Hello Club 4ag!

Does anyone have any tips on how to put back my rear axle shaft? I bought new ball bearings for it because I bent the old ones. Now I am in the process of installing them back on. The part i'm stuck on is fitting it back in the axle housing to connect to the pumpkin. The ball bearings is so hard to go in.

I tried using this method but I broke the washers haha.

any tips would help Thanks guys!

I had a very similar situation like this before and in my experience it was a nightmare because i bent the whole housing on one side ....this might be the case if one axle goes in fine and one doesnt...but other than that it shouldn't be hard at all, light used of a slide hammer and patience goes a long way lol

I have asked and talked to alot of people who did rear axle work. They all told me that ball bearings should just fit in fine. It should only need light force to put in. I have been trying to fit the shaft in the housing but I'm starting to think the housing is bent some how.... When looking at it it looks straight but I don't think that's the case. I'm going to think on this. I'm actually just thinking of upgrading to a stronger rear axle anyways hmmmmm

Yea bro that might be the case, i bought an fb rx7 with that issue, thought it was the bearing and changed the bearing and axle wouldnt go in, then notices a slight wobble on the axle when rolled on a flat surface so i got a new "true" axle and still wouldnt go in thats when i knew it was the housing, good thing fb rx7 parts arent as scarce and overpriced like 86 parts, yea it was 150bux for a full lsd rear disk to disk haha...yea i would hate to have rear end issues on an 86, good luck bro...

Doriftoboy wrote:The ball bearings is so hard to go in.

Not sure how you bent your old bearing But standard procedure is to grind/split the
bearing retainer to get that off, and then use a press to remove the old bearing. Buy a
new bearing (wide one if it is a GTS) and a new retainer. Press the new bearing onto
the axle making sure it sits against the shoulder, then heat and press the retainer hard
against the bearing while hot.

If the new bearing is the same as the old one, then it should slide into the end of the
axle housing with just a couple of taps with a soft face hammer. Before the bearing
enters the housing you will have felt the axle splines engage with the side gears... this
might take a small amount of juggling to get the axle and gear to line up.

Can't go wrong if you are putting back the same axle that you pulled out

Cheers... jondee86

make sure the surface of the axle housing is clean, as well as the outside of the bearing. if it's been sitting for a length of time, you may get small rust deposits on metal surfaces, which can interfere with the insertion of the axle. a wire brush and/or some emery cloth are easy ways to make sure this is clean.