Now that my axle was officially condemned by the place I took it to, and I’ve hopefully a new tube on the way, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to chop up the old axle to have a look at it.
When originally trying to take the trailing arm shafts out, the shafts were firmly jammed in the tube, and looked like the bearings had collapsed. In desperation I took it to a local guy who has built a few axles in the past. He had a hydraulic ram to pull the shafts out ( after burning a hole in the shaft), but even then they wouldn’t budge (popped a seal in his ram).
So today i invested 1 cutting disc and found this:
I thought I was cutting the bearing out of one side, but then I realised that this tube must have been sleeved in the past:
The other side didn’t seem to have this. Its inner bearing was in decent condition, could read MADE IN FRANCE and the part number on it:
But the outer was tatties:
This was off a 1 owner, 107,000 mile car. I’m a bit surprised the tube was sleeved but given the corrosion seen here maybe i shouldn’t be. The corrosion seemed to get by to the outer bearing, but the inners seem pretty rust-free.
Anyway thought I’d share!