Do I have rear axle play?

[Berggreen]

Dear All

I have a 280SL from 1971, where I for a long time have thought that I have excessive play in the rear axle, which I should take care of by eg. finding another rear axle. I don't hear any high pitched noises from the rear axle at any time, only some light low frequency sound from cold, but I guess it could also come from the tires, as it is a similar sound as tire noise.

We did change the rear axle oil some years ago to a thicker 120W rear axle oil, to try to reduce the effect of what we at that time thought was wear, because the automatic gearbox was shifting poorly at low speed with neutral gas. However, now I am in doubt, if I at all have any harmful play and wear in the rear axle.

What we do to check it, is to raise the car on a lift, and then while holding one rear wheel fixed, we move the other wheel, and in that process we feel some play. However, is this actually normal and it should be like that, or is it actual wear in the rear axle we feel?

Hope you can help me clarify this.

Cheers,

Christian

[SwedenBens]

Hi, have the same issue, to much play in right rear wheel, can also hear kind of metal noise when i giggle the wheel, my impression are from the joint, the axle are been recently  overhauld with 3;46, new bearing etc, maybe best to take axle out and start from there?!

[Pawel66]

Is it not related to the type of the rear right bearing we have in our cars?

When you search "rear right bearing" you will get a lot of hits with threads that may explain it perhaps.

Please note that, e.g. SKG are producing those bearing with various tolerances - some are tighter, some have more play by design.