merci Seb pour cette réponse, effectivement, une purge sera nécessaire

.
Ça y est le demi-arbre est sorti.
- J'ai commencé par démonter le gros écrou (clé de 15/16), en le desserrant avec la roue sur le sol (conseil du blatchat, bien utile, voir ci-dessous),
- J'ai ensuite démonté les 4 écrous fixant le hub (clé de 1/2),
- J'ai enlevé la vis de purge (bizarrement, clé de 11mm ici

), purgé, démonter l'arrivée de frein (tuyau en cuivre).
- J'ai enlever l'arbre en tirant dans le sens axial, tout est venu sans problème. Tout est propre, on retrouve le jeu dans le mouvement du roulement, donc le problème est localisé.
Sur ces deux là, on voit le jeu axial du roulement (bien visible au niveau de l'arbre).
Le désassemblage continue demain ... puis remontage avec une cale/entretoise pour ôter le jeu.
J'ai reçu un fichier d'un des gars du blatchat, Revin Kevin

, qui explique comment monter, démonter le demi-arbre. Tout ça en Anglais

. Voilà en copie pour info. Cela en aidera peut-etre certains.
Before you spend money on either type of axle I would consider what
engine/torque/bhp you are going to up grade to as this may effect the
decision to upgrade the Ital or replace with an English. As ball park
figures if up to 150lbs of torque and 200 bhp it will be cheaper to stay
with the Ital . If you go the whole hog and do the work yourself a quaife
lsd is about £550 and to have a couple of shims made up for the bearings will probably cost you £25 to £50. An uprated CW&P is another £225+ vat, not 100% necessary but good insurance if you are up towards 200bhp. New half shafts are available at about £130 each and are supposed to be a little stronger than the originals (all rough costs the last time I looked). The weakest bits to replace are the sun and
planet gears which the LSD does along with the upgrade and the shims to stop
the bearings moving.
An English axle axle will set you back best part of £1k to fit it (if you
do the job properly) in the car and for this you will have a bog standard
axle (no lsd), although if you are going for lots of torque this is the way
you will probably have to go along with the extra costs if you want to
upgrade to LSD uprated shafts and hubs etc.
One point to look out for is some Ital axles had the bearings tact welded
to the half shafts to stop the bearings moving, this is a dangerous practice
as this causes a stress raiser and shaft failures. I'm sure this is where
some of the reputation that Ital axles are not up to the job.
When building an Ital axle: -
Shafts and bearings
-Undo the hub nuts about a turn whilst the wheels are still on the ground, it makes life easier later
- Jack up and remove wheel and all of the brake drum/shoe assembly and disconnect the brake pipes and the handbrake rod.
- undo the four nuts and bolts that secure the back plate to the axle.
- Then either with a slide hammer or put the wheel back on and hit from behind on opposite sides using soft hammer etc to protect wheel (I’ve got an old wheel I use for this), with draw the shaft and hub.
- This is the point you will need a press or pullers to withdraw the hub and shaft apart.
Be careful when doing this, people just tend to put the pressure on until the taper lets go. This amount of pressure can buckle the hub. Either put some pressure on and then with a hammer give a sharp crack to the top of the puller/half shaft, this will often cause the taper to let go. The hub nut only being undone a turn will stop it coming off with a bang. (Make sure the end of the shaft is protected or you will damage the tread) If this does not work a little heat on the hub usually does the trick.
- Now the hub is off, drift the old bearing off
-Now it’s all apart. Before reassembly lap the hub onto the shaft, this will make it lock together better and release better if it needs to come apart again. Also check the oil seal in the end of the axle tube is in good order, it gets forgotten about.
- Drift the new bearing on the shaft with oil seal outwards until it buts up against the raised oil seal collar on the shaft.
- Put the hub back on and nip it up. You or a local engineering company now need to measure the distance between the back of the hub and the bearing accurately and machine a shim to suite (+0 to -2 Thou).
-Reassemble is basically reverse but seal the back plate to the axle tube with a flange sealant. Also make sure that the outer oil dust/oil seal’s drain holes line up with the hole in the axle and are clear (then get clogged with squeezed out sealant)
- Always use new hub nuts and torque them up to 100lbs and re torque after
the first careful drive. I always then mark them with paint so you can visually see
if the nut moves. With the lapped taper and the hub nuts torqued correctly the hub should never move on the shaft which has also been a problem in the past which leads to the hub cracking and failing.
Whilst it’s all apart I always disassemble the brake adjuster and re grease it and check for corrosion behind the dust seal on the wheel cylinder.
Further tips
-If you remove the pinion nut, before you replace it clean both areas fully
and seal under the nut and washer with flange sealant otherwise
oil will leak out up the splines. Use flange sealant on the diff to axle tube face not a gasket, this joint can flex and leak if a gasket is used.
-Always over fill the axle with oil, you should be able to get about 2 ltrs
in. Fill via the filler plug then add about another half to two thirds of a ltr via the
breather. It's a good idea if you strip the axle completely to drill and
tap the breather hole a larger dia and do away with the standard breather
for a long inverted U breather pipe( better breathing and easier if you fill
this way). Be aware that some caterham axles have two filler plugs, if so
fill via the top one and don't add the extra half ltr.
-If you change the diff or CW&P you will need to re set the CW&P back lash,
I set mine to 5-8 thou. A little more than standard but not as loose as race
diffs. I've found that if you set the back lash at 7-10 thou (race clearance) they knock a lot on power on/off on the road, which I find annoying.
-If the shafts in your axle have been tact welded previously I would replace them (extra cost unfortunately)
-Not directly axle related but while it's all apart it is worth uprating the
brake wheel cylinders in the drums to 3/4 from 5/8. This will give you a
little more rear braking effort, I've always found the standard a little
under braked.
Just for your interest the shafts fail when kerb jumping at the outer end
were the keyway ends, IE this is causing a stress raiser and the repeated
shock loadings eventually cause the failure of the shaft at this point.
DO NOT CURB JUMP WITH THE ITAL AXLE, this is what causes most failures