Front and rear axles

weasel · Post by **weasel** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 4:25 pm

I took axles out of my rear end to replace bearings and seals as on was leaking so why not replace all. Opened up diff to view gearing all looks good,not much play so I will probably leave.
Opened front diff and to my surprise grease, took out Bendix axles one was already out and broken ,short side looks good, cleaned all grease out
and cleaned. Question when cleaning out diff noticed it did not turn as easy as rear did. What should I look for or is this the way the front is

Post by **wesk** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:06 pm

They should feel about the same unless the pinion preload on one of them is way off. Since you found grease instead of gear oil in the front I would suspect the grease was used to hid a serious problem. I'd plan on going completely through that diff.

weasel · Post by **weasel** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:37 am

Its taken a couple of days to completly clean diff gears turning free
and seem to be good with no marks or dings. One thing I didn't find was when I removed the axles I didn't find any oil seals which if I am correct should be on the inside of the steering knuckle all I can see is what apears to be a brass fitting seated into the housing. Am I correct or where does the oil seal go ?

Post by **wesk** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:07 pm

At the other end of the tunnel!

TomM · Post by **TomM** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:52 pm

The brass fittings on the outboard end are thrust washers for the bendix axles. Yep, seals are on the inside at the diff. So give it another look.

Interesting. I just found a pair of axles that were lubed with what smells, looks and feels like liquid cosmolene. It clung to everything and now that they are clean the differentials look beautiful inside.

Tom

weasel · Post by **weasel** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:42 pm

thanks guys I sure was waundering if the seals were gone if someone just decided to grease the heck out of it, but gears look good and seem to have a dark red brown color to the back of them. Does any body know if I can buy just half of a bendix axle , on the side that broke ,the long side the short axle is broke but not the long and it looks in good shape

TomM · Post by **TomM** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:44 am

I had looked for bendix axles a while back and did not have any luck finding any NOS. But I did find a set of good used Bencix axles. So if you are going to find a replacement you will need to put the word out. It seems that the vendors all stock Rezeppa axles.

Tom