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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!

Hi there, Quick question, I've had some brake issues and removed the drum to find this. So i can't get the inner race off. I've tried, cold chisel behind to open out. I'm going to try heat with a blow torch tomorrow, when i go and buy one. Angle grinding it off with a small disc is also an option.. except i don't have a grinder. But if that fails, and i need to take it somewhere, how do you remove the stub axle from the rear arm? It was a bit dark when i was out there this evening. Cheers J