Cut and Turned Axle Weirdness (1 Viewer)

[Fast Eddy]

We're doing a knuckle refresh on my cut&turned fj62 axle.

The long side required a slide hammer to get the axle out. Now putting it back together it appears that the knuckle ball is as much as 1/4" too high for the axle/birf assembly to go back in.

The current thinking is that the knuckle was cut all the way through by accident during the C&T and then welded back on too high. (??) I bought it all together and this is the first time I had it apart. This side was leaking some gear oil and I only put about 5-6k miles on it in 5 years.

Sorry I didn't take some pics...

To be clear, the knuckle is not installed yet. This is just the bare axle and the inner axle assembly.

Thoughts?

 

[spotcruiser]

Long side bent upwards? Isn't a 62 axle gusseted?

 

[White Stripe]

Sounds like its bent or something. Any pics?

 

[Fast Eddy]

It is not bent as far as we can tell. It is gussetted.

I suppose it wouldn't need to be bent that much to get to where it is.

The axle shaft is pointing down. Is that the normal direction for a bent housing? I did beat on it pretty hard last time out. Hmm...

 

[reddingcruiser]

If you have a bore scope (or get creative with a mirror) you should be able to determine if it was cut through, as you are theorizing.

 

[Bluegrass40]

When did the knuckle start leaking fluid? If it has been leaking for a while it is a lower probability of recent damage.

 

[Fast Eddy]

Good idea Dick.

The knuckle was leaking before the suspected damage date. Even after, it was just "required maintenance" leaking, not buckets. Perhaps afterwards was when I noticed oil on the tire for the first time. (?) Need to pay better attention.

 

[Fast Eddy]

It seems to me that the weakness in the knuckle balls that are fixed by this Marlin Kit is a likely culprit.

Anyone have a spare knuckle ball already removed from an axle?

 

[White Stripe]

If the birfield is hitting the bottom of the knuckle ball and you cant easily get it over the bottom edge of the ball then you may have a bent housing. Looking at that pic you have some nice fab work on that axle. However while those gussets in your pic do prevent the knuckle ball from the possibility of cracking, you can still bend the housing near the ubolt area where their is no gussetting, and from what I have read in forums and from pics, that is the typical place that a housing bends-it bends up and it usually bends at the u-bolt area. If you pull your ubolts you could get a straight edge on the bottom of the housing to check.

 

[too tall]

In my experience , bending a housing is really easy. Those knuckle ball gussets only help from the outside of spring perch to the ball. I have found that all of the housings I have seen bent are directly under the spring perch as it becomes the fulcrum under flex. From your photo, It looks bent to me and all indicators point to a bent housing. I would be hesitant to think the ball has anything toy do with your issue. Find a place to tie your axle down on either side of the perch and bend it back with a bottle jack.

 

[pjohnson]

Classic symptom of a bent housing. As mentioned, it's likely at the spring perch. Put a straight edge on it.

 

[Cruiser Corps]

If I have to use a slide hammer to pull an axle shaft out, my first thought is bent housing, and I'll start checking from there. Straight edge top, bottom, front, and rear should confirm.

- Josh

 

[Pin_Head]

You can straighten it by welding stringer beads on the lower half of the axle tube and letting it cool and shrink one at a time until it pulls back into straightness. It is a welded housing, so more welding won't screw it up. The closer you weld to the differential, the bigger the deflection upon metal shrinkage.

 

[Fast Eddy]

Sorry for the confusion, but the pic I posted is not my axle. It's a pic I stole from the interwebs to show the marlin gusset.

It's an fj62 axle, so it's got a truss on the bottom from the diff to the spring perch. Seems unlikely to bend the housing there. More likely at the spring perch or the knuckle ball itself.

Pin_Head, you make me wonder if we didn't possibly pull it out of straightness when we welded on the spring perches. (??)

1/4" out at the knuckle is a lot if you're starting at the spring perch.

 

[pbgbottle]

I have a similar issue with mine and to get my axle birf out I have to loosen the trunnion caps to get it out. And also I thought my housing was bent because I couldn't slide mine straight out ,but what was really wrongs was that I grinded more material from he bottom than the top to get the birf to fit in the ball without rubbing but once the knuckle was torqued down the birf wouldn't slide in. Seemed housing was bent which it wasn't. Just poor grinding on my part. Your housing may still be straight just the ball grinding work was messy. Just saying Something maybe to consider Typing from cell phone hope that makes some kind of sense.

 

[Fast Eddy]

My knuckles are not in the picture yet. The birf won't clear the knuckle ball. Presumably the axle seal would fail almost immediately with them like this.

 

[GRM]

Sorry to say it, but you have a Bent axle housing.

This is why diamond axle is in business. With big tires, soft springs and lots of wheeling, these axles can and will bend.

Upgrade to a diamond and never think about this again.

 

[White Stripe]

This is my front housing. It just looked like it was extremely vulnerable to being bent...

So I trussed it like crazy all the way into the triangled differential area where I believe is the strongest part of the housing. I would have liked to have gone straight across the front, but since I'm not soa I didn't have room.

So far no bent housing


 

[too tall]

Looks like you added some good support over the u-bolt area. That is where I have seen most get bent. I would agree the diamond housing is a beauty way to go but if you can't afford one then white stripe's SUA housing looks like to would hold up pretty well. I have built many SOA front housings. I build them with a brace in the front incorporating the bump stops into the end of it. I use one of my trucks in particular pretty hard somedays and it has been holding up well for quite some time.