[JoePapa]

I have a Dana60 with 9" housing ends and 35 spline strange axles and Aerospace disc brakes. Long story short it was leaking fluid out of the axle housing end onto the brakes.

What I found was that the bearing retainer wasn't be pushed against the bearing properly. I could physically move the axle in and out of the housing by a few thousandths of an inch and I understand that with a tapered bearing you want zero endplay.

We've fabricated some very nice 1/4" bearing retainers along with a .100" shim to sit on the bearing face. Together it should have enough depth to hold the tapered axle bearing (street / strip car) in place with the brake backing plate in place. This works well on one side but I can't get rid of the end play on the other side. Even without the brake backing plate and nothing but the housing, axle, and retainer, one side still has some in/out movement by .008.

I'm really tired of degreasing my brakes... Has anyone here seen this? The inside of the housing is smooth, no burs. The bearings are new. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the bearing cap (piece with the seals) is getting hung up somewhere and not pressing down firmly on the race.

Thanks for the help.

[60man]

FWIW: Does your bearings have thin O-rings on outer race ? I noticed some bearings I bought "over the counter" for my GM 9.3" did not have O-rings..Don't think it made a difference with my stock 9.3" GM axles as far as sealing as the housing had seals in them...The O-ring sure made axles "tight" My Moser axles had the O-ring style bearings..
O-ring would prevent any leakage..

[JoePapa]

I've had both - this set doesn't but one side fits fine and one side leaves a little end play which is really weird. I've also had both leak but now I know why - the original retainer didn't push down the bearing cap far enough. So that's fixed - just trying to fix this last little bit...