Rebuild the rear axle

[joda56]

Just did it. Please don`t judge me, when I tell you, that I used the old bearings, bearing shells and didn`t took apart the spider and the pinion. Only thing I`ve changed was the seal A-4245 and a shim A-4221SH to eliminate the wear that the bearing did at the spider carrier assembly. This was my first transmission that I ever worked on and at the beginning, I only wanted to give it new housing gaskets to avoid the oil leaking at the housing. And then the story has begun.



I`m (still) happy, that I did it, because I`ve found and removed many little leftover pieces from the axle shaft shim A-4235-SH, that the former owner/mechanist did use. And I hope, I`ll stay happy, when I put it back in the car and be on the road again.

I did the final assembly like Tom Endy wrote: first the right axle housing without any gasket, snugfit. Then the left axle housing without gasket, snug fit. Oppps, no binding at all! Without any gasket, there is some markable play in the left and right axle. It`s about 0.4mm (about 0.01575 inch). I know, it is not professional work to ignore the play, but is it way too much, or shall I try it to build all together (without a paper gasket, just the silicone gasket) and hope it`s still okay for me? It`s my own car and I don`t drive much.

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by joda56

Just did it. Please don`t judge me, when I tell you, that I used the old bearings, bearing shells and didn`t took apart the spider and the pinion. Only thing I`ve changed was the seal A-4245 and a shim A-4221SH to eliminate the wear that the bearing did at the spider carrier assembly. This was my first transmission that I ever worked on and at the beginning, I only wanted to give it new housing gaskets to avoid the oil leaking at the housing. And then the story has begun.



I`m (still) happy, that I did it, because I`ve found and removed many little leftover pieces from the axle shaft shim A-4235-SH, that the former owner/mechanist did use. And I hope, I`ll stay happy, when I put it back in the car and be on the road again.

I did the final assembly like Tom Endy wrote: first the right axle housing without any gasket, snugfit. Then the left axle housing without gasket, snug fit. Oppps, no binding at all! Without any gasket, there is some markable play in the left and right axle. It`s about 0.4mm (about 0.01575 inch). I know, it is not professional work to ignore the play, but is it way too much, or shall I try it to build all together (without a paper gasket, just the silicone gasket) and hope it`s still okay for me? It`s my own car and I don`t drive much.

Joda - the binding you should have with no axle housing gaskets is not determined using the axles. You need to assemble the banjo to the axle housings and then reach in through the pinion gear opening and attempt to turn the ring gear. It should bind. If it doesn’t bind you need to need to install shims behind the big tapered bearings on the carrier assembly, the shims are Snyder’s A-4221-SH. You MUST have this binding with no gaskets, you cannot adjust pinion backlash and position properly unless you do.

End play in the axles is a totally different thing. What you are seeing as end play in the axles is between the axle and the carrier housing. It is not affected at all by whether you have axle housing gaskets installed or not. You really can’t adjust that end play, you need to accept what you have or start replacing parts. 0.015” is excessive, yes (I don’t recall the spec exactly, 0.003” sticks in my head) but for a casual driver, I’d be inclined to use it this way. The play is between wear surfaces so you’d need to find a very thin thrust washer, not just a shim, and tear down the carrier assembly to install.