Need some knowledge from the Wrangler Experts here.

Bought my Jeep almost two years ago, and knew I had a couple of leaking axle seals when I bought it. I have been procrastinating and am just now getting around to replacing it. I have kept an eye on the diff fluid level, and it has stayed full.

When I pulled the drivers side rear axle shaft, the bearing will move between the retainer ring and the shoulder of the shaft. See the attached video.

http://youtu.be/GD6FgLDCBak

This is a bone stock Jeep. It appears no one has been in the axle because the retainer clips were still on the brake rotors.

The bearing should be a press fit....correct? I am going to pull the other side tonight and cut the retainers and bearings off to get a look at the axle shaft in the location of the bearings.

Thoughts???

Thanks

Ron

Was there any play in the bearing prior to removing from the rear end. Even new tapered bearings will have a little play until seated with the proper cone with correct preload. The purpose of the cage is to hold it together for assembly. If the race looks good and the rollers look good and you have very little to no play installed, it is probably ok. A failed bearing can cause a seal leak but a seal leak doesn't always mean you've had bearing failure.

It's only a problem if the inner race has movement. It's normal for the rollers/cage to rattle when not assembled.

Ok.... After looking at Stu's site, it appears the cage has some sort of additional ring on the larger side. There is a photo if him cutting this piece from the cage. When I was looking at it last night, I was thinking that edge by my finger in the video was the inner race.

I am going to cut it off tonight and see what is what.

It may very well just be slack in the bearing itself that I am seeing. (Hopefully So).

Ron

If you have got to have new seals, I would replace the bearings anyway since they are pressed.

Yep.... I plan to cut the old ones off.

It was just slack in the bearings. Cut the old ones off last night and the axle shaft is fine. Just need to clean everything well and get rid of the metal bits from cutting the old bearings off, and put it back together.