Rear Axle Stuck 1990

Heard that all too familliar noise yesterday and got her home because I was like a mile or two away and yes the bearing seal was blown on the drivers side. Now I say all too familiar because I had just done this about 6 months ago when it happened as we were out of town and I had it towed back home. This time it was only the rear on the drivers side but after an hour or so of trying :banghead: I still can't get the drivers side axle out. It has some play up and down and will move about 1/16 of an inch in and out but no further in so I can't get the c-lock out. I pulled the passengers side to make sure I was not doing something wrong (hey I'm a school teacher not a mechanic) and it slid in and came right out. Everything looked brand new on that side just like it did when I replaced it. My thought is there is a bearing or piece of race in the shaft holding the axle from moving. Has anyone had this happen? What do you do to fix this w/o messing up the rear end or housing? I figure it is new axle time but we have to get the old one out to replace first.

Sounds like you are familier with getting the axles out. The one on the drivers side, probably has a deep groove worn in it so you're going to have to drive it in with something heavy to get it in far enough to get the C-clip out. I post an answer on this subject but will give you the same advice. Replace the axles with Yukon brand aftermarket axles. Do a search, I found out about them on pirate4x4.com and went through the dealer off that site. Great prices, really good axles too. Make sure you get all the metal shavings out of the axle tube. You don't want to do this again in another month. I remove the carrier and push a solvent soaked rag through the axle tube with a broom stick until I'm certain all the metal shavings from the bad bearing & old axle are gone. Then install new bearings & seals, install the carrier and shove the new axles in. Be sure to adjust the rear brake shoes as a last thing. I put new tires on mine this weekend and had to turn the self adjusters at least two full turns. The rear brakes weren't doing thier portion of the work, really makes a differance when the rear brakes are adjusted.

Let me know if you find the Yukon axles. What you think of them etc...

Edit: Here's the link, I'm not sure if they sell direct, probably not. Should be a distributor list. Call and get a price. I know from rebuilding the big Dana 60 recently that their parts were a lot less expensive then expected. High quality parts, highly recommend. http://www.yukongear.com/

So If I break out the 3 pound sledge and whack on it hard I am not likely to mess up the housing or the rear end? I just want to make darn sure it will not make a bad problem worse. I will look into the axles you recomend as soon as I get the old one out but I am not ordering anything till I get the old one out. Call it the gremlin watch but those critters have been following me recently and every time I get a problem licked a new and seemingly easy to fix one crops up then becomes a bear. :bricks1:

The axle has to go in before the C-clip can be removed. It's been many years ago that I've had one of these axles that needed to be hammered on. I used a 15lb sledge hammer..... What happened to that axle, sounds like what has happened with yours. The bearing ate into the axle and "mushroomed" the axle so it couldn't easily go back through the bearing without some help. Once the axle was beat in and the C-clip removed. I had to put the tire back on the axle for added leverage to pull the axle out. There is no other way to get it apart. As you mention about the passanger side, the axle pushed in easily so you could get the C-clip out. The cause would be my main concern. As a mechanic I like to solve mysteries so history doesn't repeat itself. Roads are "crowned" so water drains off to one side into drain gutters. Normally your truck goes down the street leaning more to the left (passanger) side. It's not much, maybe 3 to 5 degrees. So the drivers side is higher then the passanger side. Rear end grease, like water, runs downhill. Make sure after this rebuild, when filling the rear end with grease. To wait and allow the grease to run out to the ends of the axles as you are adding the grease. I like to overfill a little by holding my finger under the large fill hole so it acts like a dam. Then you have to have the plug at the ready and quickly screw it in. I guess I'm trying to say the drivers side axle bearing may have not been getting grease. After you get it apart, inspect the axle shaft for evidence of bluing. A good indicator of dry bearing syndrome.

Thanks will do it tommorow afternoon if it does not rain we have that tropical storm or whatever that will/may be pumping in some rain into the east coast if it does not head out to sea if not this weekend I will get to it. I will let you know and I might just go out and get a bigger hammer. Thinking about it it could have been the camper I just recently bought. It has a load leveling hitch and although I sort of understand the mechanics of it I am not 100% sure how it works both failures occured either while towing (the first one) or shortly after (the second). Of course I am also a big man and both a drivers side failures so my wife would have to say diet time if I let her see this post and reply. :eek:

Got it out after much bashing I realy need a bigger hammer. Of course then we had to get it over the inside hump what had happened apparently is the old axle was (I am guessing here) heat damaged and then when I replaced the bearing it wore a grove in the axle causing a sort of hump to form on the outer lip of the grove on both sires of the grove. Thankfully the build up was much worse towards the outside preventing pushing it in than inside preventing pull out which was still a bear but not as bad. What took me so long to reply was I had to wait for the axle to be shipped due to a comedy of errors and some unforseen shipping delays so while I had everything ready to install I only got the new axle installed last weekend. Since then we have been full bore on my niece's wedding thus the late reply. Thanks for the help and I will be checking in from time to time offering advice when I have it and picking brains when I need it.

Just wondering did you go with the Yukon axle??

RDH :smokin:

I thought about it but I sort of have this hang up about ordering things from online dealers and no one I talked to about ordering one locally would do a Yukon. I have to admit I went with what Pep Boys could get due to price and about a week after I ordered it the local Autozone that told me they did not order them started advertising special order for axles and other parts they did not offer. I now have a Superior axle (name brand) and might regret it but so far no problems. I figure my next big thing is exahust work as I found a hole in a pipe while underneath. I wanted to do try some custom work but my (free used gift) welder burned out. I guess it is shop time for a non-custom exaust since that is not too expensive. For now though I wrapped the pipe and kept driving maybe Santa will bring a new mig machine.