Axle shaft and metal shavings

I was replacing my rear inner axle seal today. When i removed the axle I noticed that there is some play at the bearing and axle shaft. This is not not noticeable when the axle is installed. However there was also a some metal in the oil in front of the inner seal. There does not seem to be metal beind the seal. Should there be any movement of the axle at all ?

Thanks

 

The axle shaft and bearing will wiggle in the backing plate even when new. When it is bolted to the axle housing it locks it in place. I learned this when rebuilding an elocker axle. Unless you see obvious movement of the bearing on the shaft, or it does not spin smooth, there isn't an easy way to tell. The best test is to rock the wheel in all directions when everything is together. There shouldn't be much play at all. There will be some in-out play, but not much.

If the metal is just a small amount of fine particles that is normal.

 

Did the axle seal blow? You might be in for more fun unless you replace the bearing...

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...akes-funny-sounds.472706/page-2#post-14362925

Check the links below to become an expert on this:

 

I would just replace the bearing while you have it apart. Generally the seal blows, soaks the baring in gearlube and then the bearing goes shortly after that.

 

Great. Thanks

 

Hey John, I think you will benefit from the video my buddy Sean and I made for this repair. Watch the video and learn why just replacing the seal is quite often a very very temporary fix if it even fixes it at all. We have videos for ABS and Non-ABS rearends.

ABS
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AVhSDnw2ugo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Non-ABS
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vW25hvODHcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>