chevy rear axle ?

[jamesyz250]

I have a 1990 chevy 1500 4x4 and noticed some small metal shavings in the rear drum. Its not the brakes, they are almost new. When I looked it over i saw that on the axle shaft it is shiny silver and the axle moves in and out about an 1/8 inch or so. Is this bad, or is it normal? its got a bout 170 thousand miles and i dont think any rear end work. Also is this a c clip axle?

[bigarms23]

If you have metal shavings than my advice is to tear down the axle as for it being a c clip axle it is if its a 10 or 12 bolt

[red]

its a 10 bolt, last year for the 12 bolts was 1981 and yes its a c-clip axle shafts. 1/8" of play might be a little excessive, pull the shaft and check out the area of the shaft the sits in the axle bearing. if it looks a little worn down (the shaft) then replace the bearing and the axle shaft.

[kneedownnate]

Pull it and try to find a 6 lug dana 60 or 14 bolt.

[red]

unless your doing heavy towing with it or 35"+tires your fine with the 10 bolt. its really easy to tear into to work on. to pull the axle shaft get the wheels off the ground, pull the wheel/drum off of the axle shaft that you want to check. go to the rear middle of the axle and unbolt the rear differential cover beginning at the bottom, remember to put a pan underneath it 1st to catch all the oil. completely remove the cover and rotate the differential until you have access to the 1 little bolt (i believe its an 8mm) that is horizontal on the differential. its black and goes through the silver 1" diameter shaft that goes all the way through the diff. once the bolt is out, pull that shaft out. go back to the wheel mounting surface of the axle shaft and push that shaft inwards (wont go very far). go back to the diff and pull the c-clip from the inside edge of the axle shaft if it didnt fall out. then pull the axle shaft out from the wheel mounting surface side.

[skipnrocks]

Another thing that can go wronge I didnt se mentioned is with the c clip there is a pin that keeps the axle shafts pressed out and prevents the c-clip from coming out....   When I did my axles (also chevy but from an 86 3/4 ton)  I replaced the pin with a hardened pin, and that took care of excessive lateral play,  I also had just a bit of vertical play and this was from scoring on my shafts from not properely maintaining the bearings.  They had a kit to fix the scored shaft.....  And now the axle is tight as ever!!

[Hammerhead]

Yep, sounds like time to rebuild or replace.  If you aren't going to abuse it just fix the axle and don't look back.  If you plan to go with bigger tires and wheel it hard just rip it out and swap in a 14bolt.

To fix it just replace the bad shaft and wheel bearings and also replace any worn items at the diff such as clips, cross pin etc...

[skipnrocks]

You may just look for a 14 bolt replacement,  the kit I got for my axle I think ran around 200 bucks, and everyonece and a while I see a 14 bolt going for simular price...  I payed it cause Im running a 14B sf but if I had a ten bolt rear I would have looked for a 14b.

[bigarms23]

If you want to stay with the rear axle you have i would suggest a c clip eliminater kit from moser they cost 150 dollars

[skipnrocks]

I didnt know there  was a kit, but it looks like you would need to buy moser axle shafts to go with it....  At least thats what the writeup says on summit....  I dont know its worth it....  I think by the time you get shafts and what not your going to be into the ten bolt then its worth.... 

[bigarms23]

on my 12bolt i have the moser kit and am running stock shafts but later down the road i will bolt up my d70s

[blyota91]

So the shavings are in the drum?  If so before you tear down the rest of it why don't you locate the source inside the drum?  It seems to me that if the bearing were worn to the point of making shavings you would be getting gear oil leakage into the drum also.

[skipnrocks]

Im not sure where the shavings would come from, if theres no scaring inside the drum or where the drum rides on its male counterpart on the axle.  Drum brakes are realitively simple and I cant think of anything else that would cause it...  I still would say tear everything down and you should have to find scaring somewhere...