Reply to "Pantera 06927"

Today I also removed the rear axles. As you may remember I did a temp repair to the drivers axle a few months back to get the car on the road. I used a two part epoxy mix and then machined it on my lathe to 40.04mm and fitted the bearing with a loctite product to get me by, knowing that at a future time I would have to replace the axle.

I have done 300 miles on the repaired axle and today when I pressed off the bearing, the epoxy area looks like new, zero damage. That stuff really is amazing when used properly.

Anyway, I measured up my axles expecting them to be 39.99 and original, but no, it appears they have been changed at some time.

Worst part is they are not even. Starting from the base of the splines I have 40.04, half way down it goes to 40.11, and then back to 40.02 towards the base.

The passenger side wasn't much better being 40.09 through the centre and then back to 40.04mm where the bearing sits on the outside.

Also, when I took the nut off the passenger side it was quite loose, certainly not requiring any grunt at all with a three foot bar on it. The drivers side was still very firm and took a bloody god heave, which was good seeing as this is the one I repaired a little while ago.

There seems to be many and varied opinions on the axle solution, and I'm considering even a different alternative and would appreciate your opinions.

We have a very good hard chrome place nearby who will grind the shaft, hardchrome face it, and then grind back to my specification. Cost is around $220 AUD per side.

I contacted a local bearing supplier today who said that they would like to see approx 0.003 - 0.004 thou of interference fit on a 40.00mm bearing.

Calculating 0.003 thou back to metric brings me to 0.0762mm or 0.004 thou to 0.1016mm

This is really a lot, it means the shaft would need to have a finish grind of 40.075mm if I run with 3 thou interference fit! Seems too much to me, but I'm wondering what you guys think?

I would have considered 40.06 to be a suitable number, then warm the bearings, freeze the axle and slip them together.

Has anyone actually measured the bearings to be an exact 40.0000mm?