jaymar88

There is a seal on the outer end of the axle which is sits inside the inner hub.

Look at the outer joint. There should be a wheel bearing seal on the lip of the housing.

A LOT of people forget to remove and replace. This could cause the axle to sit improperly and cause a good amount of play.

guitarswheelies

I'll have to check that out. So if you swapped out the axles the seal would stay on the old one when you pulled the axle, right? Then your new rebuilt onw wouldn't have the seal......interesting

auslander

Jack up the front on one side so that wheel is off the ground and make sure it's solidly on a good jackstand. Set the parking brake and chock the other front wheel. Start the car and let the wheel that's off the ground spin up to speed and check for vibration/noise. If you can't find anything, jack up the other side. This only works of you don't have LSD.

I had an outer joint (NAPA rebuild) that developed a tight spot that was actually causing the engine/trans to shift side to side. By running the car this way and the hood up, I could actually see the movement and I knew exactly which axle it was. The "tight" spot was almost impossible to feel with the axle off and I had to argue a bit to get another one since they didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

jaymar88

EXACTLY.

They are not included in the rebulit axle. Trust me.. People ALWAYS forget to swap them over.

I didn't in case you're wondering

guitarswheelies

I did call auto zone and National and they said that the only way you can buy a wheel seal (if that's the part we're talking about) is to buy the wheel bearing.

Provocateur

You have no idea what you are talking about. Stop leading him in the wrong direction.

I am telling you that you have a bad axle. People change out their axles because the joints are usually bad. The bad axle is then rebooted and greased. The joints aren't even replaced and could be worn beyond service limits. Trust me...I have been through 3 sets of shitty autozone axles and they all shook like crazy. I finally just bought a set of Gator stage 2 axles and the shaking went away..

auslander

Sometimes they don't even go that far. Had an axle fail on me somewhere in TX while driving from GA to CA. When I pulled the boot back to look at the joint, one of the balls fell out. Down in the joint was nothing but metal dust, all the grease was in the bellows of the boot and nothing down in the actual joint. Yes, it was an Autozone axle.

guitarswheelies

I think I'm gonna get some NEW not rebuilt axles and install them. Another question-what's the difference between ABS axles and non ABS axles? The parts vendors seem to make a big deal about it.

Oh yeah and why do the stock axles have that big rubber donut on the shaft and the rebuilds don't have it?

anyhow, I'm loving the car and can't wait to fix it up a little. I drive 40,000 miles a year and run it on all kinds of twisty back roads. Its a great car especially when gas is $3.00+/gallon!

Provocateur

The ABS axle has a ring with grooves in it glued to the hub so the ABS speed sensor can pick up the speed of the wheel. The non-ABS axle doesn't have a ring.

The rubber thing is a dynamic damper. It isn't completely necessary, so you don't need to worry about a rebuilt axle that comes without one.

guitarswheelies

well, I replaced the left axle with a NEW one and it still shakes. Any ideas? Can I be installing this thing wrong? My friend had a toyota that had a shake like this and his mechanic told him it was a bearing in the final drive.