Too much back and forth motion in axel

Hello. Im new to this forum. So this is my first post. I have a 94 Z28 camaro with an automatic transmission. Ever since i bought the car there was a lot of scraping coming from the rear of the car. I got the car checked by a mechanics and they said that its the rotor scraping against the caliber. This is caused by the fact that there is an excessive back and forth motion coming from the rear axel. They took the rear end a part and said i need a whole "differential' (carrier) and two carrier bearings. My question is .....DO I REALLY NEED THE WHOLE CARRIER or can i just buy the parts i need??????? I realize the mechanics just want to make money. The car is fine to drive. It just scrapes around turns.
My knowledge of cars is limited so any help would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU.

I have never heard of anything like that before. Cause your axle is held in place by a C clip and the differential is a certain size with a pin in the center so it can't travel. Only thing I can think of that would cause that is a broken c clip or a damage axle but I could be wrong.

If you have a buddy that can help you take your axle apart, that would help a lot because you could see if the C clip is broken, but never heard of that before :screwy:

Thanks for replying so quickly guys. When they had the rear end apart, they said that the c clips were good. They were pointing out these two smaller gears that were worn. I could tell they were chewed up a bit. The other gears were fine. I was told they were the problem. I asked if i could just buy them two smaller gears but they seemed to think i needed a whole carrier and bearings. There is no noise coming from the rear end at all while driving. Even under very hard throttle. Theres just that high pitch scraping noise from the rotor. I had it at the chev dealer also and they moved the axle back and forth and without even taking the rear end apart they told me the same as the other place. Ill have to take it somewhere else to get a third opinion. Thanks again.

just curious, how many miles this ride have? did you see any broken teeth when u looked, or just worn?

and welcome to af

UPDATE : Sorry it took so long to get back to you all. I decided to take my chances by not getting it fixed for a while. Now it seems that one of my tires are "hopping" or "skidding" as im making a sharp turn. And im hearing more noise from the rear end. Oh and there is over 220,000 KM on the car. So yes the miles are high. Its in mint shape though. Also when they had the rear end apart i noticed the gears were chewed up pretty bad. So i suppose i have no choice but to replace the rear end. Have anybody else had this problem?? Thanks for any comments.

well your cheapest option is get a rear out of a donor car and swap it in, it's a 3-4 hr job if you take your time with it.... that is if your diff IS worn, and check on gear ratios.


But honestly, the only way the rotor can wobble and scrape is if it's worn, or the wheel isn't torqued down well enough

Sounds like a bad axle bearing. I had a friend with a '69 Malibu that did this - the drum for the driver side rear wheel locked in turns, and made noise on straight roads. The axle bearing was shot. Once replaced, the problem went away.

Saginaw axles do that frequently. The problem started in the '70s and '80s when the axles were converted from a retained bearing to the "C" clip design. It is common enough that the aftermarket has "C" clips that are made in the standard 0.150" thickness, and in .005" increments up to 0.170".

In your case, it sounds like the side gears are worn/galled, and clips are not going to be a solution. You should be able to install new side gears and thrust washers, and a new spider pinion and not have to replace the carrier unless the side gears actually started to wear into the carrier itself. When you're all finished, longitudal lash in the axles should be as follows:

Maximum Allowable Axial Play in Axle Shafts

Standard Differentiual Limited Slip Differential
Axle under 45,000 service miles:
0.040" 0.065"

Axle over 45,000 service miles:
0.055" 0.085"

If you hae to replace the carrier, you'll have to perform the complete setup procedure for the axle, including setting pinion depth, centering the carrier, preloading the bearings, and checking contact patterns. If you're not up for that, the replacement axle idea may be a good alternative.

It's fairly easy to check:

http://72.19.213.157/files/Axial%20Play.jpg

I ended up buying a new rear end carrier from the dealer. Expensive route i know but its my baby we are talking about. :) Everything is fine now. Thanks guys for all the help.