Rear Axle Bearing failure

[gornoman]

A month ago I was hot-rodding my cart in some garvel and I heard a terrible sound from the rear during a power-slide. I drove around the block and continued to hear things popping and cracking. I put the cart away and ordered up a fresh hub/drum figuring I had stripped another one. Life happens and the cart sat for a month before I got up to the campground and was ready to work on it. I got it in the air, removed the driver's rear wheel, removed the axle castle nut, and pulled the drum off. As the drum came off, the axle shaft came right along with it:



That's not supposed to happen. Bearings started falling out along with other chunks of metal and rubber:


Inspection of the axle showed the bearing inner race still on the shaft:


Inspection of the axle tube showed a mess left behind. These were the remnants of the sealed bearing:


The outer race of the destroyed bearing was left inside the axle tube and could not be removed easily:


Rented (free) an axle puller kit from Advanced Auto and rigged it to remove the outer race:



Click for video:


Next problem was the axle seal, which was also crushed and had to be removed the same way:



Click for video:


Sorry about the dark videos, It was getting late....