Axle not seated in all the way?

8 inch stock rear end. installed new seals on the axle, now when I slide the axle back in, there is a gap between the axle and bearing retainer plate.

Im confident the seals are seated properly. I found some guy had this on his 9 inch housing and had to have someone on the other axle turn it so his side aligned. Is this the same for an 8 inch? Thanks in advance.

looks like its simply not sitting in the splines all the way, turning the axle to move the carrier inside the diff should allow it to pop all the way.

Thanks my friend. I will check it out tonight.

It looks to me like the splines are aligned, if that silver part is the bearing, then your seal my not be in far enough.

I went through this last fall too. Your seals are not in far enough. I found that an 1-1/4" x 1" female pipe reducing coupling is almost perfect to use as a tool to place and hold on the seal so you can hammer it in without damaging it. One side kept leaking diff fluid until I figured it out with the help of members here.
https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/rear-axle-retaining-bolts/9419/1

I wiggled it around for while, turning this and that, no luck. I had an extra set of seals, so I popped out the others.

I measured the recessed area inside the axle where the bearing should sit, roughly 11/16 of an inch or so…I then measured my bearing, it is about 3/4 (12/16)- 13/16. I put in the axle with no seal, still stuck out,so that 1/16 of the bearing sitting outside the housing is “normal” I guess.

I put the seals in, and the same gap exists.

As luck would have it, the SSBC rear brake brackets that attach to the axle have a 1/16 indentation/ring that the bearing should fir into, the the retainer plate should fit flush to that. Makes me wonder if something was there to fill the gap when it had drum brakes?

Will update on fitment when I get it reassembled

Yeah, this “gap” is normal. I looked up a few diagrams, and normally, the rear of the drum assembly would go on the axle, then the axle/with retaining plate sandwiching the drum and the axle,which would fill that gap. Thanks all!

That gap is normally filled by the backing plate and the gasket.

Royce, you are correct, thanks. This weekend I put on the brackets for the SSBC brakes, and the gap was closed, brakes and everything fit perfectly. Thanks all