un-tweaking an axle housing

[Jonny-K5]

im pretty sure my rear 10b housing is bent. about 1/2" differnce between the top of drum to bottom. is it possible to straighten it and add a truss of some sort? maybe re tube it?

im not going to swap in a 14b anytime soon, dont want to get another housing and swap internals. if/when i do go w/ a 14b, i want to reuse this axle in a 2wd street truck.

any ideas?

 

[1979jimmy350]

toss it 10 bolts are pretty common i would not bother fixing the 10 bolt

 

[Jonny-K5]

toss it 10 bolts are pretty common i would not bother fixing the 10 bolt

toss it for what? 10b's with 4.56 gears and an ARB are pretty uncommon. thats why i said i didnt want to get another axle and swap the internals over. im not particularly fond of gear swaps.

im thinking of maybe retubing it tho, since i want to rotate the centersection anyway. i dont know if u can buy replacement tubes, if i cant, i could just buy another 10b thats straight and pull the tubes i guess.probly get one pretty cheap if its got a blown diff too.

 

[85mudblazin]

well it is going to be next to impossible to straighten it with making it weaker then it was, not to mention it is going to be very difficult just to straighten it. Gear swaps are not that hard especially if you already have everything in the carrier ready to go. Id go and find a 10b and slap everything in there.

 

[Jonny-K5]

i know, but i'd rather aviod a gear swap if i could.the housings arent all exact,i'd probly have to redo the pinion shims. it took me quite awhile to get the pattern right on this axle, i really dont want to do it all over again.i'd also have to drill and tap hole for the airline.

i wanted to rotate the center section anyway to eliminate shims, thats why i was thinking it wouldnt be that hard to swap out tubes at the same time.

 

[ntsqd]

You can straighten it with the right tool. You need about 4 feet of suitable sized "I" or "W" beam (wide flange I-beam) or RR rail, a BIG hyd jack, and two metal straps to go from the beam over the axle and back to the beam.

It's probably less work to swap the gears over.

 

[K5MONSTERCHEV]

I have seen my boss has straighten a few axles. Normally we just replace them, but sometimes we've had to . I dont remember exaclty how he did it but I belive he had somehting in the housing, some sort of ratchet from one side to the other, wood, a torch and a hose. I didnt pay too much attention when he did it. If you'd like I could ask exactly what he did.

 

[highrider_44s]

here's what you do. Got a torch, well on the opposite side the bend is facing head a red hot line down the center of the tube just in the radius of the bend and maby a little past it on both sides then let it cool by itself then check it again for straightness you might have to repeat a few times to get it straight. We've done this to a axle once got it preaty straight

 

[Jonny-K5]

doesnt heating it up cherry red ruin the strength, and wouldnt it just bend right back?

K5MONSTERCHEV i'd like to hear how your boss did this.thanks

i noticed when i jack the truck up with the jack under the diff, the tires seem pretty straight. didnt take any measurements like that, but looked pretty good. there isnt any real obvious bends, just kinda fatigued i guess.

 

[highrider_44s]

I don't know if it will hurt the strength much we did it on a 10 bolt for a car but you mentioned trussing it.

all you heat is a line maby a 1/4" or so down the middle of the tube. When you do this the metal expands and lines up the molicules in the metal or something then when it cools gradually the metal shrinks and thats what pulls the axel straight. a old machinist told me this trick

 

[zcarczar]

Johnny, let me know if you need a housing, I got a couple here.

 

[Jonny-K5]

thanks for the offer jason, i might take you up on that

after looking it over for awhile, and since its only mildly bent... i think im going to try trussing it. if it ends up not working, owell... it would be good experience.

here's what i think i'll do. jack the rear end up with a floor jack under the center section. this will unload/straighten the axle enough to build the truss. i took someone elses rear axle pic and did some quick design ideas.here's 3 different setups i came up with.

yellow is truss tube(not sure what material yet).

green would be gusseting,1/4" plate maybe?

red is tube tying into pinion area. this will be attached similar to a M.O.O. truss with a clamp style attachment.mainly causs i dont want to weld on the cast. i think a solid clamp setup will suffice for this portion.

height of the triangle will be as much as i can get away with and still clear the floor at full stuff.these are just rough ideas, so any advise would be greatly appreciated. which one looks best? what would you change? thanks

 

[K5MONSTERCHEV]

I was thinking today, you could change the housings and it wont really matter. You have an ARB, so that means youll have to drill the new housing for the ARB, but as far as swapping the gears go, it shouldnt be a problem, assuming it has the correct caps, nothing should change when you swap it over. I have dont it plenty of times at work. I cant belive I didnt realize that when I first read the post.

 

[Jonny-K5]

i know i could swap housings, im trying to avoid that right now. when i installed the arb's and gears a buddy from work helped me, used his garage and his tools(hes a diesel mechanic). i dont have anywhere clean enough to do a job like this. and after helping me install these, he never wanted to do it again.

like i said its just barely bowed, more fatigued than bent. hardly noticeable. i think if i built a truss like i said above it would pretty much fix it. even if i did swap housings i would still want some type of stiffening truss.

the goal now is to get it as straight as possible, keep it under the truck for awhile, then eventually swap it under my 2wd street truck. ive got a 14b collecting dust at work. probly bite the bullet and plan for a 3/4 ton upgrade.
anyone have a good writeup on a gearswap/detroit install for a 14b?