Rear Bearings and Seals.

Are the rear shafts 'handed' e.g. unique Lt hand and Rt hand or would it be sufficient to take one complete shaft with a new bearing already fitted as a spare on a long trip?
Thank you.

One is much longer than the other: the differential is not in the middle.

Thanks for the speedy reply. Silly me, (stupid really).

I was hoping to avoid taking two spares with me on a long trip. I like Renards Videos re:- changing rear bearings but there seems little alternative to taking complete half shafts.

When I was pulling mine on & off & on & off it did occur to me to modify the brake backplates so that the bearing retainer piece was separate from the backplate, and the backplate could stay on the car. Needed another pair of backplates to chop up and a shim ring the thickness of the backplate.

Without this the backplate has to be attached, between the bearing and the hub flange, making a pair of spare assembled shafts huge.

I'd pack a pair of bearings and retainer rings and trust that some bush mechanic could change them.

Wouldn't that be a bum bum putting that back together wrong :pinch:

I'm coming to the same conclusion that I should change the bearings prior to leaving and carry spare bearings, rings and seals and use a local bush mechanic. However I may have a part solution.
Question:
Is the shaft parallel and the bearing an interference fit along the full length of the shaft, or just for the last few centimeters? If it is a tight fit only over the last few centimeters I thing I could make a simple press rig out of a small hydraulic bottle jack, some angle iron and bolts. That would leave only the need to cut the bearing off.