Quote:
Originally Posted by 86league
Thanks for the info and video.
Took a left side axle apart with ~61,000 miles and a lot of track time apart after noticing it slinging grease out on the differential side.
Good bit of the grease was liquid and poured out - I'd say similar to your video one, but there was some remnants of actual grease up in the center toward the diff - I guess where it didn't get worked.
Generally things looked to be in decent shape - the boot was intact w/o any tears or holes that I could find. The inner race had some slight wear but no groves or anything. The ball bearings all looked fine. The housing had the similar wear most places, but one spot has some damage.
This is from running with insufficient (no) lubrication at that spot?
Too bad, I was hoping I could just re-pack this with grease and keep it as a spare. |
I might get some heat for this but.. you could run that axle on the other side (or keep it as an emergency spare but only for the other side). Of course this assumes the steel ball isn't damaged.
This is because if ran in the opposite direction the ball will ride along the opposite valley where the pitting hadn't occurred. The axle in my car currently experienced this on the left side and it is currently installed on the right side and working just fine.
The pitting is primarily the failure of lubrication.