Opinions on full floating axle housing (1 Viewer)

[darthvincor]

Hi everyone,

I have a worn spindle on the right side of my axle housing, and have been looking for a replacement for ages. And suddenly I came across this one.
It's unused and new, but clearly very old stock.

I'm not concerned about the housing itself rust-wise, just the spindles. What do you guys think?
Would you use this part?
And they want the equivalent of about 550 USD for it.

Thanks.

 

[hj 60]

No problem, just some cleaning with a iron sponge (the one to clean metal dishes) or with an oily rag.
The bearings should come on but not turn on the spinle so if not pitted no problem. Seals are more easily damaged if forced over rust/pitting.

If the inside is rusted it will flush out when oil is filled, if gears are rusted and pitted you are about to reach a no go I think.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Agreed with the above. If the pitting is really bad then I might keep an eye out for something in better shape, but I bet it'll clean up just fine.

 

[45Kevin]

I agree as well. Clean it up and the seals should seat fine.

$550USD. For an empty housing that sounds steep. I got a full set up, drum to drum with axles and third for about the same a few years ago. But that's on this side of the pond.

 

[Slow Left]

I agree as well. Clean it up and the seals should seat fine.

$550USD. For an empty housing that sounds steep.

Not only that, but if the ones shown in the picture are all the same, then he's got 3 of them in stock...and they don't seem like they're flying off the shelves, if you know what I mean...doesn't seem to be much demand in the local marketplace, so the seller should be happy to find you as a buyer...either that or that place gets cleaned every week, but the road out front isn't paved, so all that dust is a week's worth of dust...

One bargaining technique (not sure it would work here, since in this case there is only a single 'model') is to ask the seller for the price of the most expensive model, then barter down in price until you offend them (gives you an idea of what their cost is), then inquire about the next most expensive model and bargain that price down again, until you get to the model you want to buy...then he can't price skim you...

In this case, since there are three, you might be able to do a similar trick by asking how much to take all three off his hands ("they're not doing much good here, and I might need another one for another build..."), barter down, then inspect them all very closely (inside out, flip them around...point out your concern about all the rust and how it might affect the bearings/seals...), tell him one is no good, so redo the barter thing for two and then deliberate and finally tell him you only need one ("well, seeing as they probably will still all be here when I get around to doing the build on my other rig...I'll take the one for $XX...how does that sound?...") and offer him something slightly under 1/2 the price he was offering for the two (if that price is lower than his initial offer of USD$550 for the one...)

 

[darthvincor]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll see if I can get the price down, and if I buy it, it seems to be salvageable.

If only they'd covered the spindles in grease when new and covered it with a plastic bag.