arrg
I'm Awesome
So, a few weeks ago my right rear brake starting dragging while I was out for a drive. My first indication was the brake pedal going almost to the floor, quickly followed brake light on the dash. I limped my truck home and parked it for a couple days until I had time to work on it.
When I tore into the brakes I found both the axle seals were leaking, so I decided to replace the seals and bearings. I ordered up the Driveworks S-513067 bearings (listed as replacement for 88-98) from Advance along with the seals, and bought the bearing puller from Harbor Freight and got to work.
The second whack with the slide hammer destroyed the bearing puller and sent little chunks of metal all the way down the axle tube. Gotta love cheap tools! After I cleaned that mess up, I took the tool back to exchange for another one (which has worked great) and tried again. After I got the bearing out, I cleaned it up and noticed what should have been a red flag--the part number on the old bearing was DK-59047 not 513067 like the new one, but I pressed on with installation. The new bearing I bought was a pain to install, but I finally got it in there. Then the fun started.
When I went to put the axle back in, it wouldn't go all the way back into the housing. It would make it about 1/2" into the side gears and then it just stopped. I thought maybe the splines weren't aligned right, so I messed with it for a few hours before I called it a day. The next day, I disassembled the the gears in the differential to make sure nothing was messed up, but they were fine and slid right over the axle splines when they weren't in the housing. So, I put them back in and pulled the axle seal again to get a better look at what was happening. The machined surface on the end of axle were the bearings ride would not fit back through the bearing. It fit fine before it was installed, but not once in the axle tube. I thought maybe I just had a bad bearing, so I pulled it and installed the other one I bought, but had the same results.
I decided I had had enough at this point and went to order the DK-59047 bearings that came out of it. GM part number 9442126 no longer available. I found a couple people on ebay selling some that had been sitting on a shelf somewhere for 20 years and bought them. Just installed them, and how bout that, the axle slides right in, just like it's supposed to. Took the axle out, and installed the new Driveworks axle seal and...the spring popped off the inside of the seal as I was putting it in. I love cheap parts!
When I tore into the brakes I found both the axle seals were leaking, so I decided to replace the seals and bearings. I ordered up the Driveworks S-513067 bearings (listed as replacement for 88-98) from Advance along with the seals, and bought the bearing puller from Harbor Freight and got to work.
The second whack with the slide hammer destroyed the bearing puller and sent little chunks of metal all the way down the axle tube. Gotta love cheap tools! After I cleaned that mess up, I took the tool back to exchange for another one (which has worked great) and tried again. After I got the bearing out, I cleaned it up and noticed what should have been a red flag--the part number on the old bearing was DK-59047 not 513067 like the new one, but I pressed on with installation. The new bearing I bought was a pain to install, but I finally got it in there. Then the fun started.
When I went to put the axle back in, it wouldn't go all the way back into the housing. It would make it about 1/2" into the side gears and then it just stopped. I thought maybe the splines weren't aligned right, so I messed with it for a few hours before I called it a day. The next day, I disassembled the the gears in the differential to make sure nothing was messed up, but they were fine and slid right over the axle splines when they weren't in the housing. So, I put them back in and pulled the axle seal again to get a better look at what was happening. The machined surface on the end of axle were the bearings ride would not fit back through the bearing. It fit fine before it was installed, but not once in the axle tube. I thought maybe I just had a bad bearing, so I pulled it and installed the other one I bought, but had the same results.
I decided I had had enough at this point and went to order the DK-59047 bearings that came out of it. GM part number 9442126 no longer available. I found a couple people on ebay selling some that had been sitting on a shelf somewhere for 20 years and bought them. Just installed them, and how bout that, the axle slides right in, just like it's supposed to. Took the axle out, and installed the new Driveworks axle seal and...the spring popped off the inside of the seal as I was putting it in. I love cheap parts!
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. Luckily, i was able to move the puller around and lightly whack out the rest of the race.
