Hi Folks,

I need help, advice, tips and warnings on re-installing my driver's side (right side) rear axle. I already re-installed my passenger side (left side) rear axle, which slid right in like butter with no problems. But the right side won't go in no matter how many curses I throw at it. Here's a brief synopsis of what I've done so far:

In my never ending saga of repairing a rear axle oil seal leak on both sides, the culprit appears to be bad wheel bearings on my 99 Tacoma with about 126K miles. I removed both rear axles and took them to a shop to remove old wheel bearings and bearing retainer, and put in new wheel bearings, retainer and snap ring. A day later, I picked up my rear axles with their shiny new wheel bearings and retainer, ready to be re-installed.

Like I mentioned above, the passenger side slid in no problems. But the driver's side just won't go in. It gets to about 1/4" away from the backing plate bolt holes, and after that no amount of brute force by me and my cousin seems to work. We checked the splines and filed down some of the grooves by the end of the axle in the hopes that would help. But it didn't work.

Anything I'm doing wrong, or any tips or advice. Do I just need to get brutally Herculean with the thing and add more muscle (although my cousin and I already tried reaching the limits of our limited strength)? I'm at a loss as to why it won't go in like the passenger side. Any help, advice, tips or warnings is greatly appreciated.

Thanks and take care,

I can't imagine why it would slide out, but not back in? I guess I would have to take the other side back out to compare the two, and eliminate an assembly problem. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'm at a loss as to why the driver side won't slide back in. It slid back in a few months ago after I installed a lockrite, but for some reason it won't go in now. I'm going to pull the diff cover to see if there's something obstructing its re-entry.

Take care,

Ed Q.

Here's an update on the situation.

I unbolted the rear diff and checked inside to make sure everything was OK and that there were no obstructions. Everything looked good as new so I bolted it back on.

I also pulled the passenger side axle to compare it with the driver side (the bad one that's been giving me the problem). My cousin and I noticed a couple of differences. The new wheel bearings on the driver side were not as flush, or deep-seated, into the backing plate as the new ones on the passenger side. I also noticed the driver side bearings had about 1/4" play when wacking on top of the splined axle end. I don't know if this play is normal or bad, but just in case I'm taking both axles to the dealer to check them.

The other difference between the axles is that the passenger side has a nice, smooth tapered splined end. The driver side does not. I believe this may be the reason why the driver side axle only goes in the axle housing area just a tad. I've been using the passenger side as a guide to go by as I try to file down and taper the splined axle end on the driver side. Once I get the axles back from the dealer, I hope I was able to taper the end down enough so that it'll slide in easily.

I'll keep y'all updated on the situation and hope my experience so far can help anyone else who may have a rear axle re-install issue (although I sure hope no one else does have this problem because it sure is frustrating when a 1 to 2 hour "easy" job turns into having my truck sit on jackstands for days at a time!).

Take care,

Thanks Ed, I'd like to know what you find out.
Hang in there buddy, remember the goal is NO MORE AXLE LEAKS.

Hi Folks,

Here's the latest update on the situation for those interested in my axle saga.

I just got off the phone with the tech at the dealer. He tells me the wheel bearings are fine and that it's normal for them to have about 1/4" of play and to float up and down like they were doing. I remember a helpful post on this thread saying something like that, but I didn't quite understand it at the time until the tech explained it to me. The tech said that once I tighten the backing plate onto the axle tube flange, then that will be the final "press" that needs to be done for the bearings to fit flush inside the backing plate area. He also said that the bearings are the correct size on each of them, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to press them in deep enough to get them on the backing plate area to begin with. The only thing he noticed was that the other shop had put the retainer on upside down, which he's going to fix.

Apparently, the reason why the bad axle won't go in is not because of the bearings or the retainer (I remember someone else telling me this), but because it needs some more filing at the splined ends. The tech is going to show me exactly how to file and how much when I go pick them up this afternoon. He also said not to worry about filing them too much or messing them up, saying the axle will be perfectly fine.

So looks like I was able to narrow down the culprit as the splined ends not being filed down and tapered enough. Also, I'm glad the upside down retainers were caught in time before I re-install everything back together. So the advice from the others who told me to double-check the bearings and retainers was really helpful. Anyway, I guess I'll be spending yet another weekend night in front of the TV filing down the axle with my trusty little hand file - lol!

Thanks to everyone for their excellent and patient advice, tips and warnings. Hopefully I can finally put the dang axle back on tonight or tomorrow. Take care amigos!

Ed Q.