Birfield out shaft sticking out too far

[jride100]

Is there any danger to driving with the newer (long) birfields and the older drive plate (short)? This is how mine was when I purchased it, I rebuilt front axle, switched birfield sides, and reassembled it and it looks identical to the bottom picture. the birfield is sticking out about an additional 3/8 and there is no snap ring. the grease cap when back on without a problem.

The spindle nuts and star washer are what actually "holds" the wheel on right?

 

[DanStew]

yes the spindle nuts and washer hold the wheel hub on. as long as they are on and the wheel is held on by the lug nuts, it isnt going anywhere. You probably pushed the axle back in the housing when you put the cap on. it should work fine, mine did, but check for gear oil leaking into the knuckle, the axle shaft doesnt look to come in proper contact to the inner oil seal in the housing.

 

[Grench]

No, none of that stuff can cause the axle stub to stick out. The amount the axle can stick out is dictated by the spindle bushing, the birf rides against it. There is no possible way to force the stub to stick out further than it's supposed to, other than having too long of a stub to begin with, or removing the bushing itself.

Which neglects one little fact.

It all fit together before it was taken apart.

 

[-Spike-]

It doesn't neglect the fact, it is fact. There is probably some room behind the dust cap, and on top of that it may not have been fully seated. On the last truck that I saw with this problem, the cap was on and the birf end had rubbed against the back of it, grinding it a bit. I didn't notice anything odd until I went to put the c-clip on the stub and it pulled out too far.