To prevent spindles from pulling the bolt threads out of steering knuckles, I would mill a flat spot on the inside of the knuckle and then screw in some button-head bolts. Two of them needed a little grinding for clearance.
For a locking differential, there weren't a lot of choices. In the '60s Jeep offered Power Locks (which were only limited slips), and on occasion even put them in the front too. These were fully enclosed cases with four spider gears unlike the open-case, two-spider Trac-Loks. They were stronger by far and even worked better than a Trac-Lok.
It was soon found that these could be modified with additional clutch packs for even better performance, but the locking action was a bit brutal on axleshafts. Military vehicles, such as the Mighty Mite had the Dana housing with Power Locks, so we would scrounge the military surplus places for low-cost units. However, these were all model 27 units, so we had to do some machine work on the carrier bearing journals to make them fit in a model 25.
The first set of Warn hubs built in 1948 were nothing more than special flanges that had no splines. You had to take off the original splined drive flange and bolt on the Warn flanges. They even came in this nice storage box.
Naturally, there was the old standby of using a "Lincoln Locker." This involved either welding up the teeth of the spider gears or welding them to the carrier. Some guys still do it today. While not a recommended practice back then or now, it did offer a solution to traction, and it was tough on axleshafts and tires. Sometimes it would cause the carrier case to break in half where the cross pin went through.
Detroit Lockers showed up for the Ford 9-inch in 1969 having been used for many years in large commercial trucks. A few years later, the Dana rearends got Detroits too. The first ones were quite harsh in operation and made a heck of a lot of noise when one axle would have to release when turning a corner. It wasn't hard to pull a prank and convince unknowing people that I surely had broken something in the rearend, and they had to get out and push my Jeep!
In 1973 Warn came out with its own locking differential and called it the Warn Positrac. This was of a roller clutch design, actually similar to the early Lock-O-Matic hubs. It was short lived, and I never actually saw one in operation.
The Gleason-Torsen differentials were also available. They used a binding gear principle and they actually worked darn good--they were very similar to the True Track of today. I once did a test where I put one rear tire on a set of rollers and the other on cement with the Jeep pushing up against a steel post. It would actually smoke the tire on the cement and just slowly turn the one on the rollers! Unlike the Detroit Locker, it didn't have sudden unloading characteristics that led to lane changes on icy roads. High manufacturing costs and production problems pulled it off the market for Jeeps anyway, but it's now making a comeback in certain high-performance vehicles, Indy cars, as well as being used in some Hummers.
An early '60s full-floating kit utilizing Jeep hubs and spindles, similar to what Warn is offering today.
I was getting fairly good at setting up rearends. But as anyone who has worked on a Dana axle knows, it's a pain to press the bearings on and off during a gear setup. Especially when you're using a piece of pipe and big hammer or a mechanical screw jack and the vehicle's weight as a press. It seemed that about half of the time I would destroy a bearing when pulling it back off to change the shims. It must have been in the late '60s or early '70s that we got smart and honed out the center of a set of bearings to use for setup. It took time to hone them out, but it was well worth it. Being able to slip the bearings on and off by hand became a real handy set-up tool. Once you got the proper preload, backlash, and gear pattern, the set-up bearings were replaced with new bearings. It was years before I ever got a housing spreader, so I relied on a couple of big pry bars to remove the differentials and installed them with a big hard-rubber hammer.
Break an early style axle at the end of the taper and you would lose the wheel, hub, and even the brakes. This one broke on me at highway speeds, as noted by the ground-down backing plate.
Locking hubs? The first ones were made in 1948 by Warn and were nothing more than bolt-on flanges that supported the end of the outer axle but had no coupling splines. I had a set of these and what a pain. I would have to unbolt the Warn hubs and bolt on the drive flanges every time I anticipated using four-wheel drive. It didn't take me too many times of doing this before the fun went out of it, and I bought a set of real Warn lock-out hubs. There were other makes of hubs too, such as the Dualmatic and Cutlass. Sears even got on the wagon with their Powr-matic locking hubs.
The early Warn designs used multiple pins that were pushed into a housing. Several other manufacturers used two cams that, when rotated--either by a separate tool or built-in levers--locked an inner-splined center to the housing, engaging the axle. There was never any question as to which hub was the better one, both in ease of operation and strength.
Anti-wrap/double-shock mount spring pads aren't something new. I built these back in the early '70s out of a piece of 2x2x1/4-inch tubing.
I am still scrounging parts to build my own axle housings, but I use aftermarket parts to finish the job. In fact, my present flatfender Jeep has a 60 rearend made out of a free frontend from a wrecked Ford F-350 truck. The frontend of the Jeep is out of an International truck. Yes, now one can buy complete custom-built axles from brake to brake from numerous sources, and they are much better than anything I could build. But then there is the cost factor!