How Bad is This?

Long story short, I was trying to get a rear adj control arm adjuster unseized and ended up having to remove my passenger rear axle shaft. Shaft needed some coaxing to remove but upon removal I found that the bearing had moved. I stupidly tried to put it back together which caused damaged to axle tube end (see pic). Is the silver damaged part in pic actually part of the axle tube. Any ideas how this could be fixed or what it might cost? Any ideas how I might get jeep towed with only 3 wheels? I'm worried further damage will occur if I try to reassemble to put tire on.

Yeah that's probably not going to seal well...

I'm still trying work out how you went from working on a control to pulling a shaft but did you pry the axle shaft out? It looks like the end of the housing is bent and the seal is mangled.

At the very least you need a new seal which means stripping the bearing off the shaft with a press.

2nd.gunman said:

I'm still trying work out how you went from working on a control to pulling a shaft but did you pry the axle shaft out? It looks like the end of the housing is bent and the seal is mangled.

At the very least you need a new seal which means stripping the bearing off the shaft with a press.

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The seal is definitely fucked and it looks like the tube is bent.

Granite_head said:

The seal is definitely fucked and it looks like the tube is bent.

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Lol! That was my first thought put I decided to go with mangled.

Wtf did you use to get the shaft out? :thinking:

It will most likely leak when you put the shaft back in but if you keep an eye on the fluid you should be ok.

Bad news brother. At least it didn't break on our planned trail ride tomorrow

Damn man that sucks. From what I see, Id try to put the thing back together just to roll it up on a flatbed and get it home. Than talk to a local machine shop and see of they can clean up the end of the housing. Good luck

If you ever wanted to upgrade to a 60 now is the time

I would also recommend taking these pics to a machine shop. You will have to press off that bearing and replace the seal. Just to be safe you could get a whole axle shaft assy with bearing and seal already on it. It looks to me like there is enough good area left on the tube for the seal to go into, if you clean off the mangled part. I would use a bead of rtv on the outer diameter of the seal just to be safe.

2nd.gunman said:

Lol! That was my first thought put I decided to go with mangled.

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Yea, it's gouged from me stupidly trying to put the axle back in and tighten it down so I could get the tire back on. I just can't believe the metal at the tube end is that soft.

OverlanderJK said:

Wtf did you use to get the shaft out? :thinking:

It will most likely leak when you put the shaft back in but if you keep an eye on the fluid you should be ok.

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Used a pry bar to get shaft out. I didn't put a whole lot of force behind it. I was surprised to see the collar that keeps bearing pressed at end of axle was up a couple of inches. I'm thinking the shop that pressed them on didn't do it right. That was about 8 months ago. I've removed rear axle shafts before and it really wasn't anything that difficult.

2Cross said:

Bad news brother. At least it didn't break on our planned trail ride tomorrow

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I was looking forward to it but you're right, better in my driveway than on the trail.

WJCO said:

I would also recommend taking these pics to a machine shop. You will have to press off that bearing and replace the seal. Just to be safe you could get a whole axle shaft assy with bearing and seal already on it. It looks to me like there is enough good area left on the tube for the seal to go into, if you clean off the mangled part. I would use a bead of rtv on the outer diameter of the seal just to be safe.

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Thanks for advice. I'm not so worried about the shaft, just the axle tube end. I hope your right that the end can be resurfaced somehow. Im really surprised it got so mangled from trying to reassemble it. Metal on metal=mangled parts.

JKbrick said:

If you ever wanted to upgrade to a 60 now is the time

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Ha ha, yea my wife thinks I did this on purpose just to have the excuse. Unfortunately, the PR44 I just put in the front has depleted jeep money for a bit.

WJCO said:

I would also recommend taking these pics to a machine shop. You will have to press off that bearing and replace the seal. Just to be safe you could get a whole axle shaft assy with bearing and seal already on it. It looks to me like there is enough good area left on the tube for the seal to go into, if you clean off the mangled part. I would use a bead of rtv on the outer diameter of the seal just to be safe.

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What he said. I've seen worse done and it still seal. I would get a metal burr and ever so gently knock down those edge. Try not to go deep into the tube.

nmwranglerx said:

Used a pry bar to get shaft out. I didn't put a whole lot of force behind it. I was surprised to see the collar that keeps bearing pressed at end of axle was up a couple of inches. I'm thinking the shop that pressed them on didn't do it right. That was about 8 months ago. I've removed rear axle shafts before and it really wasn't anything that difficult.

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In the future, use a slide hammer. Some guys on here have even had good luck, turning the rotor around backwards and putting lug nuts on loosely and using the rotor as a slide hammer. Hope you get it all fixed up.

Update

A couple of new developments this morning. The dust shield/parking brake assembly was very difficult to remove yesterday. Basically it was stuck on the axle and only came off when I used a hammer on backside in several places. I decided to measure the end of the axle tube to see if it was out of round. Line "A" from the diagram below measures about 1/32" longer than line "B." I then measured the inside diameter of the dust shield and it is true in both directions. However it measures 3 & 10/64" and the outside dimension of the tube for line A is closer to 3 and 12/64." This shield isn't going back on without some coaxing. I'll look into getting a slide hammer as suggested by some of the replies. I have no clue what the acceptable variance is on these dimensions. The measurements seem to indicate that the outer end of axle tube is slightly out of round.



The other thing I noticed was that the collar that holds the bearing on the axle shaft in place (letter A in picture) was further up on the shaft when compared to some others I found on the internet. I'm not sure what this points to. I assume there is a set distance where the collar is supposed to be located. I compared mine to a picture of a new one below.
Mine:


New One:


I"m not sure what this indicates either. I had new seals and bearings put on less than a year ago. It could be that the shop didn't install properly. The collar sits very tight on the shaft and won't budge, it would have taken a lot of force to move along the shaft. Thanks everyone for the replies and good lucks. My next step is to order a replacement shaft with the bearing already pressed on. I'm not sure what to do about the housing being slightly out of round. I could grind out a little material from the dust shield to make it go back on without have to use a BFH although I will look into getting a slide hammer also.

Are wheel studs on aftermarket axles just bolts?

I would take a small file and slowly knock down the burs from the chisel marks you have there. Leave it at that. I was a machinist for a while and did a lot of repair work on bearing and sleeve surfaces and to be honest, I don't think you have a lot to work with there. Not to mention it would cost more to fix it that route than it would be to just find a donor housing and start over.