My driver side rear axle seems to move in/out while cornering. Under further investigation, it seems that the thin stamped steel retainer has bent outward causing the play. Anyone else experienced this? Should I just try to beat it back straight? Or is there another fix without having to remove the axle bearing?

 

It would be worth the cost of an axle seal to find out if it is the backing plate, the bearing retaining collar that is pressed on the axle and or the axle bearing itself. You will need to rent or barrow a slide hammer to pull the axle.

The pressed on bearing collar can come loose on these rear ends. On the race cars, we have put couple of spot welds on these collars because the race tires would make them slip. Also worn bearings can allow an axle to move in and out as well. So inspect everything and make repairs to both axles.

If you do determine that the bearing collars or the bearings are bad, now would be a great time to fabricate some stronger retainers. These used to be available for sale from ISC and RE Speed but that ship has sailed. Basically they are triangular retainers that are made out of 1/4 material instead of the stamped backing plate. You could make your own using the OE backing plates as a pattern. The ones I have using now are from RE Speed and they held in place using 5/16 grade 8 bolts with nylock nuts.

For the bearings, I just bought a set of SKFs from Rock Auto and had a local shop I trust install them. I have access to a press but a recent should injury means I can't swing a hammer for very long. So no easy way crack the bearing collars. The ones I took off weren't loose but were very gravely and the new ones are very smooth. Racing is hard on these axle bearings

 

Those stock sheet metal axle retainers are really weak when you add some sticky tires. I made up a batch of thick laser cut plates a few years ago, but I have given them all away. I attached a drawing that shows the dimensions you need to have some made, if I remember I got about a dozen pairs for $60.
Myself, I don’t use them anymore, I designed a system to use a drum brake rear end housing with the caliper brackets acting as the axle retainer plates.

 

I will be pulling the axle to make sure, but the thin stamped steel retainer or bavking plate is visibly bent outward. I replaced the bearings a few years back, so I'm assuming the bearings are still good. Thanks for the reply.

 

That drawing is awesome! And thats exactly what happened, added federal 595rsrr's and the sheet metal retainer is bending outward. Thank you for the drawing. I have a friend who may be able to make a few pairs, and i have an idea on how to make some that can go on without removing the bearings, I'll keep this thread updated if it works lol.

 

Yeah, I thought about a version you could use without removing the bearing. It is a serious pain, and you always end up destroying the old bearing when you remove it.

 

Did you get anywhere with making a retainer that's not captured by the bearing? My teams car is suffering from this problem so we'll need to make some retainers also.

 

I would get this all the time, the axles would thin out under the bearings and slide back and forth. Need to use green Loctite under the bearing to take up the play between the axle and inner race, and tack weld the retainer in place.

Usually by the time this happened, the splines on the other end were ready to let go.

Anyway, this is why I have a 9" now

 

On my team's car it's definitely the bearing moving in the axle tube and not the axle moving inside the bearing (our retainer collars are welded in place as well).

 

So we've got a solution for our car. One of my teammates fabricated these plates and now all movement is gone.

 

i ran across this MPV catalog, it uses the same retainer, BUT they added a snap ring also.

 

Yea, similar design but the retainer in question is external, basically the drum brake backing plate in this diagram.