New rear axle bearings and seals.

[PatDTN]

Backstory... When I bought my 2009 Tahoe LTZ I went over it looking for things to fix. Found back then that the right rear axle seal was bad and that corner was messy. I cleaned it up with brake cleaner spray and left it alone. It's a fairly involved job and I wanted to see what else was going on with the truck. It had 150k miles.

I'm over 200k miles now and have some time plus some odd things going on with the truck. I bought a bunch of brake parts and set about doing both sides completely.

This thing is seriously rusty under the back end. I'm getting the previous owner launched a boat in salt water.

The first thing I ran into was getting the axles out. I watched videos and was ready except my diff didn't look like any of the videos. Until I found one with exactly what I was seeing and the words THIS IS THE WRONG SIDE. I rotated my diff and lo and behold there was what I wanted to see. The stupid c-clip didn't want to come out until I pushed and pried and got the axle a little more clear of things and it dropped right out.

Next was the seal. I've pulled a LOT of seals over the years. I never had one bend a pry bar before. I had to take a cold chisel and roll the edge in until I could get vice grips on it and peel it out.

At that point I decided I had to go rent a bearing puller. I slipped the puller into the bearing and started wailing away. What I got was shrapnel. The side of the race blew out and pieces flew.

But not the whole thing. With the roller bearings out of the way I walked the puller around the bearing hammering away all to no avail. A very smart friend had told me that if you run a bead of weld around the inside of the race you're pulling when you're done it'll shrink and practically fall out. I did. It didn't. I finally shoved the bearing puller all the way in through the ABS ring and got it well hooked on that. Finally I was able to pull the bearing race and the now crushed ABS ring.

When I get my new ABS rings (went ahead and ordered two from Amazon because I can't find one locally) I'll look at it to see but I think someone mangled this one before me as there was a bunch of clear silicone glopped around it.

While I have the rented puller I'll go get the other axle ready though I don't like pulling both axles out at the same time.

Oh yeah, while I was wailing away with the puller my truck started making a ticking that sounded like a relay chattering. Finally I opened the door and put the truck in park so I could take the key out. That stopped it for a while. After doing some online searching I went back to find the sound going on again. When I opened the door it stopped but this thing is dead electrically now. I wonder if it thinks I was in an accident.

 

[swathdiver]

I've done one side and it wasn't a whole lot of fun! Those rotten bolts would have worried me silly!

 

[Rocket Man]

I pulled both axles, both seals and both ABS reluctor rings out of my 08 Silverado with no issues but I got a puller from a loan-a-tool program. Pulled the bearings, then the reluctors after that. As far as the electrical issue, you didn’t disconnect the battery first? That’s always the first thing I do before any major work. That way the computers don’t detect meddling. When you say it’s dead electrically, is it just a dead battery or what exactly is going on?

Edit: to install the reluctor you need the specialized Kent-Moore tool to set it at the correct depth. I bought a used one off eBay.

 

[PatDTN]

Rocketman, thanks for the tip on installing the reluctor.

I got the puller set from AutoZone in their free loaners. Couldn't get the puller to sit squarely on the seal by itself or the bearing. In frustration i just shoved it all the way through the reluctor.

I had to lift the edges of both seals with a cold chisel and roll them in until I could grab the edge with channel locks and peel them out. It's like someone glued everything in.

 

[thompsoj22]

Backstory... When I bought my 2009 Tahoe LTZ I went over it looking for things to fix. Found back then that the right rear axle seal was bad and that corner was messy. I cleaned it up with brake cleaner spray and left it alone. It's a fairly involved job and I wanted to see what else was going on with the truck. It had 150k miles.

I'm over 200k miles now and have some time plus some odd things going on with the truck. I bought a bunch of brake parts and set about doing both sides completely.

This thing is seriously rusty under the back end. I'm getting the previous owner launched a boat in salt water.

The first thing I ran into was getting the axles out. I watched videos and was ready except my diff didn't look like any of the videos. Until I found one with exactly what I was seeing and the words THIS IS THE WRONG SIDE. I rotated my diff and lo and behold there was what I wanted to see. The stupid c-clip didn't want to come out until I pushed and pried and got the axle a little more clear of things and it dropped right out.

Next was the seal. I've pulled a LOT of seals over the years. I never had one bend a pry bar before. I had to take a cold chisel and roll the edge in until I could get vice grips on it and peel it out.

At that point I decided I had to go rent a bearing puller. I slipped the puller into the bearing and started wailing away. What I got was shrapnel. The side of the race blew out and pieces flew.

But not the whole thing. With the roller bearings out of the way I walked the puller around the bearing hammering away all to no avail. A very smart friend had told me that if you run a bead of weld around the inside of the race you're pulling when you're done it'll shrink and practically fall out. I did. It didn't. I finally shoved the bearing puller all the way in through the ABS ring and got it well hooked on that. Finally I was able to pull the bearing race and the now crushed ABS ring.

When I get my new ABS rings (went ahead and ordered two from Amazon because I can't find one locally) I'll look at it to see but I think someone mangled this one before me as there was a bunch of clear silicone glopped around it.

While I have the rented puller I'll go get the other axle ready though I don't like pulling both axles out at the same time.

Oh yeah, while I was wailing away with the puller my truck started making a ticking that sounded like a relay chattering. Finally I opened the door and put the truck in park so I could take the key out. That stopped it for a while. After doing some online searching I went back to find the sound going on again. When I opened the door it stopped but this thing is dead electrically now. I wonder if it thinks I was in an accident.

Yikes what a pita, your friend is correct in regard to the weld bead and i havent seen it not work til now! Take your time going back together and do it right, even if it means waiting for some special tools so you "never" have to revisit that area again!

 

[PatDTN]

The weld bead definitely helped. I didn't run it all the way around though, only a little less than half.

I need to look up the correct procedure for installing the reluctor--likely somewhere on this site. A special tool would be nice but if I can just cut a piece of PVC to a specific length it won't cost more money and time.

 

[Rocket Man]

The weld bead definitely helped. I didn't run it all the way around though, only a little less than half.

I need to look up the correct procedure for installing the reluctor--likely somewhere on this site. A special tool would be nice but if I can just cut a piece of PVC to a specific length it won't cost more money and time.

Good luck with finding anyone who has done it. I searched and searched and couldn’t find information on it. Seems to be a pretty rare repair. I went by my alldatadiy instructions. The tool isn’t cheap either and it’s big. Here’s a pic. LMK if you want measurements.

 

[PatDTN]

Measurements would be awesome. I presume they get driven into the housing since they won't fit past the bearings. I see where the sensor sits on the housing so I would be looking to center the "fins" over that. Keeping things square would be the chief purpose of the tool.

 

[Rocket Man]

Measurements would be awesome. I presume they get driven into the housing since they won't fit past the bearings. I see where the sensor sits on the housing so I would be looking to center the "fins" over that. Keeping things square would be the chief purpose of the tool.

It sets the depth so the bearing doesn’t touch it I believe. It sits directly behind it almost in contact. And yes you drive it in just like the bearing but unlike the bearing there’s no shoulder for it to seat against. At least that’s what I understand.

 

[PatDTN]

That's what I was guessing. I don't remember seeing a shoulder for the bearing to sit against either. Need to look at that. Videos of driving in the bearing show stopping when you see the small groove outside of the bearing.