i gotz a 1986 broncoII 4x4 2.9 5 speed on 33x 12.50 stock except a little fender chop my brakes started acting up so i pulled the left rear wheel to see was up and the rear axle moves in and out about an inch or two what is going on????

i am a fair mechanic but i have never worked on rear ends (or drum brakes)....
i got good tools and love to work on em myself but rearends are not familiar at all and i am a fraid to even drive this thing to the garage.....plus i don't want to spend a ton of loot on something simple i can fix myself

 

Does this thing move at all?, that should be a C clip axle, but if you dropped a clip you should be able to pull the axle all the way out, plus the only way it should come out is if the pin came out which I have never seen happen with major explosions, so almost sounds like maybe you shattered a side gear, and if you did you shouldn't be able to move the truck under it's own power.

 

yeah it rolls right along i crawled under the ole bronco to check the brakes and found fluid on the inside of the left tire... so i turned my truck around and put her on level ground and pulled off the left tire and discovered the axle is wiggling in and out about an inch or so..........i can't pull the whole axle out but i am afraid if i drive it to a mechanic it will fly off and kill someone........any ideas

 

pull the rear cover, if you have to take it to a mechanic it should be towed either on a trailer or with the rear lifted anyway so it won't make any difference, so get that off, and see what you have, I did forget that probably has a 7.5" with a posi so it might move still be you need to get into the rearend and see what you have to start with.
My guess is you are going to have to rebuild the whole thing as you will probably find metal pieces in there. and personally I would find a 9in from an old bronco (69-77), and swap it in.

 

yup its a posi for sure...the wiggling axle will not turn with the other tire on the ground at all...its supposed to have a 410 posi in it but who knows for sure i noticed it has the tag still on it so i am going to get the codes and see what i got. so the next step i guess is to pull the cover and have a look so what am i looking for....

i just pulled that cover and changed the gear oil about two or three weeks ago and i had no metal chuncks in there at all but the oil had a little sparkle in it nothing to far from the norm any way i am going out there to pull this damn cover and see what is in side.... here is the problem a couple of 17 year olds (my son and company) took the ole bronco on a hell ride so i have no idea what kind of stunts she was put through and with the big ole 33s on her she will go almost anywhere you aim her so who knows .....mud boggin or burning the tires and popping wheelies in granny low who knows!!!!!!!!!!! if i break it i usually know what happened and how to fix it but with these two all ya get is a shrug and the famous i don't know.......not that i oppose raising some hell in the woods.......thats like my favorite pastime.......but with 410 low range and swampers i have found my truck will creep right through most hazards with no problem gas the hell out of it if you need to but usually i can crawl right through or over what i need too and i dont rush her on the pavement 70 mph is about as fast as this pony gets and i give her plenty of time to get the big tires rolling.....i just know these boyz and i can almost imagine what they been up to it makes me shudder.........

so here goes nothing........

 

I don't know about your area but around here I can get that whole axle used for about $80 and there are a LOT of them available. It might just be easier to just replace the whole thing, only downside being that I'm not sure if they all came stock with 4.10's . . . that may take a little searching.

 

definatly take some searching most of them came with 3.73 the 4.10 was a special order option.

 

Another option for the rear axle would be one from a 69/70 mustang or cougar- I read somewhere years ago that it fits perfectly once you move the spring pads from the bottom to the top of the housing.

 

thanx for the info i have been working on my pony all day... here is what i found and have been told maybe someone knows which way to go here.....i pulled the pan....no metal chuncks or nothing whooohoooo....everthing looks good but turns out i still have the 410 7.5 posi... ( not the 410 8.8 i had been told i had) soo here is whats up.. the drivers side axle will slide about an inch back and forth ( to much I think) the passenger side axel will slide about 1/16 to 1/8 about perfect....

ok i went to a couple of parts stores and a couple of mechanic friends and everyone tells me this is not to far from the norm so i come home happy and go to put her all together and check out the c clamps and everthing and i notice the c clamp ( yesterday i did not even know they exist) seems a lot looser on the drivers side than the passenger so i poke at it with a screw driver a bit and it falls right off............had this happened going down the road the whole axle would have fallen out and prawlly killed someone to death!!!!!!!!!!!
my bearings and everthing look good everthing lokks good except this c clamp thing.......by now (7:00pm) everyone has gone home and everthing is closed except autozone.so i call e,m up and the tell me the axel may be wore...i don't think the axle is the problem it looks perfect....i feel like the c clamp is the wrong one for this truck...or that it is wore to thin or am i missing something should there be a bolt or something holding this flimse c looking thing on.... I don't know but if that is all that holds the wheel & axle to the rear end then we are in trouble..........i have the whole truck lifted off the ground everthing turns good and works good except this c retainer thing.....i can slide the whole axle out right now.........ideas anyone....the groove in the axle is like twice as thick as the weak little c looking thing .... should it snap on?or at least have some tension on it???? oh those s shaped spring things are in place and look fine...... looking forward to any help thanx people.....also thanx to "help im stuck" from the broncoII section of this forum...i am going out to try some other things be back in a bit......

 

the only thing that holds the c-clip in is a machined area in the side gear when you push the axle all the way in with the cross shaft removed you can slide the clip on then you push it back out until the clip is against the side gear, then reinstall the cross shaft, and that is suppposed to keep the axle from moving away from the side gear which keeps the clip in place so take a look at both sides, and compare them, the ends of both axle shafts should look the same, both grooves, and distance of the groove to the end should be the same, and both clips should be the same thickness if one is worn different replace it. yes they look flimsy but GM has been using C-clips on there axles for over 40yrs, and if they were a real danger the goverment would have made them change them by now, I personally don't like the 7.5 or the 8.8 rears at all they aren't ford to me they look just like a chebbie 10 bolt, even use the same axle bearing as the 10 bolt rear, and when you pull them out of a vehicle most people can't tell the difference.

 

Pull the diff cover, pull the shafts and check everything out.

Here is an example of pulling a c-clip axle shaft:
http://www.stu-offroad.com/misc/d35-1.htm

 

hey people whats up.....

i got my 86 fixed today and your not going to believe this....

as anyone knows who has been following this thread on rear end trouble my 86 bII 4x4 had a wiggle in the *** end axle..well i found the problem....someone had place the pin in 180 degrees out!!! on the 7.5 Limited slip(pos unit) there is a big steel pin that hold everthing in place it has a flat side and a round side if you place the round side facing the passenger side of the truck then the drivers side axle will slide in to far and let the c clamp wiggle off and your axle will fly off!!!!!..

i have been driving this thing for two years like that and never noticed the problem until i pulled the wheel to fix a rear brake........thanx to everyone that has helped me on this... i will be in the woods tomorrow....if anyone has worked on their rear end i would check it for play...alll i had to do was poke my c clip with a screw driver and it fell right off everyone i talked to said thats impossible well it happened thank god i was not doing 70 on a curve!!!!! so i loosened the little 5/8 bolt (thanx "help I"m stuck")that holds the steel pin in and it slid right out. I noticed one side was flat and one side was round ( the flat side on mine looked beat up from the axle slamming back and forth for a couple of years)so i spun the pin 180 degrees put the 5/8 back in and gave it a look.... now i have about 1/16 to 1/8 of inch play in both the axles which is about perfect.....i am going to go outside and put the pan and gear oil back and start on the brake job ...


thanx everyone......
peace people<!-- / message -->