Full Float Rear End - Bent Housing? (1 Viewer)

[45Kevin]

I've been having trouble keeping the nuts tight on one axle on the rear end of my truck for a while.
A romp (more like thrashing) through Tillamook off road area at Cruisin' the Woods resulted in a leak at the axle flange and after tightening the nuts, three of them "disappeared" on a subsequent highway drive.
A guy in our club suggested it might be a bent housing.

I'm looking for second opinions.
Is there a way to check for a bent housing?

 

[whitey45]

Kevin,

Probably just failed studs, have seen this happen before. I would replace with new studs and torque to spec!

Brian

 

[cult45]

Hub stud upgrade at the same time!

 

[dr_claw]

x2 stud upgrade. Either drill out and thread with a larger size, or use ARP / Trail Gear stuff.

 

[65swb45]

I am not an expert on full float axles Kevin. But I remember talking with @DaveWest5150 who has one, and had a lot of problems initially. I remember that he also said that once he got religious about staying on top of the wheel bearing adjustments, he had no further issues.

This makes sense to me, because the rear axleshafts do not float the same way a birf does, so any wheel bearing free play transfers completely to the drive face.

 

[dogfishlake]

Since the rear doesn't have a separate drive flange from the splined axle like the front (rear flange and axle are one unit), there really is no available play on the flange. It sounds like your bearings are a bit too loose making the floating hub camber from the weight of the truck. That misalignment is breaking the studs, which like the others have noted, are probably due for an upgrade anyway.

Way better fix than needing a housing at least. Good luck!

 

[stumpofj40]

A bent axle housing could causes this to happen. I knew a guy who kept loosing studs and it turned out his housing was bent.
In saying that I'd just check wheel bearings, swap axle studs and keep an eye on it.

 

[love2fly]

Hi Kevin, not sure if this is a good answer or the one you want to hear, as when I got my 82- 45 with a full float rear axle it to had loose nuts and looked kind of what you have in your picture. Of course I did a complete build so the rear axle was removed and what I did was strip it down just to were it was the housing, cleaned it of the 30 + years of crud and then we set a level laser up on one side of the axle opening with the gears, bearing, races and such removed so we could see right thought to the other end. The laser worked well telling me that the housing was not bent, but just in case I also used a 1/2" steel rod that was dang straight and ran it into the housing end to end were I could measure with a feeler gauge any differences in the housing as we moved it to the bottom, both sides, and top. Spot on. You would see any differences, a little hard to see but a good LED bright flash light comes in handy.
I do remember that the bearings were not tight and most likely the seeping and nuts being loose were as the others have described. I do not know of a good way to check the out side of the housing maybe someone knows that answer.
Cheers