ford 9 inch help

I thought I had a bad seal and went to replace and found this



I lost my balls! I pulled the other axle and the bearing is OK but im gonna replace it anyway. What the heck causes this? There is oil in the tubes, Ive ran this rear for 10 years. Its a 70 Cougar 9 inch. The only thing weird i noticed was the axle seals are in the end of the tube and then the bearing is bolted in over that. How does the beaing get oil when its ouside the seal?

thanks for any help

 

Certain diffs use sealed bearings that are permanently greased....up until they aren,t like that one.

 

You just need a new bearing and replace the seal in the housing.The bearing needs to be pressed on the axle,usually done at automotive machine shop.

 

And don,t forget the bearing retaining collar.You will have to press,cut or heat it to get both it and the bearing off.Inspect the seal lip contact area for an excessive deep groove worn into it.I also replace the axle flange gasket. If you do it yourself watch what order it comes apart in and simply reverse to reassemble.

 

thanks for the info, ill take em in monday.

 

Yes, all the FOMOCO 9 inch rear ends are designed just like yours, & like the previous guys said---be careful when re-installing that oil seal, its fragile (to a point) & the ball bearing unit is SEALED & under normal wear dosen't need any extra oil----Hence the seal on tube side. Evidence of rear bearing(S) starting to fail is light rumbling noise on de-celleration, coming to a stop.-----Don

 

The nine inch bearings are not sealed... a small amount of oil gets gets past the seal for lube...

Why did it happen? It's from a 1970 car...nothing last's forever!

 

I had a '73 F100 about 15 years ago. One day on the way home from work something broke, it was like the rear brakes would lock up for a split second then let go, it would do this every couple of minutes. After checking things like the hanger bearing and the brakes and such, I pulled the axle that seemed to have the problem when I tried turned it by hand. It turned out that the bearing was so worn that part of the sheet metal retainer broke and was getting lodged under the balls, the momentum of the truck probably would kick it out so it would turn free for a while, then it would work its way back.