There's a discussion on 'the other forum' about worn axle journals and the axle bearing loosely fitting and spinning on the axle journal. Someone said something about peening the journals to raise the journal surface to make the bearing and retainer ring fit tighter again.

I'm not saying this procedure doesn't exist but, I've never heard of it. I'm aware of a component called a Speedy Sleeve but, it's purpose is to repair grooves worn into to the axle journal by the oil seals that would repair an axle for a leaky seal. It has nothing to do with the surface of the journal the axle bearing and retainer ring are (interference) press fitted onto.

I'm also aware of a peening nut (primarily found on VWs) where the lip of the wheel nut is peened down into the keyway slot of the axle stub, after the nut is installed and torqued, so that the nut can't loosen once tightened. Again, not the same thing as peening the journal surface of the axle that an axle bearing would be press fitted onto.

I'm also aware of a process of shot peening axles (largely used on rail car axles) where the surfaces are blasted with steel shot to harden the metal. But, again, this process has nothing to do with peening a worn bearing journal surface in order to raise the surface back up to make a bearing fit tightly to it again.

I just wondered if anybody knew anything (or could provide a link) about peening an axle journal as a method of 'repairing' a damaged axle? --since when I do a search for this method, I don't find anything in reference to doing this.

 

Never heard of it. How does that area of the journal get damaged on a sealed bearing axle?

 

I have done it to spindles, but I don't think I would do it to an axle unless it was to get me home or something temporary. Not on the axle anyway, maybe the outer race housing.
I have used a product I got at the parts house that fills the worn area with something like epoxy or loctite and have used it successfully on shafts in farm equipment and other things several times.
You need to heat it to get it back apart though, it would work on axles if they were not very bad. But then again a worn axle is a weaker than usual axle and it can suck when a wheel passes you going down the street..

 

If a shaft is not too hard and less than ~.005" of material has been removed you can knurl it and raise the surface. If knurling raises the surface enough you can turn it down to the desired diameter by removing some of the knurling. If possible, the best practice is to first skim cut the damaged area before the knurling operation.
If one area (side) of a shaft has been damaged I've seen guys use a ***** punch to raise the surface where metal has been removed. These repairs were on low speed, light duty axles (hay racks).
Aggressive media blasting will also raise the surface of mild steel.

 

The guy that posted the problem has a 9-3/8" rear end but, I don't know if the 31-spline axles has the larger 1-5/8" bearing journals or if it's the smaller 1-17/32" axle journals (?) He didn't say what differential was in the rear end (whether it's a Traction-Lok or an open differential).

I don't know specifically what happened to the axle bearing to cause the inner portion of the bearing to spin and gall on the axle journal. --sounds like the bearing maybe ran out of grease, started to seize up and damaged the axle where the bearing/retainer ring presses on(?) (speculation).

Somebody else was talking about peening the axle journals as a 'fix' prior to installing new bearings and retainer rings.

This seems very risky to me since peening the bearing journals would only raise small, random portions of the axle surface. You would not have a continuous surface of equal diameter to interface to the I.D. of the bearing bore. Putting dings or gouges in a hardened axle would also seem to create stress risers that would make the axle susceptible to snapping off.

Doing something like this on slow-moving farm equipment may be fine, since tractors don't generally run 60+ miles an hour down the freeway. On a car or a truck, it seems like a recipe destined for disaster.

 

Yeah, I replace axles if/when they get damaged. My truck has 9-3/8 w/31 spline axles and uses the RUB-1580-EBFR bearing---> National Cylindrical Bearing | RUB-1580-EBFR | Federal-Mogul Motorparts

 

I wouldn't recommend doing this on a car either, I was just answering your question "anyone heard of peening axle journals".

 

Yeah, I have a set of NOS bearings/retainer rings still in the Ford boxes for the (larger journal) 31-spline 9-3/8" axles. At the time I got the 31-spline axles to install them in the 9-inch rear end housing under my truck, I didn't know there were two different versions of the 31-spline axles for a 9-3/8" rear end.

A 9-3/8" rear end with an open (single track) differential had 31-spline axles with 1-17/32" axle bearing journals. A 9-3/8" rear end with a Traction-Lok differential had the larger 1-5/8" axle bearing journals.

Naturally, I got the wrong bearings since I didn't know this about the 9-3/8" rear end 31-spline axles at the time. I just thought there was only one type of 31-spline axle for the 9-3/8" rear ends. Now, I know better and got the correct axle bearings and put the 1-17/32" journal 31-spline 9-3/8" axles in my truck's 9-inch housing.

 

That's good information. Those bearings aren't cheap.
You should send them to me before they spoil

 

We used to call it "Dutch Fitting"

 

I'd sell both bearings and retainer rings for what I have in them --Fitty bux plus the cost of a USPS flat rate box to ship them in. As you're probably aware, aftermarket bearings for these axles are around $100.00 dollars each. The 9-3/8" 31-spline large axle bearings I have are actual Ford service bearings/rings --still in their Ford logo boxes.

They are Ford number D0TZ-1225-A. The bearings are 3-9/64" O.D. x 1-5/8" I.D.

 

I didn't say anything about no $50

 

LOL. ....original Ford 9-3/8" rear end service bearings/rings for 1/4th the cost of aftermarket axle bearings/rings is still a heck of a deal.

 

I've heard of shot peening connecting rods for added strength... never an axle though... sounds like a "workaround" to me.

 

Yeah, they weren't talking about shot peening. They were talking about peening (putting pock marks) on the axle journals. Sounds like a very bad idea.