Topic: 1968 rear bearing retainer plate ?

[mhubert89]

Hi ,

Can someoe told me what is the job of the retainer plate on the rear axle ? Because i have one plate that was not straight ? Change something or the plate are just there to retaine de bearing ?

[Hipo giddyup]

The plate and its four bolts hold the axle in the housing. There are also two gaskets involved to help with retaining the gear oil. I would think you could flatten this bend out with a hammer?? In order to replace it with one that is not bent, you would have to remove the axle , press off the axle bearring, replace the plate, then reinstall the bearring (likely with a new one) and reinstall the axle in the housing. Being bent would lead me to think it could start to easily seep gear oil if your axle seal was to go bad.

[Hipo giddyup]

Some retainer plates have a "stamped" bend in them already (i'm trying to find a pciture of this), but not like what I am seeing in your pic.

[Hipo giddyup]

This is what i mean..

[mhubert89]

The problem its that i redone everythings, all new parts , new bearing were press ect ... Just disnt see this plate curve before i bolt back the back plate ! So you think that my rear axle will leak ? Everything is new in there , seal , bearing , gasket ...

[carlite65]

that curve looks perfectly normal to me. it goes at the bottom. the gaskets will match up.

[Hipo giddyup]

I will just say that I replaced the axle seals and gaskets on my 1966 8" rear last month and I have never seen a Ford retainer plate that is raised off of the mating surface?? I have also replaced all of this on my 67' and again, the retainer plate was flush all the way around. There is a "hump" in the plate that goes downward like carlite65 says as if it were to collect excess gear oil should it pass the seal. But, the area around this "hump" mates flush to the backing plate. Let's see what other might say...

Do both of your axle retaining plates look like this??

Attached is a pic of a replacment plate from CJ pony parts for 65-72 Ford 8" rears. You can see the raised "hump" that I was describing but you can also see the outer mating surface is not rasied off of the backing plate.

[67gta289]

The picture from the original post is not normal.  I would pull the axle and try to beat it into submission. If you need an original replacement I can send one your way just shoot me a PM.

[mhubert89]

Yeah my plate are not like the picture you send me ! I will try to put it back straight without removing my bearing ... Thanks 67gta289 for the orffer , will keep you post if i need another one !
Thanks for all your help !

[ruppstang]

The plate gets bent like that if you try to force the bearing in by tightening the bolts. I had to fix one that that had happened to last spring.