I have a 2WD 2000 Silverado with the rear wheels have some in and out play. Not like the front wheels when the bearing/hub goes bad. Is there a replaceable bearing in the rear axle? What else could cause the problem?
Most have a little in/out play, this is normal for the rear end. After all the axle's just slip in and are held in place by a c-clip from going out and the spider gear bar from going in, but there's still a little movement. It's a completely different setup from the front and using a different type of bearing. Most rear ends are like this. At least on 1/2 ton trucks. There's other rear ends that are setup differently where you won't have any in/out play. I won't get into that here, but for YOUR truck it's normal, well unless it's moving in/out a 1/2" then something is wrong. A 1/16" or so wouldn't be unusual. There are specs for this of course and with the right tools you can measure it and check, but I'm pretty sure it's normal. I've seen MANY and I haven't seen one that's been excessive. If it's at that point your loosing your axle. It'll slide right on out. If you ever take a closer look at how that Axle is held into place, you'd wonder why they aren't flying out all over the place. See if there was excessive movement, the C-Clip could fall out and then the axle slide right on out just like that.
There is a bearing in the rear axle of course, right behind the seal in the axle housing. Normally if it goes BAD you'll have a axle seal leak and if bad enough the axle can move side to side or up and down. That's not normal, but in/out IS normal as the Axle just slides In and Out. It's a single straight roller bearing. On the front normally you have 2 tapered bearings facing each other and then a Nut holding it all together. Even on sealed bearings. This is why you don't get any movement on the front normally. There are some that you purposely want to leave a bit loose so that the brake caliper will back off normally so the brakes will last a whole lot longer. Generally on some Fords. Again, in your case it doesn't sound like a problem! You still may want to take it to a shop to check it out for sure, since you don't seem to have enough experience.
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