check your axles

hey guys!
just got back from a car club meet in prattville alabama
well monday night in trenton georgia on i59 my town car stopped moving, we roll to the side of the road, and the rear axle is damm near on fire. thank god for the rear disc brake conversion cause the caliper kept the right rear wheel on......we got towed to a hotel nearby, and the next morning a good friend in the car club came from blue ridge georgia and picked us up with his rollback and brought his 03 town car for us to follow him in to his place (4 big guys in a chevy truck cab no workie lol) he lent us tools and gave us a good axle and ran us to the parts store. we were back on the road by 9 pm tuesday night.

lots of trucks you guys are hauling coal in have semi floating axles. this means the axle itself is the race for the axle bearing, what happened to me is the axle wore and ate up the bearing and it self destructed and the axle got so hot it twisted off......i rebuilt the rear 40,000 miles ago and the axles were in good shape.......this applies to f150's rangers, chevy 1500's s10's dodge ram 1500's dakotas, etc....before coming all the way up here to overload your pickup lol, please jack up the back of the truck and make sure there is no up and down play in the axle shaft, if theres play pull the axles replace the axles and bearings.......they do make axle repair bearings, but they leak gear oil all over the place, a temporary fix at best.

if you guys ever have coal truck troubles up here and are worried just get ahold of me, i'll be glad to help out, we would still be in georgia mostlikely if it were not for my friend eric new axles for 25 year old cars are usually 2-3 days away.

Their are companies that make c clip eliminators .

the c clip didnt give out, the axle got so hot it twisted off
for the ford 8.8 they dont fit trucks or disc brakes, so not much good

My trucks have the floater rears in them, if you want to contend with the 8 lugs, guess you could cut off 3 if you wanted 5 lug

Glad to hear it had a happy ending. I have had some high-mileage Fords with 8.8's and never seen a grooved axle, but that doesn't mean it isn't common. I know the '03 Panthers had problems with failed axles, and I have heard of some half-ton trucks that did a lot of towing eating the axles. Now that you have made it home it might be a good idea to drop that gear lube...hard to say how many shavings were in the axle tube.

For those that like to tow/haul big loads, there is no replacement for the right truck. A 3/4 ton is a big upgrade over a 1/2, but there are also 3/4 ton trucks out there with semi-floating rear axles. GM made a 14 bolt semi-floating axle, and Ford made their 10.25" differential with semi or full floating axles. The easiest way to tell what you have is to see if the axle is bolted to the hub or not. The axles can be removed from a full-floater without removing the differential cover, but on a semi-floater you must remove the cover to pull the c-clips. Either type of axle will do the job if it is in good shape, but the full-floater is preferred if you want to run at the limits.

Regardless of what you drive, it pays to run a high quality gear lubricant and change it periodically..especially when towing heavy loads.

markviii wrote:Glad to hear it had a happy ending. I have had some high-mileage Fords with 8.8's and never seen a grooved axle, but that doesn't mean it isn't common. I know the '03 Panthers had problems with failed axles, and I have heard of some half-ton trucks that did a lot of towing eating the axles. Now that you have made it home it might be a good idea to drop that gear lube...hard to say how many shavings were in the axle tube.

For those that like to tow/haul big loads, there is no replacement for the right truck. A 3/4 ton is a big upgrade over a 1/2, but there are also 3/4 ton trucks out there with semi-floating rear axles. GM made a 14 bolt semi-floating axle, and Ford made their 10.25" differential with semi or full floating axles. The easiest way to tell what you have is to see if the axle is bolted to the hub or not. The axles can be removed from a full-floater without removing the differential cover, but on a semi-floater you must remove the cover to pull the c-clips. Either type of axle will do the job if it is in good shape, but the full-floater is preferred if you want to run at the limits.

Regardless of what you drive, it pays to run a high quality gear lubricant and change it periodically..especially when towing heavy loads.

i have to tear it apart anyway to replace the right backing plate, and rebuild the trac lock, the clutches got smoked, also going to install two new axles when i get the extra money, the axle my friend in georgia gave me is in fair condition, i have maybe 20,000 miles.......after doing alot of thinking, i thing the crown in the road did it, i bet the seal was leaking on the passenger side and the oil got low, and the roads in alabama are crowned real bad......well we were in the passing lane doing 75 mph and fighting the wheel to keep her out of the ditch, the right side prob ran out of oil and smokes, i'm just happy we made it home with the car and only 24 hrs behind schedule.

Wow Lincoln, you lucked out big time! If it were me, I'd have had to find a boneyard to yank one out of .... and then would've got porked for towing -- would have been an expensive trip!

Our Marquis has quite a bit of in & out play ... I'll have to check for up & down. She's got 170K+ on her now. But my last Marquis I got rid of with 256K on the clock .. and to my knowledge the diff had never been rebuilt. I had replaced the axle seals & pinion seal. I'll be doing the same to this one once the weather gets nicer, & all this salt & sand gets washed away. I was wondering about the bearings since the seals started leaking. I got lazy & left the gear oil in there for over 100K. Luckily this one is driven by the wifey, so it's had it pretty easy.

My old one also towed a 2K lb U-Haul trailer from MA to AZ ... and still took all my jackrabbit starts in the city. They're pretty tough.

Good 'ol chevy FF 14bolt

Good ole' Sterling 10.5 FF

kinda weird.
i had a 8.8 in my old jeep and i bent the axle tube causing it to eat up c clips, good thing for disc brakes, same as you it kept the wheel on my jeep.