[Bob Bidonde]

The original rear axle wheel bearing races will wear mostly on the bottom, so the races will be out-of-round. The amount of out-of-round establishes the turn-down diameter so the out-of-round is totally removed, and the new race sleeve will have a 0.001 to 0.0015" interference fit. This may require a special sleeve if the catalog sleeve's ID is too large to fit the axle cleanup diameter.

In the case where a special sleeve is necessary, I would scrap the axle housing because the special sleeve will need to be case hardened. I am not certain, but I presume that the original bearing surface was case hardened and then surface ground to its final diameter.

Locking fluid has no value when the fit is an interference, as the fluid will be totally scraped-off during the press fit.


You can deduce from the attached slide that the bearing race is key to the brake drum running concentric with the axle's truce center of rotation. Thus wear of the bearing race affects the centering of the brakes.