Hi all
Had the drivers side front wheel bearing go out on me so doing the replacement
now. After I got it all apart and was cleaning it out I got to looking at the back of the stub axle and noticed that was starting to (not sure how to put this) decay rot rust...lol a little around the edge at the back of the axle where the bearing fits into. Not sure if it is some kind of built in seal on the axle?
Do we know what I'm talking about?...lol
So my question is... will this allow stuff to get into the bearing? and should the stub axle be replaced to fix this?
I'm also having a heck of a time trying to find out what axles this thing has.
Truck is 95 1500 360 4x4 reg cab short box, does not have a tow package that I know of.
thanks for any help you all can give.

 

Help? Anyone?

 

On my 2001 the hub bearing was a sealed unit and only the geared part of the axle slides into the hub. There was a bit of corrosion on the axle beyond that (towards the axle housing) but nothing I was concerned with. That said,I have no idea if your set up is different from a 2001?

 

i have same type of truck, year and everything....

i have no idea what you're talking about, i do not have that problem...I replaced everything in front end last summer....no idea what you mean.

can you get a pic?

 

I'll have to see if I can get a pic of it...maybe it should have come off
with the bearing.
I drove it farther them I should have, I didn't think it would go as fast as it did.
Made a real mess of it.

 

Heres some pics
By the looks of it...that part does not come off the axle.
plus some rot below the red ring

 

Wire wheel it (light pressure) and call it good.

Hopefully you didn't push the axle shaft too far into the axle tube since you left it in while you pulled the wheel bearing out. There's a good amount of crud that builds up on the axle shaft and if you pushed that into the axle seal then you might get a leak in the near future.

You can pull that entire thing out, carefully. Grab the axle shaft between the steering knuckle and the end of the axle tube so you can support it while you pull the whole thing out. The other hand should be on the stub axle (the splined part).

 

Looks like things got a little hot there...Check there isn't any signs of heat cracking where the bearing sits on the axle stub shaft.
+ what Sheriff420 said, I made up a half round scrapper welded on the end of a 2 foot long piece of 3/8 rod for a handle to remove all the crap that lodges in the axle tube.Run it along the top of the tube on the way in so you don't push the crud into the seal. You will need to pull the axle shaft to get it all cleaned out.
After changing out a few unit bearings there was a pile of crud in each axle tube.

sprntpshr

 

Thanks for the reply's
I read all I could find on here before I under took this...lol
Hardest part was getting the big nut off...not sure if it was the PB, the freeze off or some other stuff I got that broke it loose...maybe it was the 8 foot cheater I used and bent the 3/4 in breaker bar...lol
Anyway used a puller to get the bearing off and used wire to hold the axle up so it would not fall down on to the seals in the axle.
Do I need to pull the axle if I can get it cleaned up with out pulling it?
And the stub looks ok??

Thanks for your help

 

It's fine, that ring is a non-essential part. Run it.