Rear axle troubles

[rcrick]

Ok bros, just got the axles back from the shop with new bearings pressed on. One side slid in without too much complaining. The passenger side, however, is putting up a helluva fight. Just won't slide into place. Not really sure what to do now. Any ideas?

 

[Nelsonmd]

Have you lined up the splines properly? If tyou have the backing plate on correctly, then there isn't anything stopping it from seating on teh outside, so it's gotta be inside the diff. Shine a light down there and check out if there's anything obvious.

 

[rcrick]

Yeah, it's really weird. I guess I just need to be gentle and try rotating it around until it gets lined up. I can't see anything in there that would prevent it from sliding in.

 

[Fireblade]

It's simple but some don't think much of it and I don't think you are one seeing as you got the other side in already but...

Along with rotating it and trying to get the splines lined up you may need to make sure the spline side isn't resting on the bottom of the axle tube or the top if you are compensating too much. Sometimes it takes a minute (as long as all else is well inside). I had seen a lot of new techs when I worked at Toyota have a lot of trouble for this reason.

 

[TheFatGuy]

Did you make sure both axles were the same?

 

[rcrick]

As it turns out, the axle had been dropped on its end and about halfway around the axle the splines were mushroomed out just enough to prevent it from going in. Required some cleaning up with a dremel and it went in.