Ford 9" experts please come in

[Van B]

I had a local fabricator build a 9" housing for me when he installed my Ride Tech 4 link a couple of years ago. My question centers around the axle bearings. At the axle housing ends he used my existing Baer caliper mounting bracket as a bearing retainer. Between the retainer and the housing ends he put spacers measuring .200 or thereabouts. With it assembled this way, there was .040-.060 of movement when you pushed the axle in and out. This probably explains my brake knockback with floating calipers.

Without those spacers there is very little movement, but I am concerned about how much pressure can be put on the tapered roller bearing. There is a small gap between the bearing retainer and the housing end. Is this normal or acceptable? I have attached a picture with it assembled and with the bearing retainer/caliper bracket out of the way. The assembled photo was taken before the spacers were removed. The gap is slightly smaller without them.

Your input is appreciated.

[68sixspeed]

Trim your spacer down (surface grinder, etc) so you have just a little preload and you will be fine. I would ntrun it w/o the spacer plate. -Dan

[AmKenpo1]

Are the spacer allowing the the seal to compress? You mentioned that with the spacers out the gap closes slightly this is normal with this type of seal, it needs to compress to collapse the seal and help with bearing preload. While the spacers are not really needed, trimming them and reinstalling them is not a bad thought. Just be sure the seal compresses.
Wil.

[Ron S]

I have never really understood this set up. The retainer pushes on the seal which pushes on the bearing to keep it in place. Tightening up the retainer to compress the seal tighter, just seems like would crush the seal eventually making the bearing really loose.

I know its not how this was designed to run, but seems like you should run an inner axle seal, pack the bearings with grease, and run a solid spacer on the outside to retain the bearing with no outer seal(but you need an outter axle seal for the grease). Maybe the seal is designed with enough metal that it acts as a solid enough spacer, it just looks like a regular seal though. Like I said I never really have understood this set up.