Axle shaft stubs rubbing spindle seal(and spindle)

[drcomanche]

I went to diagnose the noises I had been hearing in 4x4 and also do basic maintenance, so I disassembled the hubs and pulled the shafts. The noise that led me to this point was a very loud metal on metal groaning that got worse the more it moved. When I took the hub apart on the side the noise was coming from(had to put it up in the air and let the wheels turn to figure it out) I pulled the spindle and it was eaten into by the axle shaft. It managed to chew straight through the seal and took a good 1/8 inch out of the spindle. I'm not sure if the spindle itself is salvageable, considering the damage to the area where the seal is supposed to seat. Because I was doing u joints and general maintenance, I also took apart the other side to see that the axle shaft on that side, while not hitting the spindle, had completely eliminated the seal, no metal left, just the rubber ring stuck around the shaft. 

 

So, I'm all ears to what might cause this drastic of axle shaft movement. The axle shaft snap rings were firmly in place when removed, so there shouldn't be movement from that. The axle is a D44 Front axle from a 70s Bronco. Also, when messing with the axle shafts while everything was together, there seemed to be no noticeable back and forth movement, at least by hand. 

[Jeep Driver]

Pics would help.

[drcomanche]

This is about as good a pic as I can get. 

[drcomanche]

Since there's no real suggestions here, I'll throw something up and see what the collective techs think. I've been steadily prepping parts to go back on and while prepping the axle shafts, I noticed 2 things.

 

One is that one of the inner shafts has experienced a u joint failure before as I can see some metal deformation where it pushed against the outer edges. The shaft itself seems straight and the yoke looks aligned visually, but I don't have the tools to check fine measurements. I'm not sure how or if some incorrect angles could effect the play in the axle shaft, but I figure there could be a chance.

 

The second is a far more noticeable problem. My axle shaft outers are 2 different pieces. The measurements are close but off by about a quarter to a half an inch, including extra metal at the bottom of the yoke. This seems like a surefire reason, since it's slightly longer putting it closer, but it still brings questions about why it took so long for symptoms to appear, why it only does it after about 5 minutes in 4x4, and how it achieves such force against the spindle to grind that much out of it. 

 

I'm not sure what this spindle came from(probably a non transferable later year bronco) but it does have an extra snap ring space as well. 

 

 

 

[DirtyComanche]

Pretty normal for this to happen with the wrong length outer shafts or when the snap ring groove is in the wrong place.  The ujoint will naturally want to self center when turning, but otherwise the shaft can walk in and out with the snap ring on the end really being all that sets where it will run.  It probably took a few minutes and a few turns for it to try to center the ujoint, which forced the shaft into the bearing/spindle.

 

Honestly I hate early D44 stuff because of all the different configurations.

[drcomanche]

I hadn't really thought about the fact that it will center with the balljoints automatically, which makes perfect sense(I just overlooked it). I'm thinking that the outer is the issue at large, so I ordered some new chromoly ones to, hopefully, amend the problem.