i have a 9" rear end in my 91 camaro and my axle bearings or something keeps breaking and the inner sides of my wheels and tires are getting gear oil all over them. i just had them fixed about 1 week ago and theyre gone again. what could be causing this?

im spending $250 w/ labor per each wheel and cant afford to keep doing this.

 

i'd say someone has a boat payment or something if you're being charged 250 for a bearing r&r. hour labor plus parts would be a lot. is the axle straight?

 

theyre 31 spline and my mechanic told me they were straight undmaged when i asked about them the last time he replaced the bearings.

 

Hmm, you mentioned both 9" and 31 spline, so this would be a 9" F*rd rear modified to fit the 3rd-gen? If so, then it could be a couple of things.

First would be warped tubes from welding on the new mouting points. Second would depend upon the hubs used. If they are a bolt on style hub they tend to leak.

I know that isn't a lot go on, but it may help point in the right direction.

RBob.

 

im not sure if this was a direct bolt in rear end like the moser or currie ones ive seen as i bought the car with it already in. ill look into the hubs thing

all i can think of right now which i would like to know if this could be causing my problem is that my back spacing on my wheels is a little too much as there is about a 1/4 inch or less room between the inner fender fell and the tire and when at reasonable speeds around corners i hear a noise of which could be the tire rubbing? what would cause everything to flex so much as to let my tires move in 1/4 inch to rub the fender well? oh ya if this has anything to do with it, the car is lowered and i would say its more than 1" prob 2".

 

I agreed that at $250 per wheel you are getting raped. That's BS for the work involved. It takes all of five minutes to pull the wheel, another three to pull the axel, and maybe a half hour to R&R the bearing and seal. Parts and labor shouldn't be running you more than $75.

My guess would be that there are no gaskets between the axel bearing retainer and the tube end. These are often overlooked, and hard to find at parts stores. I have typically cut my own out of gasket paper and never had a leak. On a drum brake rear there will be two gaskets here. One behind the backing plate, and one on top. I would serously check to make sure that the seal is leaking, instead of the tube from the lack of a gasket.

A misaligned housing is probably not to blame. Typically an axel will tolerate no more than a 1 degree variance from the end of the tube to the housing. Anything more and the axel simply won't fit into the splines in the carrier. People routinely heat and quench axel tubes to attain 1 degree of negative camber and a small measure of toe in or toe out on a race car for better handling.

This shouldn't be a reocurring problem. I've had plenty of 8" and 9" ford rears over he years and I never had a problem like this.

 

i also have 12" disk brakes in the rear if that has anything to do with it which im sure not.

im looking at the reciept of the repairs and all the parts used for just one wheel totaled to $85 the toal labor charged was $225 but that was including a few other things of which i could have done my self easily within an hour and he charges $50/hr. the only thing i can think of is he charged me for the time it take for him to get the part also and i live in a pretty populated area where traffic sucks....

 

$85 per wheel for parts is an outrage. The seal is like $15 and the bearing is $25. There might be an hour is R&R for both sides. It's hard to comment on the labor if you had other stuff doen at the same time.

I would seriously look at the gasket between the retainer plate and the end of the tube. Clean the hell out of both surfaces, skin with some Ultra Black Permatex (very, very thin skin) then use a paper gasket and it should never leak again.

Also inspect the axel where the seal rides. If it is galled or worn it could be blowing out the seals preamturely, in which case you'd need new axels.

 

either way, he should do the repair for free right? it happened after a week from when he 1st repaired it. i would really like to do this stuff myself but im worried about messing around with the rear end and i currently do not have jack stands either which i do plan on getting. i cant wait until im at Wyotech so i can learn all this stuff professionally. graduate this year but gotta work fulltime for a year or so to pay of my engine build up.

anyways i have an appointment with my mechanic tomorow and im gonna see what he says....hopefully nothing is really wrong and he can fix the damn thing permanently.

 

After a week I would say that he should fix it for free. Obviously he didn't fix it right the first time.

I wouldn't worry about messing anything up taking out the axels. It's very straigthforward. Definitely need to have jackstands though!

 

alright so i talked to my mechanic he said the bearings are fine but just the seals are breaking and hes not sure exactly what he should do to seal with that specific rear end cause he doesnt know who makes it and has looked for part #s but cant find them.


it is a 9" is there any way of finding out who makes it? he said its not a factory ford housing so it is an aftermarket maker.

 

One quick thing to check if it keeps blowing out seals is the vent. It'll be on top of the housing somewhere.

 

That's a good call on the vent. If it's plugged, or there isn't a vent the pressure can easily blow the seals.

Even the aftermarket housings should use commercially available seals. It wouldn't make sense for them to custom build them. I'd call Moser, Currie, and other manufacturers and see if you can find out how to identify it, and then ask what PN seal to use.

 

thanks for all the help...im gonna try calling manufactures to see if i can identufy my housing. what my mechanic told me is that there is an adapter plate used for my rear disk brakes which are from a 96 impala ss and they are too thick and preventing the seals from sealing allthe way in, so gear oil just keeps leaking. if there are any type of seals that go deeper in then thats what i need.

 

It's really tough to say what needs to be done without seeing the setup myself. Can you post a pic? If you want to PM me I'll give you me email and you can email me one and I'll try to give you some more specific advice.

 

I know the price seems high per axle, the shop I work at charges $75.95/hr for mechanical labor and a $15 bearing would get marked up probably 3X the price paid. so if it takes you an hour per side your looking at $152.00 just in labor fo both. then you have your bearings which will probably cost you $90 a pair. so now your up to $212.00, throw in shop fees and tax and Viola there you have damn near $250. This is how shops rip you off/pay their bills.
So I do agree the $250 is high for one side, it is about what you will pay for both.
Just offering a little insight on shops pricing.

 

Proof again that I'm in the wrong business. Marking up parts 3x is highway robbery. I can see buying at jobber and charing list, or list plus 10%, but seriously, it isn't like anything had to e done to get the part that was exorbinent. All you do is call up the parts store and they send one over.

$76 an hour for labor isn't too bad. I've seen higher and I've seen lower. Labor depends greatly on the shop, and the type of work they normally do.

 

just as a heads up as whats goin on with the car.... put sealer around the area that the gear oil keeps leaking from and testing it for a week of hard driving...but lately weather hasnt let me take my car out so its on hold for now. if this doesnt work me and my mechanic are plannin on doin some research to look for deeper seals or see what can be done to stop the leak.