So how bad did I screw this up?

[Mstone68440RR]

In preparation of getting my car dialed in to take to the local antique drags next weekend for its first trip to the strip, I found both rear axle seals were toast and leaking fluid all over the rear brake assemblies.

I was able to remove the axles with no issue and watched some YouTube videos on the bearing removal using a small cut off wheel, and a chisel. I followed the tutorial closely and carefully removed the outer seal, then the bearing itself and finally the inner collar.

This is where I noticed I went too deep with the cutoff well and scored the axle shaft in two places. Once lightly on the thickened edge of the shaft and a longer groove on the main shaft.

So how bad is the damage and can I fix it by carefully welding the scored areas and then polishing the areas smooth? Or should I leave this to the pros as I need to drop the axles off early next week to have my new green bearings pressed on anyway.

I don't even want to try to remove the second axle bearing for fear of doing the same thing again.

 

[Photon440]

I'd be leery about adding heat to the shaft with weld. However, it's a common enough repair by using thin sleeves.

http://daemar.com/shaft_repair_sleeves_17.html

 

[cdr]

green bearings are sealed, so as far as leaks go you should be ok, the axle my be weakened but i doubt it.

 

[Mstone68440RR]

green bearings are sealed, so as far as leaks go you should be ok, the axle my be weakened but i doubt it.

True, I wasn't really worried about that as much as whether the bearing would wear on the damaged area of the shaft?

 

[Cranky]

As long as the bearing fit is good, just smooth/round off the sharp edges of the cut and keep on keeping on. I think a lot of us has done that at one time or another and I've found it on several axles that I've pressed bearings off of. Had one that had a pretty deep groove and it wasn't no telling how long it had been in service before I found it....

 

[bm02tj]

Like Cranky said stress relief the sharp edges and corners to remove weakness

 

[Bb70charger500]

Clean it up and run with it I've seen worse.

 

[RT K_line]

Like everyone else said put the bearing on and run it, the axle seal is further in where the black line is on the shaft anyway.

 

[747mopar]

I'm with everyone else on this. I've done it before as well just not on an axle and have changed my way of going about it. If you use a regular grinding wheel and grind one whole side of the bearing down you can clearly see when your about threw by watching for the metal to turn purple from the heat. Once it turns purple it's thin enough to loose it's grip and will knock right off. Works for me

 

[Mstone68440RR]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I feel a lot better about it now. I dropped the axles off today to have the new green bearings pressed on and the machinist said he has definitely seen much worse and it shouldn't be an issue