My 85 300TDT just turned 411k. I'm hearing a knocking noise when I make a sharp right turn which is comming somewhere in the rear. I'm assuming it's the axel. I noticed one of boots is torn also. My question is should I replace both axels?, and if so what about the rear bearings?Are they included in a set of rebuilds?, or are the bearings seperate? Obviously I'm going to have this done by someone who hopefully knows what he's doing, I just want to have all the parts ready for him. Thanks..

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85 300TDT 456,000 orig. miles

Might be a wheel bearing but is more likely the axle...
If the boot is torn on the other side I would replace both at the same time.. particularly if you are paying someone to put them on..
as part of the labor is shared.... wheel bearings do not come with it.
and you might need to plan ahead on acquiring a hand full of shims for inside your 3rd member.... check out RLeo's thread lately about that...

You probably have a bad CV joint in one of those axles...they will make a popping or bumping sound.

On Shims...
With all the miles that car has on it, you should do both axles...since you have to open the diffy up anyway, it is easier to do them both at the same time. Keep the shims from the old axles and put them on the replacements...remember which one goes on the left and which goes on the right.

Write if you need help.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

On a car that old I did not assume he had the original shafts... thus suggested he look for boot condition...
On the shims... and this is a good time to suggest putting new 3rd member side seals... that the ' new' axles will probably need different width shims... and that is not something one wants to start looking for with the car up on the jacks and the mechanics meter running...

If the axle retaining clips are a tight fit when removing them, then you have the right shim. If your retaining clips are a sloppy fit, you'll need to find some shims. See this thread.

Theoretically, shims should stay with the differential (by being moved to the replacement axles) during an axle swap.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

The distance is going to be determined by the shoulder to circlip cut distance... which will vary according to the half shaft placed there.. so is likely to be different for each axle. Not something which just automatically transfers from old one to a rebuilt one...

So it was just dumb luck that mine worked the way they did?

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

When I replaced mine the original ones were too thick to be used on the new axles...
Was it just dumb luck that mine were not able to be used ?

Nope, just the typical Moody luck!


....hey, didn't you have to beat those things out with a huge hammer and drift?

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Really bad luck on that deal... it came at the end trying to do the job outside on dirt, not having jacked the car up high enough ( the wagon has a LONG overhang so I was crawling back and forth ) not being able to use a rolling jack to lower the 3rd member.... had trouble with the wheel bearings and then found that the shims were too FAT.... I was really bummed out by then.....I have done 98 percent of all my mechanicing for 35 years.. and that was the worst project I was ever involved in. And then the warranteed axle needed to be replace six months from then....

No, the beating you are remembering is the 12 ft length of brass rod which I used with help hitting with a 6 lb sledge behind the car to move the outside axle shaft the last 10 thou to get it into the hub. This was due to not using the FSM directions about lowering the 3rd member to acquire the extra working distance...and people wonder why I preach following the manual.... LOL

Yikes!

Man, I really hate to bring this up now but, you can raise the diffy up to get that clearance.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Do you reccomend rebuilds or salvage. I'm not ready to lay out $700 for new ones. Thanks again.

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85 300TDT 456,000 orig. miles

I'm a bona-fide cheapskate, I look for used ones. The pair I just stuck on my SDL cost $122.00 ($61.00/ea including shipping).

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

That's me. Did you use a site to locate them?? Thanks

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85 300TDT 456,000 orig. miles

Found one on eBay, and cut a package deal with the seller for the second one.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.