Replacing rear axle pinion bearings

[63Sunbeamalpine]

I have a lot of movement in the pinion bearing on my S2.. just wondering if anyone had gone through one and are there any tips or tricks I should know... TIA

 

[gary1725]

Hi - I have not rebuilt rear ends beyond replacing the ring gear bolts and preloading the pinion, so no expert, but the pinion preload is achieved via shims slid onto the Pinion shaft under the nose of the inner bearing, these can disintegrate removing the preload and I would imagine once there is any movement the remaining shims would be quickly break up leaving the pinion pretty loose. not saying that the bearing or other things might not also suffer as a result of this but the bearing can at least be inspected by removing the pinion bolt, sliding off the coupling and removing the pinion seal, which is likely shot anyway - then the bearing can be slid off and inspected, if any shims are still present, they too can be removed and inspected before putting it back together and preloading the bearing correctly.

 

[Barry]

The procedures to dis-assemble, adjust and re-assemble the rear axle assembly are covered in great detail in Section 10 of WSM-124.

https://sunbeamalpine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/10-Rear-Axle-G.pdf

Note that working on anything in a rear axle assembly usually turns into a "while we're there we might as well ..." marathon.

 

[Shannon Boal]

If you remove the pinion nut mark it first....(.I usually use a cold chisel to mark the nut and the end of the pinion shaft.) This is important. Same for removing the drive shaft from the rear axle companion flange, same for replacing U-joints. Now, what kinda movement are we talking about? If we grab the drive shaft, does it rotate a few degrees of slack? Or, does it shake side to side? It would be good to know if this has lube....pulling the fill plug, can you dip a pinky and find grease?

 

[jumpinjan]

I have a lot of movement in the pinion bearing on my S2..

It sounds like the shims are damaged and the whole pinion section has loosed up...Not good. I have seen damaged pinion shims before.
Jan

 

[63Sunbeamalpine]

If you remove the pinion nut mark it first....(.I usually use a cold chisel to mark the nut and the end of the pinion shaft.) This is important. Same for removing the drive shaft from the rear axle companion flange, same for replacing U-joints. Now, what kinda movement are we talking about? If we grab the drive shaft, does it rotate a few degrees of slack? Or, does it shake side to side? It would be good to know if this has lube....pulling the fill plug, can you dip a pinky and find grease?

The movement I'm getting is up/down and side to side... haven't really looked into it yet but I was thinking it was bearings worn out...

 

[gary1725]

if the shims have disintegrated and the pre-load is gone the bearing will wobble about.