Solid rear axle for an automotive vehicle

Unified assembly for a solid axle of an automotive vehicle, said unified assembly comprising:

• a wheel end including:
• a housing;
• a hub having a drive flange located axially beyond the housing and a spindle that projects into the housing;
• a bearing located between the housing and the hub spindle to enable the hub to rotate about an axis, the bearing including outboard and inboard outer raceways carried by the housing and spaced axially apart, outboard and inboard inner raceways carried by the hub around the hub spindle and presented outwardly toward the outboard and inboard outer raceways, respectively, the outboard raceways being inclined in one direction with respect to the axis and the inboard raceways being inclined in the other direction with respect to the axis, at least the inboard inner raceway being on a race that is initially separate from the hub spindle, and rolling elements located in an outboard row between the outboard raceway and in an inboard row between the inboard raceways;
• and
• an axle shaft having at its end a drive spindle that projects into and is captured within the hub of the wheel end and being engaged with the hub such that it can transmit torque to the hub.

A solid axle for an automotive vehicle;

• said solid axle including:
• an axle center containing differential gearing;
• axle tubes extending from the axle center along an axis;
• a wheel end at the end of each axle tube, each wheel end including:
• a housing secured to the axle tube;
• a hub having a drive flange located beyond the housing and a spindle that projects into the housing;
• and
• an antifriction bearing located between the housing and the hub spindle, the bearing being configured to transfer radial loads between the housing and spindle and also thrust loads in both axial directions;
• and
• axle shafts at their inboard ends connected to the differential gearing such that the differential gearing can transfer torque to them and at their outboard ends being connected to the hubs of the wheel ends so that the torque is transferred to the hubs, the axle shafts at their outboard ends being captured in the hubs of the wheel ends so that the axle shafts and hubs are unified.