rear axle bearing/seal replacement

As a follow-up to a recent post, I was wondering if anyone who has removed/replaced their ranger rear axle bearing/seal has experienced any general difficulty in removing the bearing from the axle using a slide hammer with the bearing removal attachment? Does the bearing come out with a few good pulls on the slide hammer or is it a bear to wrangle it out of the axle?

I've had some shop estimates in the neighborhood of $175 an axle to replace the bearing and seal plus another $145 to $188 for a new axle shaft. I know the cost of just a Timken bearing and seal from a supplier is about $23 for the parts. So, is $150/axle a reasonable labor charge. I would like to do this myself but do not want to tie up the truck too long should there be a hassle getting the bearing/seal out and re-installed.

Any experiences you would like to share would be appreciated.

Thanks...Jim

Got 2 ford 7.5 axle shafts collecting dust if you need them. Should fit both 7.5 and 8.8 ranger rear ends. Yours free just pay shipping from 66547.

in my experience i had to hit the bearing with the slide hammer a few good times in order for it to come out, i used the 3-jaw attachment and had minimal problems. is your axle shaft bent and thats why you need to replace it? good luck.

budro said:

Got 2 ford 7.5 axle shafts collecting dust if you need them. Should fit both 7.5 and 8.8 ranger rear ends. Yours free just pay shipping from 66547.

Click to expand...

Here is a pic of them. Left and right side.

Removing the bearing with a slide hammer isn't too difficult.

Removing the cross-pin bolt without breaking it is next to impossible. Though they are usually already broken before removal.

In all honesty I had more difficulty removing the seal then the bearing. The metal on the seal twisted and bent but would not come out. The bearing took a few good hard wacks before coming out.

MAKG said:

Removing the bearing with a slide hammer isn't too difficult.

Removing the cross-pin bolt without breaking it is next to impossible. Though they are usually already broken before removal.

Click to expand...

Worked on several 7.5s and 8.8s and never broken one

If you take the carrier out you can slide a long pipe/rod through the housing and knock them out, that's how I did my 8.8 when it was out of my rig, removing the carrier isn't too big of a deal if you can't get it with a slide. hammer

I've had the rollers come out before and the race being stuck. I don't like the big piece of pipe or rod, I just used a welder and you weld a bead inside the race all the way around. When it cools down it'll just about fall out.

Just don't get it to hot and weld it to the housing.

original poster

krnrpkt here responding to replies already received.

Thanks to those who have replied for their input. I am experiencing some growl/vibration (not too loud) at around 25 to 30 mph; when veering to the left it is more noticeable. A few shops have indicated that the rear right axle is the likely source of the problem. I am having some slight leakage from the rear right (passenger side) axle seal. My wife sat in the bed of the truck (has shell) but couldn't hear any noticeable noise. However, it seems more apparent within the cab and some vibration is felt on the floor.

I pulled off the front disc and looked for any axle wear but didn't see anything apparent. Plenty of greese and the bearing looked/felt OK (however i didn't clean it off entirely since I had done a bearing repack about 15K ago and at that time all looked fine).

I'm going to pull off the front right disc this weekend and check the axle as well.

I am getting some indication of possible wear on the driveshaft center-support bearing (it is an extended cab ranger) as indicated by one of the shops; no clunking when starting to accelerate but some "loose" or "play" feel in the driveline. The U-joints seem OK. The mileage is 126,000. Could a worn driveshaft center-suuport bearing be the source of a dintinguishable noise when veering to the left? I could see it be the source of vibration.

I could wait for some tell-tale indication of the problem (when it fails) but once a month I take this truck out-of-town on a 400 mile round-trip and don't want to have a failure on the road. I realize that it can be hard to find a bearing that's going bad before it has actually failed.

To sum things up, ther is no reason to suspect a bent axle ( I don't off-road the truck).

I bought an axle bearing puller set from Harbor freight (made by Pittsburg) just in case. It is one that has the "T" design puller rather than the 3-pronged puller.

This is my story so far and I guess after checking the front left axle, the next step is pulling the rear axle shafts.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences and if there are more, i would appreciate hearing them.

Regards...Jim

I changed my right rear bearing and seal back in December on my 7.5.

There's an excellent write-up in the technical section describing the process of removing the axel shaft from the axel housing.

As MAKG said, you main problem could be the differential pinion bolt, though my broke free with a little propane torch heat to the housing. Be careful that you don't round off the bolt head in initial attempts.

I borrowed a slide hammer and bearing removal kit from Auto Zone. Mine took a good bit of slide hammer action to get it to break free. IIRC, I may have used a little heat on the housing. Just keep pumping the slide hammer and it will finally break free.

Be careful reinstalling the bearing seal. If you don't get it exactlly perpendicular to the axel shat, it'll go in cockeyed and ruin the seal.

I'm a non-mech type just trying to learn so D-I-Y, and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to accomplish this task with a positive outcome.

Good luck.

Ron

Jim,

I forgot to mention in my previous post my reason for replacing the bearing and seal.

The truck had been sitting for a long time while I was working in Iraq, and when I finally had time to drive it a bit, I noticed smoke coming from the right axle housing area. I thought the friction/heat was caused by a bad bearing having set up so long, so I headed towards a bearing replacement.

Well, as I pulled off the right rear brake drum, the guts of the brake adjusting mechanism fell out on the floor, along with other bits and pieces of metal. These bits of metal had been bouncing around in the brake drum, hanging up and dragging, obviously, on some moving part (the drum) and causing the friction heat.

Well, I already had removed the pinion bolt in the diff, bought the bearing and seal, and borrowed the slide hammer and bearing removal kit, so I went ahead and change the bearing/seal while I was in there...along with new drums and brakes on both sides, and a new wheel cylinder on the right.

Surprisingly, when I tried to bleed the rear breaks, no fluid came out of either bleed valve. Further study in the brake forum yielded the possibility of a clogged ABS Hydraulic Unit (on the rail under the drivers left heel). It was, in fact clogged, so I had no rear breaks for a good period of time. I replace that ($125 or so from Auto Zone), and was able to bleed and adjust the brakes. All is now well.

Good Luck,
Ron

MAKG said:

Removing the bearing with a slide hammer isn't too difficult.

Removing the cross-pin bolt without breaking it is next to impossible. Though they are usually already broken before removal.

Click to expand...

You know what....I keep reading this and reading this on here, but I've never seen this yet at work...and I probably pull apart 2-3 8.8 or 7.5's a month.

Sasquatch_Ryda said:

You know what....I keep reading this and reading this on here, but I've never seen this yet at work...and I probably pull apart 2-3 8.8 or 7.5's a month.

Click to expand...

I just replaced my axle seals today and the bolt came right out (194,000 on her). I too have taken atleast a dozen of these 8.8's apart and never had one or found one broke. I was suprised to see it mentioned here so much also.

I have seen it happen, at a local JY i was removing the crosspin bolt, and the head of the bolt came right off. My 93s old 7.5 bolt comes right out, and surprizingly my 02 rear 8.8 bolt came right out as well.

I just finished replacing my rear wheel bearings because one inner seal was leaking.

I had some trouble removing the bearing with the 3 jaw slide hammer I got from Autozone (a loaner tool). I needed to sharpen the face of the puller grips with a file as they were very rounded off. During the process, The bearing rollers got knocked out of the bearing so the puller was only pulling on the C rings. I finally applied a torch to the exterior of the axle housing in order to get the bearing to budge.

I discovered that they make a "repair bearing" which moves the place where the bearings roll outward so you do not need to replace the axle because of damage. I found this out because one axle had a repair bearing but not the other side. The former owner must have had this work done. For a 7.5" ring gear axle you need to get a bearing with a part number RP5707 or RP1563.... This is available at Kragen, CSK, Schuck's or Murry's (not at Autozone). For a 8.8" ring gear you need RP6408 or RP1559. Be sure you get the bearing with both an inner and outer seal.
I am sure that Napa and the Ford dealer has these available too.

I had no problem with the lock bolt. It came right out and I reused it because I could not get it out of the hole. I applied loctite 242 to the threads of the bolt.

My total cost for this job for both axles was $55. (about $25 for each axle because I bought the MasterPro brand instead of Timkin). The shop wanted over $500 to do the job which would have included new brake shoes.

It took about 5 hours to do the job.... because it was done in my driveway while the truck was on blocks. A lot of the time was spent chasing the parts at various auto part stores.

I hope this helps.

BTW my ranger has 200,000 miles on it.

Harold