My son and I finally swapped a reconditioned front axle into my Grand Wagoneer. The axle is from a mid 80's J10 and everything bolted up pretty well. I left the hubs and rotors off of it to save a little weight for when we were handling it.
I had bearings I purchased several years ago for the hub (inner and outer along with the inner race). We packed the bearings, installed the inner race and bearing then put the seal on the backside of the hub. The bearing would not seat onto the spindle deep enough to allow the outer bearing on and the spindle nuts. Took everything apart and checked the bearing. It was the correct bearing (104949) and matched the one I took out. It would only slip onto the spindle when very carefully lining it up and in one specific way. No matter what we tried it would not go on.
Out of frustration I tried the old bearing and it slipped on but was not loose. The bearing itself seemed fine but it was used and did not match all my other fresh parts. I put the old bearing in the inner race and put the seal back on. The driver side sits in nicely and allows the outer bearing into the correct place. When I put on the spindle nut with the bump, the lock washer with the holes, then the smooth spindle nut all torqued down I can still see about two or three threads on the spindle.
On the passenger side, however, even using the old bearing it does not seem to sit onto the spindle far enough. When the spindle nuts and washer are installed I can see two threads or so of the outer spindle nut that did not make it onto the spindle. The drive gear (splined to connect the hub and the stub axle) barely has enough room for the snap ring to be installed.
Are there different length spindles and the axle I bought came miss matched? What am I doing wrong?