Rear axle play - advice needed

Hi!

So this morning I dissasembled rear drum brakes to see why my handbrake is only for decoration and noticed this. Frankly, It scared the s*** out of me. I finally started to atest my winch, suspension and tires, so last few days I was on the highway a lot and this doesn't sound safe.

What to do? Axle spins easy and no grinding or any noises from either side, but my left axle has cca.5mm play

You've got to pull the half shaft and replace the bearing but you may well have damaged the splines on the diff end.

Strip down and inspect, half shafts and diff, if I were you.

Good luck.

sniper

What wheel bearing do I need and can it be found in SKF? Are all halfshafts the same, or should I look for specific manufacturing date? My Jimny is '06.

Suzuki parts are rare and expensive here, so I'll be lucky to find a halfshaft from an older Jimny - there are some 2002-2004 Jimnys for parts, would that work?

Bearings are available through the bigjimny shop.

If you have no choice, I think the bearings are the same on all years, using a secondhand one is not good........

Don't forget to inspect the diff, at least clean and change the diff oil.

sniper

I was thinking of used half-axle, not bearing.

I've changed the oil not long ago, it's done les than 1k kilometers since then. Oil was relatively clean with no metal residue, and no oil was missing. That's what confuses me, if the bearing is destroyed whay isn't it leaking oil? It turns freely, no rubbing or scratching, no side-to-side play, only front to back.

But than again, I've never dissasembled the axle so don't really know how it all works and what actually holds the half-shaft in place.

That looks more like end float than bearing damage. Check that the bearing location system is not damaged. It would explain why there is no oil leak at it appears that the whole bearing is moving slightly rather than the inner moving in relation to the outer which you would get with a collapsing bearing.