothu]

Righto! The Bedford Detective has been researching a lot and the results are surprising! 

Ben had given me some stub axles from a 1972 Bedford to replace the ones I had that now were obviously machined down to holden bearings. It still had the original drum brake set up on it with the original "Great Britian" Bedford bearings. It had been drilled to fit Holden studs.

I took that stub axle along with the bearing cups from the holden rotor disk to a couple of bearings shop.
The first one was the typical "what's it off?" mentality and wasted my time getting completely wrong bearings sets. I told them: "Just measure the damn axle, then measure the outer of the cups and find the ones that fit that combination!! FFS!!" Nup. this was too hard for them. They didn't measure anything, just kept going out the back and trying other bearings, none of which fitted. FAAAAAARK!!
So I went to another bearings place and explained veeeeeery slowly what I wanted. They measured it up, matched the sizes, got the sets and the axle will fit HOLDEN bearings!! NOT Ford Falcons, they were way too big for the inner axle.

Holden and Ford brake disk rotors are exactly the same, they both have the same bearings cups.
Inner Cup: LM67010 Outer Cup: LM12710
They do have different bearing races on the inners, but are practically the same for the outer ones.
Holden inner race: LM67048, outer race: LM12749

Now this would've saved me a lot of time and costs years ago if the stupid people at the brakes centre where I got the disk rotors had told me that. Since I have front Falcon wheels matched to the ford diff, they insisted that I had to get undrilled Holden rotors, then get a machinist to drill out a Ford stud pattern and put Ford studs in. This costed me an extra $240 on top of the costs of undrilled rotors ($160!), whereas, I could've just got Ford rotors and put Holden bearings into it for only $90! FAAAAAARK! Some people are retards, even so called professionals! 

I'm making up a photo diagram of the different stub axles from '72 and '76 showing measurements and bearings. I'll post the photos of the changeover soon.

I'm also taking the '76 stub axles in to get it measured with the rotor bearings cups to see if any bearing sets will just fit on without any need for machining. Early advice is that there are.

I still don't know where the idea for Falcon bearings came from, maybe a case of chinese whispers, because they definitely DON'T fit '72 axles!

[restoreid]

Hey Rothu you seem to be going through the same as i am at the moment only I want to fit falcon bolt patern to match the diff i am fitting So far I have found XC to XF front discs go streight on 76 Bedy stubs [same size inner bearing & seal ] but the outer bearing is too small for the 1inch outer bearing but there is enough meat in the outer spigot to machine out to fit Bedy outer bearing set Also I might be able to leave the outer cone stock ford & get a bearing with an 1inch hole to fit Bedy stub Anyway I will be takeing it all in to the bearing place to see what they can doo Ill keep you's posted Cheers Reid

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

yes roth. . i too, when gettings bearings etc for beddy, hav learned to say " just measure n match please " wen i get " wots it off"? i reply "irrelevant to you"  if pushed. .   "wot part of measure n match are u havin trouble understanding sonny"?  i know. .i know. .it is hard,at times like this  to be pleasant mate