The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Quick question on rear axle bearings

We got the rear axles pulled on the '40 half ton to replace leaking seals. Tell me about these rear outer bearings. They seam to have a good bit of play in them, Do they always have some play or should they be tight? I'm not familure with these axles. Like most bearings I'm assuming the race (pressed on the axle shaft) gets replaced at the same time? I'm more familure with tapered rollers. Man these bearings, races, and rear seals are salty! Thanks in advance.

What do you mean by salty?

Pricey!
A quick search looks like it could be upwards of $300 for bearings, races, and seals.

PA road salt?

How does the road salt get inside the axle? Is that a thing a up there?

Salty as in slang for expensive.

I've never heard that before.

$300 might seem like a lot but compared to similar items for modern cars that's pretty cheap.

Rear wheel bearings aren't that bad HERE.
The bearings run directly on the axles, unless there's obviously a race pressed on to the axle shaft. There were no races on my axles when I pulled them, and the bearings are supposed to fit from 40-63 1/2 ton pickups.

The issue may be what the axle bearing surfaces look like if salt was present. Mine were spalled and unsuitable for reuse but I was able to obtain sleeves from a late thirties Buick which matched the OD of our axles perfectly. I turned down my axles on my lathe and installed the sleeves. If that is the case, PM Me and I can send you a procedure for cutting and replacing the bearing surface on the axle that any decent machinist/machine shop could follow. Another ‘bolter ran into the same issue and was able to sucessfully repair his axles using my procedure.

Nice fix, Phil.

BTW, he clarified that salt wasn't involved, but was just complaining about pricing. That wear on your axle shaft is typical for them.

I was looking at differences between '40s & '50's car and truck axles and I think I saw that the car axles used an inner race sleeve on them. Strange that the trucks didn't also use a replaceable sleeve. I have a pair of axles from a '72 K10 that I owned years ago that have the same issues. Why I saved them is unknown. Maybe it's just because I'm a packrat, coming from a long line of packrats.

X2 on that fix!
So I did get new bearings, I removed the (probably original USA bearings) and replacing with new Chinese ones with plastic cages. I actually dropped one bearing on my foam rubber floor pad while opening the package and the plastic inner cage broke and spit bearings everywhere! talk about crap, Anyway I put them all back in and glued the cheap plastic cage back together. I slid the bearing on the axle shaft and fit nice and tight, so my old ones where a little worn out. onward and upward.

I'm so sick of this Chinese garbage for everything

Then there are good or were good old outfits like Timken that I used on a project awhile ago. Made in India, it was not even close to the quality of the German made bearing I had for the other end of the shaft.