You mean the pickups that have the bearings that ride directly on the axle shaft instead of using and inner race? Yeah, I have had to replace complete axle shafts along with worn out bearings due to THAT stupid design. And those are still roller bearings, although they run flat rather than being tapered.
WHY?? Many most 3/4 ton trucks have a full floating rear end, where the hub runs on a spindle with tapered bearings and the driving axle member has a separate bearing assembly. Your statment neans nothing without additional information.....
The GM idea used DUPLEX ANGULAR CONTACT BEARINGS which are entirely different design a single row ball bearing. This is when GM made their own bearings as in Delco/New Departure/Hyatt (DNH) manufacturing division. Regarding the 3/4 ton truck rear end assembly, the brake drum/hub runs on a hollow spindle with tapered bearing assembly with a separate driving axle to the gear carrier connected to the brake drum hub. YES....you can run a bearing assembly directly on a shaft IF the shaft has been hardened to a higher Rockwell number than the bearing race or roller running area....I've done exactly that in industry on a 75 ton crane hoist drive's main speed reducer....
I have had to replace axles with grooves cut in them by worn out bearings. Much more expensive than just replacing a bearing with an inner race. This is 1/2 ton, not the full floaters like 3/4 ton and bigger trucks.
Best advice.
How many times have you seen, or heard of, a car having a rear wheel and axle come out. It happened twice to people I knew when I was a kid in high school, and we would beat on our old early 60's "hot rods". And how many times have you seen pictures or video of cars loosing axles or wheels at the staging lights at drag strips? Seems like it's usually GM vehicles.....
Looks familiar, got this done yesterday, with the help of my Son !!!
That's why at a certain point you must use a c clip eliminator kit. Which is a fancy way of saying a press on ball bearing.
