New rear bearing, still have play?

In December I noticed a little play on the passenger side rear axle. No leaks, so I knew the seal was still likely ok but the bearing must be going bad. They were replaced with National bearings 3-4 years ago, local mechanic I thought would do it right pressed everything off and on for me...or so I thought pressed.

Fast forward to today. I bought all the tools to to the job myself, and the bearing/seal kit from @Marlin Crawler that came with a Nachi bearing. New bearing pressed on, STILL have play. About 1/16 or so. Very noticeable without the axle in the housing, and it appears to have play tat the inner race.

I’m at a loss, not sure what to do. I followed @Timmah! video to a T. Only thing I did was take some very fine wet/dry p800 and very lightly went around where the bearing would sit to make sure there were no burs or anything from where the mechanic did a hack job and heated, beat, and cut the old parts off last time. Attached are how the axle looks from the last job. I don’t know if the problem is the axle, or by some chance a bad bearing out of the box?

 

Holy shit dude. That bearing journal is toast. Go buy new axle shafts, might as well do them both if the other one looks the same.

 

I figured thats the response I would get, but not the one I hoped for I have no idea if the other looks like this one. I’m doing just one side at the moment since the play was on this side, and to conserve money right now

 

Better to hear the truth, then BS ya and then you go make some baaaaaad decisions. You're doing it right. One side at a time

 

The bearing will still have slight in-out play once installed in the truck. You can feel this with the wheels off the ground and pulling straight outwards on the wheel. You should not have up-down or side-to-side play though.

 

With the old bearing, I know there was up down play. With this new bearing, I never installed it back in the housing..after seeing that I was still getting the same up/down and side play, I figured there was no real use. I have a video, I’ll see if I can upload it.

 

Would pressing the new bearing on and off cause any damage to it?

 

It could. Something visible? Or something you feel but can't see? What you thinking?

 

Thinking along the lines of pressing it back on just to see if there’s any difference once in the housing...but also, even if I didn’t do that and pressed it onto a new axle, should I get a new bearing?

 

Yes, way more than likely.
In removal all the pressing force goes from the outer to the inner bearing races, thru the balls. Hence the bearing is considered a "non reusable" part. Damage may or may not be apparent but 99% chance it's there.

There is slight chance it might be "OK" but you will never know and it's nowhere near being "worth a try". I only mention this because some yahoo might come out of the woodwork and say "I reused mine and it was fine".

Installing the bearing will not change perceived axial play.

The Toyota spec for "in and out" or axial play is 0.7mm. This is not a super exact/critical number, it does show that some degree of play is normal.

 

How does the bearing and race look close up? How many miles driven on it? How many miles driven on it while it had play?
Maybe some close up pics of the bearing would help us know better too. Obviously don't want any scoring or discoloration from overheating, etc

 

Kuntry, definitely heed this guys advice

I'm just proud of myself because I didn't recommend or suggest anything that would oppose what the guru said

 

Thanks! This helps a ton, and confirms what I would assume, that the play would likely not change once in the axle housing. But for clarification, the bearing I would press back on is the new bearing, that I pressed on, saw the play, and pressed back off. I have another new bearing on the way. I’d rather not have to do this again in a couple of months.

The old bearing and race looked fine, it even spun fine with no obvious sounds. But it did have up and down movement. I’m honestly not sure how many miles were on it, maybe 40-50k? But it was also a National bearing. Honestly, I’m not sure how many miles were driven on it while it had play...however, since I noticed it had play, maybe 500-1k?

I need all the advice I can get here lately, every small job has turned into a bigger job, and cant seem to catch a break and keep the truck on the road

I do have a line on a new/used shaft that I’m going to look at and pick up tomorrow.

 

Here are a few videos of the play I'm talking about. This is with the new bearing that came in the @Marlin Crawler kit. its fully pressed on with the retainer behind it. you can see in one video where i had to pull the backing plate back up because it was wanting to slide down, but the movement isn't coming from the outer race/backing plate. It looks like its coming from the inner race, where it mates to the ball bearings. I tried to capture the moment in one of the videos, but it's hard to see.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Sl7SSZQ0k&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I71Ijmy8ihU&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03czzoMeeHQ&feature=youtu.be

 

Dude, yeah any play in that amount no matter what it's from is gonna be bad, like you do not run it with that play, maybe low speed move the truck but I wouldn't.
Yeah bearings look like toast to me. Did they fail due to just wearing out or something else cause them to wear? Does it seat correctly on the axle shaft and in the backing plate deal? Axle bent?

 

This comment is not directed at the OP but pressing bearings on and off being clueless can damage the bearings as well as the axle.

Some still belong to the more force is better school .

Then if bearing manufactures have gone to China in order to stay in the ball game against others no telling how quality has slipped.

I am dealing with substandard bearings in coolant pumps seems the vendor went to China and never told any of the down chain buyers .

Then in this day it is so easy to get products packaged wrong

Best of Luck!!

 

That’s the thing, the bearing in the video is brand spanking new, right out of the box, only time it was pressed onto the axle, Nachi bearing from @Marlin Crawler. It appears to seat correctly in the backing plate, and on the axle. Axle isn’t bent that I know of.

This is why I don’t understand why I was getting play out of the old bearing and this brand new, installed once bearing. It looks like it’s toast, but it’s brand new. I applied pressure to the bearing trying to get it in the backing plate, I don’t know if I caused damage to it that way. But I did use a piece of 1/2” flat stock over the bearing so that the press wouldn’t be hitting directly on the inner race. I would not think I would have caused damage this way.

So would it be the bearing, or the journey on the axle that’s bad? Still trying to find and axle shaft right now...

 

Oiiiiihhh I see the conundrum to it now. I wasn't getting the full picture in my head of what's going on. Okay this is weird. I'm not gonna pretend to be a huge help here so let's hope @Dirty Pool can help enlighten us. Or anyone else who has been through this a few times. I've actually never done pressed on bearings like this on a semi float axle. Only done full floaters on the Cruisers and it's MUCH easier game.
Some of the other guys have been into these rear axle housings multiple times....
But still, what the hell am I missing with not seeing how that brand new bearing has that amount of play??? So it's tight on the shaft and tight on the plate? Oh maybe @Timmah! has been into these as well.

 

On the pressing, yeah as long as you were pressing it by applying the pressure on the correct race(inner or outer)and that should be pretty obvious as you're pressing, if going onto the axle then the bearing should be pressed by the inner race, right? I would think at least?

 

It's tight in the plate, at least as tight as it should be from what ive seen in Timmys video. It seems to be tight on the axle, but you can't really tell because with it pressed on correctly, the retainer is in the way from getting a visual inspection of where the inner race and axle meet up. I know it didn't seem like it took very much pressure at all to get it to press on.

Correct, when pressing onto the axle the bearing had to be pressed by the inner race. BUT when trying to get into the back plate BEFORE pressing it onto the bearing, i attempted to press it in the backing plate, with a piece of 1/2" flat stock for the press to make contact and press evenly on the bearing.