Tandem "Reliable" Wear Sleeves?

[ValveCoverGasket]

working on our '04 tandem axle
i need to replace a wear sleeve

spindle OD at the sleeve is 1.66

it seems like all of the currently available replacements i can find that are close are the UFP ones which have an ID of 1.60 - 1.61 - way too small - or the Tie Down Engineering 1.67 - 1.68 depending on which site you go on and how they round up that ID measurement.
that Tie Down unit one fits (ive now ordered several from a few different place haha), but its not a press fit which makes sense given the numbers it just slides on.
the real ID of the ones ive got my hands on averages out to somewhere around 1.675 or so.


im thinking as a last restore globbing some of this permatex 68050 on that 1.67-168 sleeve i found and just hoping for the best... seems like in theory it should bond on there.


what a pain...
does anyone have a source for wear sleeves on these reliable trailers?

[ValveCoverGasket]

had a nice phone call with one of the techs at pacific trailers - as soon as i said "reliable brand" he said "im sorry!"
it sounds like more less everyone sells the same few UFP and Tie Down wear sleeves as thats whats commonly on the market now. his only recommendation was to either get something machined, or worse case swap the tandems on the trailer to something more common.


so... i found a better loctite adhesive option.
loctite 660
combined with their surface prep activator loctite 7649 it should be stronger at the larger gaps with that surface prep, and cure in colder temperatures fairly quickly.

by the numbers this appears like it might be a decent fix, and if it allows updating to the more common sleeves it should be the ticket.
if it ever wears out, the bond is removable with direct torch heat and prying the sleeve off
looking around online it sounds like this is fairly common adhesive for field repairs for heavy equipment, slipped bearings, worn crank nose tapers, that sort of thing.
early miatas had a crank nose taper issue and the forums over there rave about this stuff as a filler/repair for their wallowed out tapers.
in this case the backside of the inner wheel bearing should rest on the sleeve shoulder when its all snugged up and provide more mechanical clamping force to keep the sleeve from spinning also.

anyway, specs say it can fill and hold a .02 (.5mm) gap which should be just right to fill the gap to the sleeve. and its oil and chemical proof and all that.


grainger had both the 660 and 7649 in stock, next day delivery with standard shipping... so we'll see if i get a chance to mess with this again this week but ill report back!

[ValveCoverGasket]

coming back to this, seems the 660 + 7649 primer does the trick!

over last weekend i did a test glue of one of the many extra 1.67 sleeves ive accumulated, with a crumpled up second sleeve glued to the inside of it, variable gap, not the prettiest setup, etc and they look to be permanently bonded.
unless, according to the loctite manual, you apply direct flame heat (>400deg) then they can be separated and cleaned up for service.
about what youd expect for a product intended to glue together heavy duty engine rotating parts.

heres a quick video of what the .015-.02 gap looks like over the spindle

https://youtu.be/Wb9EH5pOVQg

also for those that really want to delve way way too deep into this, loctite has a Do It Right Guide for using their products.
covers which products are best suited for which applications, when to use primer, and which primer to use, etc etc. really useful stuff.

based on my test glue last weekend with a couple coats of primer on both the spindle and the inside of the wear sleeve, i had about 15-20 seconds to work before the sleeve became too stuck to realign. because of the possibility of misalignment i wanted to use the hub and rear seal to center the whole thing before it set up.
so i got everything together and slid the hub on, tightened the bearing pretty snug and left it for a couple days.
the other thing to note is if there is any excess 660 that isnt captured somewhere where it has little oxygen, and if its not exposed to primer, itll stay soft. so cleanup after the fact is as simple as wiping it off.

after a couple days of sitting ive got a wear sleeve thats really really stuck on there!





holds oil, seems happy enough on a short test drive, but will monitor it as the season goes on. but with how little drag the seal creates over the wear sleeve surface, im not too worried about it.


hopefully this is useful for someone in the future. much cheaper than replacing an entire axle on these reliable tandems for lack of a press-on wear sleeve.

[ValveCoverGasket]

put some highway miles on this the other night getting my lake inspection sticker and loading up the boat - all good!
its also been sitting at storage for the couple weeks since my last post and no signs of any leakage either.

[ValveCoverGasket]

Been dunked a few times now, quick follow up -

Had a little scare the last time putting it away as it was pretty milky and had some oil coming out the back. Took the hub apart to check on things and the wear sleeve is still very very firmly attached, no issues there
But I think I was relying on the 660 too much to actually seal, and with temperature changes from dunking the trailer I think there's not a water tight seal under it.
Ran a clean bead of rtv around the leading edge of it behind the inner bearing, and running the trailer into the lake this morning no signs of water intrusion, oil is still nice and clean.

[ValveCoverGasket]

i know im talking to myself here but i wanted to bump this as its been quite a while since the repair.

weve probably put ~1500-1800 miles on the trailer (several long cross-state pulls) since the work and its holding up great.

[sock-feet]

i know im talking to myself here but i wanted to bump this as its been quite a while since the repair.

weve probably put ~1500-1800 miles on the trailer (several long cross-state pulls) since the work and its holding up great.

Do you think regular JB weld would work with this wear sleeve? What was wrong with the original wear sleeve?

[sock-feet]

Do you think regular JB weld would work with this wear sleeve? What was wrong with the original wear sleeve?

Where did you get the Tie down wear sleeve and what part number is it?

[ValveCoverGasket]

just about every place that sells trailer parts has the tie down sleeves
trailer parts depot, pacific trailers, etrailers, eastern marine, etc

https://www.trailerpartsdepot.com/p-2-wear-sleeve-1-3-8-x-1-1-16-spindles-tie-down-17293.aspx

JB weld might work, but the loctite stuff was specifically made for this sort of job holding force against it spinning.


all that said, if your sleeves are ok looking id recommend just leaving them alone.
the spindle i had problems with clearly had some failure in the past that chewed it up, you can see in the pics, and the sleeve wasnt in great shape.