Rear axle Q
 

I'm putting GSL-SE Axles in my GSL (bolt pattern/big brake change), and noticed that 2 things.

1) The trianglular plate with 3 bolts that goes right next to the bearing is cracked or cut on one side. I believe this holds the axles in.

Edit: Called a retaining plate.

2) One axle is missing a dust cover.

These are new bearings and I don't want to pull them if I don't have to, but if my axles are going to fall out or I'm going to have all kinds of dust in my bearings then I would like to do it properly.

Advice?

Cut another dust cover and slip it on? go without them?

Weld up the plate?

Thanks guys!

Got any pics of the retaining plate damage? When I rebuilt my axle I realized/made the conclusion that the stock bearing retainers are inferior and under built. Both of mine were bowing away from the axle housing from the axles trying to exit the housing under heavy cornering. Luckily I had some plate steel and a friend at a machine shop so I replaced mine with some "proper" bearing retainers. I believe RE-speed sells a very similar HD plate for the later big bearing axles only.

The dust covers are nice to have and keep things cleaner, plus the hard line to rubber hose junction for the caliper is retained by a tab on the back of them, otherwise they dont really have an affect on keeping dirt out of the bearings, especially as they are sealed bearings anyway. Unfortunately there is no real good way to put the dust shield back on with out either removing the bearings or severely mangling the shield



for reference, here are the OE stamped steel ones, stacked back to back showing their bowing out

https://www.rx7club.com/members/sgt-...rped-48443.jpg


and these are the proper retainers i had made

https://www.rx7club.com/members/sgt-...ates-48441.jpg

Holy crap! Looks like overkill! I went ahead and just pressed out the bearings. They came off easy on the SE axles. Took the minty stuff from my GSL and put it on. Took me longer than I expected, but I'll live. Now you've got me thinking I should upgrade the retainer plates... Are there a couple guys losing axles out there>?

I havent really heard of it happening, but the bowing in the pic above was allowing my axles to have a noticeable amount of slop in and out of the housing. Plus if you think about it, the more slop there is, the more the axle bearings can hammer against the retainer when shifting the loads on the car, such as in AutoX or track driving. They just gave me an uneasy feeling, so I took matters into my own hands for a piece of mind. 1/4" plate steel and 5/16" Grade 8 bolts/nuts...theyll be the last thing to fail on the axle :)