Rear axle bearing loose
#1
Rear axle bearing loose
Well I took my truck in to 4 wheel parts to get 4:10 gears, auburn LS Diff and an add a leaf. They called me up to tell me my rear axle seals were leaking and needed to be replaced,which I already knew, and I should replace the bearings also. I figured go ahead. Then they call me back and tell me the passenger side bearing slips into the housing and is loose enough to spin and the proper fix is to get a new housing $980 from Ford plus all the labor to switch everything. He offered a temp. fix, which I opted for, and welded four beads around the bearing to attach it to the housing. The truck is supposed to be ready tomorrow. Anyone have experience with this or advice?
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#5
It's supposed to be snug, not super tight. If he really hammered that bearing in I'd prepare to be replacing it again not too far down the road. I would get the part numbers from him and do some research on my own. Something's just not right about it.
#6
I had it happen to me on a Class C Motor Home (Ford Chassis) quite a few years ago. Won't go into the complexities of why it happened but in trying to figure how to tighten up those few thousandths that were worn, I decided to plug the hole so that no sand could get into the rear end (NOT good!), and sand blasted the inside of the housing where the bearing rides. I think it's called Silica 30 (not certain), but it's course enough that it put a sand blasted finish that tightened the hole perfectly! The bearing fit nice and snug on both sides. It only takes a very few thousandths for the bearing to fit loose, maybe 2 or 3 thousandths, 4 at the most. If you have any concern, use a Med. temp Lock-Tite. If you have to get the bearing out later (may very well have to if you have the truck long enough), just heat the outside of the housing up a little, it should come right out with a bearing puller. I wouldn't think of replacing the housing for that. You DO NOT want the bearing to spin in the housing (which sounds like what it did) because it would destroy the housing, bearing and axle. It definitely shouldn't they way I described.
Last edited by code58; 03-05-2010 at 03:38 AM.
#7
EDIT: went back and re-read the post and it looks like they welded the bearing into the housing (maybe you would call it tacked). That's not the way I would have done it at all.
Last edited by code58; 03-05-2010 at 03:52 AM.