Hi All, I thought this was worth posting. When the axle tubes are pressed in, they push metal swarf ahead of them. There's an epoxy like coating on the ends of the tubes, to encapsulate the metal swarf but it doesn't catch or hold it all. The swarf ends up in the groove between the carrier bearings and end of the axle tubes and easily gets into the carrier bearings. I made a scraper to get it out of the groove. HTH James

 

ok......

 

My thoughts exactly. I can't recall ever seeing this either.....

 

I found this in 05 and 06 axle housings, the 05 was needing a third set of bearings, from the swarf getting into them.

 

I got a buddy of mine who welded his tubes on his explorer but he only did that because he needed the strength off road.