CHASSIS 101- REAR AXLE MAINTANCE

 Ok, we’ve all been racing since the Shoot Out and now the race car is starting to talk to us. It will actually tell you when it needs some attention other than your normal weekly racing maintenance.

 Jason’s has been asking for some attention for the last three weeks, but with being busy and then the tornadoes and the tornadoe relief there just hasn’t been enough time.

 For the last three weeks when we rolled the race car around the rear axle would pop and creek and make all kinds of noises that it didn’t make when it was new.

 So what causes this, I hear it at the race track every week from about half the cars there. It’s the rear axle spacers and bearing inserts. They have become un square, the left side is worse than the right. The long tapered spacers are the worse one’s. So we removed all the spacers and bearing inserts put them on the lathe and squared them back up and now all the noise in the rear end is gone.

 When you’ve gone this far you might as well service the rear axle bearings, either replace them or clean and repack them.