My cruzah's rear axle, (minitruck outers/cruiser center) was recently converted to spring-over.

Besides welding on the Dodge spring perches, the bottom of the outer portion of the axle was re-welded with another piece of axle tube to give the u-bolts something to keep them centered better...

ANYWAY..

<EDIT>On her maiden voyage after the spring-over, after a 20-minute drive, mostly at 40-45mph, I pulled into a parking lot, and she was leaking a thick black oil from the bearing seal area.(Thicker than 90w, diluted bearing grease?) It had never leaked prior to the spring over.

I then tried to get her home, and stopped when I smelled hot metal.... </EDIT> trashed the right wheel bearing...burned it up. Upon disassembly, I saw that the bearing/seals had not been removed from the axle during the spring-over.

Should they have been removed, and because they weren't, the heat may have :nuke:'d the bearing?

Or, might it just have been its time to go?

Hopefully the housing isn't warped.. guess I'll know when the new bearing goes in!

<EDIT> Butch, as a shop owner, if a customer came back and told you this story, and you had done the S/O, what would you do?)

The welding could have warped the housing and caused the race to lose shape, but if that were the case it should have leaked like a mother prior to the bearing going bad.

I think it was time to go......

edited my original post to tell more details....

I have welded all kinds of crap all over cruiser axles and never pulled the bearings. It was either time for it to go, or the housing is not lined up correctly with the center.

Ian-

During the SO, was the axle housing rotated so as to point the pinion up toward the transfer case? If "yes" was the filler plug relocated upwards? If the filler plug was not raised, it is possible that you did not have enough lube in the center section to lubricate the outer bearings properly. In this scenario, the thick black oil would be distilled 90 weight burned from the heat of the starved bearing (no bearing grease is used in the rear axles). Check to see if your filler plug is high enough to get oil into the tubes.

Medusa.. yes it was rotated, and no, I don't think the plug was moved upwards...

But, wouldn't it starve both bearings? The left side is quiet-spinning and leak-free (the hub was also cool to the touch when I stopped, as opposed to the right side, which gave me a NASTY burn)

And I lost quite a bit of oil out of the axle tube on the right side during the drive... Don't most just overfill the diff and call it good? I would have thought that the level is high enough if I lost that much oil, but you DO bring up a great point.

What do ya think? I'm not trying to discount your theory in any way...

EDIT: OH, forgot to add... (Can't believe I forgot this) When I went to pick up the cruiser from the shop, before the driveshaft was put in, I was shown a "tight spot" during the pinion's rotation.. It wasn't major, but noticable. I pulled the D/S last night, and, with the right side axle shaft pulled, the "tight spot" is completely gone.

i think you just got the seal hot during welding? just a thought:eek:

My guess is the seal got burned during the SO causing it to leak. The dark Oil is burned Gearoil.

Scott

<EDIT> Butch, as a shop owner, if a customer came back and told you this story, and you had done the S/O, what would you do?) [/B][/QUOTE]

First off, I have never removed Cruiser bearings or seals when welding or cutting or grinding on the housings, and have never had a problem I felt was related to this.

Well I been at this long time, if the customer was not an ass, I would handle it.
If the customer was an ass, I would explain that I felt it was not my fault, stuff fails, sometimes at bad times.
Any time I do major mods to a Cruiser, it is understood up front that I will keep the truck until It's finished, and I give no time table, and before it is delivered Josh or I have usually driven it several miles.....and if the customer don't like these terms, he can go elsewhere.....cause I still work on Cruisers for fun, I work on daily drivers for a living.
Re read your original, you have one of the "hybrid" axles.....are the outers sealed or do they run in gear oil? I don't know if any of us know for sure the thickness of the housing compared to Cruiser stuff, or if any of us can do more than speculate...... I do know one time we did a complete rear brake job on a free floater rear, these brgs use gear oil to lube. Customer came to get it, and he only got 4 or 6 miles and called, we had let the brgs sit and all the grease ran out of them, we refilled the axle, test drove and parked it out on our parking lot, at an angle, the high side never got enough oil in them to re lube......we always pack free floater beaarings with regular wheel brg grease now ( have less seal leakage this way also)
Butch

I really doubt that the heat from welding on the perches was hot enough to burn the seal and if it did it just should of leaked and not hurt the bearing .
I would say the heat generated by the bearing chewing it self apart is what burnt the gear oil.

One possibility woud be if the ground clamp was clamped to a wheel stud on the failed bearing side and arced across the bearing and race and caused the failure.

I also agree with Krustys comment as I never had a problem.

My .02
rich

Thanks to all...

The axle outers use minitruck seals and bearings... one inner seal, one outer seal, and the bearing itself is a sealed unit that is pressed on to the axle shaft. (well, at least the new bearing I got yesterday from Toyota was sealed)

The housing itself is THICK... Basically, a minitruck inside the tubes, with a cruiser "sleeve" over it... heavy, beefy stuff.

He's gone till the end of the month unfortunately, so I can't call him and see what he wants to do, but he's a good guy, maybe he'll re-imburse me for the towing.

Rich,
Im curious as to who or what shop did the work for you? I live outside of Raleigh myself in Cary and Im looking for a shop to do some work for me. Could you PM the info to me? I will also follow this thread as to the out come of the problem you posted.

By the way I have a contact at Fred Anderson Toyota for parts at a discount.