Rear axle will not seat

[Cribbs74]

All,

This may be lengthy as I need to explain the problem well.

1972 Mustang 8” rear. Son and I rebuilt the third member installed new 3.80 gears limited slip, new bearings, seals etc. took our sweet time setting up the thing to make sure we got it perfect. Completely removed the axle cleaned and painted etc. total axle rebuild.

About a week ago we reinstalled the axle and bolted everything up, of course it had a slight whine. That is a secondary issue as I went on the road for work and while I was gone he pulled the axles and ran the car in 4th without axles to see if the diff or the axle bearings were the source of the whine. He went to reinstall the axles and all went well until he did the driver axle. The bearing will not seat in the flange. It went together easily the first go around and now not so much. It had some slight burrs in the flange surfaces so I removed those. I cannot tell if it’s splines holding it up or the bearing at this point. Yes the longer axle is on the passenger side. Any ideas? Could running the car on stands without axles be the issue? Everything looks right peering down the axle tube. I am completely lost at this point.

 

[boilermaster]

Cribbs74,
I believe it's the drivers side that has to mesh 2x times to be fully seated, once at the spider and once
in the cone.
Is the axle about 1/4'' from being completely home?.
running the diff with no axles could cause this.
Boilermaster

 

[Cribbs74]

Where were you 30 mins ago! Lol…I probably wouldn’t have pulled the carrier.

Lol, yeah you are spot on. We pulled the carrier. And sure enough the clutch housing and side gear splines are not lined up. Now how to fix? Possibly install both axles and hold one and turn the other? Not sure we can defeat the clutch with manpower.

 

[boilermaster]

Cribbs 74, trust me it can be done,
I had this issue once and did it with the carrier in the car.
Cannot remember exactly how.
Boilermaster

 

[Hemikiller]

Install both axles, use a bar to hold one side and another bar to rotate the other side. It doesn't need to move much.

 

[Stanglover]

Am I missing something? An 8" rear axle in a 72 Mustang?

 

[giantpune]

Am I missing something? An 8" rear axle in a 72 Mustang?

Somebody stuck it in the dryer and it shrank.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Somebody stuck it in the dryer and it shrank.

Too bad they did not read the care instructions tag that clearly states: "Dry on low setting" ;(

 

[Stanglover]

All,

This may be lengthy as I need to explain the problem well.

1972 Mustang 8” rear. Son and I rebuilt the third member installed new 3.80 gears limited slip, new bearings, seals etc. took our sweet time setting up the thing to make sure we got it perfect. Completely removed the axle cleaned and painted etc. total axle rebuild.

About a week ago we reinstalled the axle and bolted everything up, of course it had a slight whine. That is a secondary issue as I went on the road for work and while I was gone he pulled the axles and ran the car in 4th without axles to see if the diff or the axle bearings were the source of the whine. He went to reinstall the axles and all went well until he did the driver axle. The bearing will not seat in the flange. It went together easily the first go around and now not so much. It had some slight burrs in the flange surfaces so I removed those. I cannot tell if it’s splines holding it up or the bearing at this point. Yes the longer axle is on the passenger side. Any ideas? Could running the car on stands without axles be the issue? Everything looks right peering down the axle tube. I am completely lost at this point.

Can you please post a pic of the axle center section from the back, i.e. looking from under the bumper.

 

[mach71351c]

Am I missing something? An 8" rear axle in a 72 Mustang?

302 cars got 8" axles and Cleveland cars got 9"

 

[Stanglover]

302 cars got 8" axles and Cleveland cars got 9"

Really! I didn't know that. I learn something new every day!
So, all the guys that go out and swap their 302's for 351's, need to change the rear axle as well. Hmm, wonder how many did that?

 

[basstrix]

I've used a piece of aluminum flat bar between two studs on the axle to rotate against the Track Lok clutches. A crow bar or anything to give some leverage will work...I used aluminum so I didn't ding up the threads. I found the drivers side much easier to break loose and has 2 sets of splines to line up.

I've had my eye out for a junk axle I can cut down to make an alignment tool for putting these together.