Identification and Elimination of Rear Axle Differential Side Bearing Failures on a Medium Duty Cycle Vehicle

This paper represents identification and elimination of differential side bearing failures of a medium duty cycle vehicle. Using instrumented bearings, it is demonstrated that the variation in preload drop during tube pressing operation depends on tube to carrier fitting tolerances. The variability in bearing preload drop is identified and CAE analysis revealing the phenomena behind this issue is conducted. Implementation and verification of corrective actions are also covered within this paper.