Might be time for a new axle housing

[alia176]

I'm looking at this mess and don't think I can weld myself out of it . This is a culmination of 20yr of abuse+HD front sway bar not getting disconnected while wheeling. The radius arm bracket is also cracked all the way through and it was hard to capture it with the camera. The lower crack is below the gear oil level line, which explains the mess even though I'm part time with hubs!

Thankfully she didn't let go while on the hwy. This ain't no field repair!

80 has 320xxx miles.

 

[hatzlibutzli]

Clean it, weld it, beef up the radius arm bracket with sheet metal ... it is a common issue, especially when poly bushings in stead of rubber bushings are used in the radius arm. It is easyer, when the axle is not in place ... but it is also doable under the car.

 

[NeverFinis]

I would weld that. Clean, drill out the ends of the crack, weld, reinforce.

 

[chappysfj40]

i would also weld that s*** up...

what does this bolt do?

something like this for that area

 

[NeverFinis]

That bolt, as well as the one on the other side of the diff, formerly held the ABS harness.

 

[chappysfj40]

cut it off more places for the plates to go.

 

[alia176]

If it's not raining when I get home after work today I will strip the whole thing down and bring it into the garage for a proper inspection.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Weld that s*** and send it!!!!

 

[alia176]

I think what my concern is how much do I want to polish this turd? The HD sway bar + DVS arms with OEM bushings + 20 yrs of abuse = metal fatigue, which is to be expected. Once the housing is on jack stands, I'll be able to understand the degree of damage. Starting with a brand new oem housing does sound appealing while the wallet would be screaming bloody murder.

Cleaning and de-greasing the work site so that the weld will penetrate will be a challenge, I suspect. It's tempting to weld up the holes (if successful), cover up the ARB locker hole, then sand blast it at work for a fresh coat of paint. I wouldn't remove the diff or the rotors so that the housing stays closed.

Thanks for the inputs.

 

[AgentOrange]

I'm going to ask a couple questions because it seems like you may be leaning towards a new housing already. What are your plans with this rig in the future? Are you happy with how it currently wheels and drives? Are you looking for more strength or something custom? Depending on those answers, I say drain it good, clean it up really well, and weld that thing up. While you're at it, you can gusset and reinforce the other things you've mentioned and then even get really fancy and have it blasted and powder coated if you're wanting something that looks new. It's wheeled for over 20 years as is, no reason with some love it shouldn't go for another 20 more

 

[alia176]

I'm going to ask a couple questions because it seems like you may be leaning towards a new housing already. What are your plans with this rig in the future? Are you happy with how it currently wheels and drives? Are you looking for more strength or something custom? Depending on those answers, I say drain it good, clean it up really well, and weld that thing up. While you're at it, you can gusset and reinforce the other things you've mentioned and then even get really fancy and have it blasted and powder coated if you're wanting something that looks new. It's wheeled for over 20 years as is, no reason with some love it shouldn't go for another 20 more

What are your plans with this rig in the future?
> same as it always has been. 7500# of pure joy.

Are you looking for more strength or something custom?
>I like OEM chit that can be mildly improved as needed. New OEM axle housing may have a truss to keep the balls from bending, but I'm not sure where I heard that. Custom stuff is nice but I've seen too many cascading issues with that concept.

Wrenching for the sake of wrenching ain't my thing. I'm more of a user/abuser of my junk kind of guy but with a lot of respect for my junk. I drive her like I stole her, but I take good care of her. I don't drive slow, hence I'm now thinking of adding jounce shocks on all four corners. The Trimbrens up front work beautifully but the body wallowing annoys me.

While you're at it, you can gusset and reinforce the other things you've mentioned
> once it's inside the garage, i can gusset the absolute $s*** out of it . Metal fatigue will continue to happen so I'm merely moving the failure point to another part of the axle by doing all this "improvement" stuff. I just wonder if it'll last another 20 years after all this effort.

Excellent input, thank you.

 

[AgentOrange]

What are your plans with this rig in the future?
> same as it always has been. 7500# of pure joy.

Are you looking for more strength or something custom?
>I like OEM chit that can be mildly improved as needed. New OEM axle housing may have a truss to keep the balls from bending, but I'm not sure where I heard that. Custom stuff is nice but I've seen too many cascading issues with that concept.

Wrenching for the sake of wrenching ain't my thing. I'm more of a user/abuser of my junk kind of guy but with a lot of respect for my junk. I drive her like I stole her, but I take good care of her. I don't drive slow, hence I'm now thinking of adding jounce shocks on all four corners. The Trimbrens up front work beautifully but the body wallowing annoys me.

While you're at it, you can gusset and reinforce the other things you've mentioned
> once it's inside the garage, i can gusset the absolute $s*** out of it . Metal fatigue will continue to happen so I'm merely moving the failure point to another part of the axle by doing all this "improvement" stuff. I just wonder if it'll last another 20 years after all this effort.

Excellent input, thank you.

My thinking is that if you have it apart in the garage, clean up every seam and weld and then make new passes over everything, reinforcing as you go. Then I'd get knuckle ball gussets from someplace like RuffStuff, or make some yourself. Many FJ40s and Iron Pigs are still wheeling hard with many years of abuse on those housings. If I was that worried about strength and metal fatigue (I am on my rig, so this is my plan) I'd go with a fabricated housing and add 80 knuckle balls. fab housings are 3/8 thick and then with knuckle ball gussets, it'll outlive anything else, but that takes a lot more work than just cleaning up and improving what you have already

 

[alia176]

agreed!

 

[Kernal]

After that area is cleaned up (angle grinder---) would be interesting to see before and after (welding) photos.

 

[alia176]

After that area is cleaned up (angle grinder---) would be interesting to see before and after (welding) photos.

I need to figure out how to really clean the inside of that tube so that the weld will penetrate properly. I might have to use a oxy acetylene torch to boil any oil out of that area when the time comes.

I'll dig into it in the next couple of days as I'm not really that motivated to deal with it at the time. I have another vehicle that I can use for camping and mild wheeling.

 

[Broski]

You probably already know this, the amount of welding being suggested could easily warp the housing so be careful !
Even on the bench striped down a lot of those areas are hard to weld, made me wish I still had my stick welder as it's hard to get the tip of the mig down in some of those spots.
And your right it's really hard to clean, sandblasting and touching would be the way to go.

 

[reklund5]

Love to see folks just flat wear things out from years of use. Well done!

I can attest that welding on an axle can be real difficult when there's gear oil pouring out if it. That is one of the reasons I finally broke down and got a ruffstuff housing on the old mini truck.

I think in your position you'll spend days stripping and cleaning that housing before you get it clean enough to point the welder at it. As mentioned, you might consider a fixture to prevent warpage too.

Whatever you do, come visit and drink a beer in my shop when it's fixed! Engine swap starts the 28th...

 

[sogncab]

Drop the housing off and have it boiled out.

 

[alia176]

Love to see folks just flat wear things out from years of use. Well done!

I can attest that welding on an axle can be real difficult when there's gear oil pouring out if it. That is one of the reasons I finally broke down and got a ruffstuff housing on the old mini truck.

I think in your position you'll spend days stripping and cleaning that housing before you get it clean enough to point the welder at it. As mentioned, you might consider a fixture to prevent warpage too.

Whatever you do, come visit and drink a beer in my shop when it's fixed! Engine swap starts the 28th...

Agree with you 100%. There's a fine line here between time/aggravation and causing more issues downstream. @Broski, excellent point about warping as it'd be too easy to do this.

 

[alia176]

Drop the housing off and have it boiled out.

please tell me more!!!