Rear axle flange damage (1 Viewer)

[bram]

Hello all,

While removing the cone washers from my rear axles I got a little overzealous. I found that hammering on the OD of the flange right where it is thinnest is a great way to break the washers free, but it is also a great way deform the flange. I was using a brass hammer but obviously if you hit it hard enough the steel will deform.

First question: How much does this matter (ie, should i replace these axles)?
Second question: What do the cone washers actually do, relative to just having nuts and lock washers holding the flange down?

At first I thought that I would need to replace the axles for sure. However, after thinking about it for a while and reading some stuff on here, I am not so sure. It's the pins that actually align the axle and the hub. It seems to me all the cone washers do is grip the studs, which they should still do, even if the countersink is a little misshapen. Also, several people on here have done all sorts of modifications to the flange / studs / pins / hub without high precision machine tools, which also leads me to believe that the washers and their countersinks are not super critical.

Thoughts?

 

[bram]

Bump

 

[Kernal]

Can you post up some photos of the damage?

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS]

Sounds like you f'd up your flange(s). Axles won't be hurt unless you messed up the axle splines really bad. As Kernal mentioned, post up some pics.

 

[hiluxjeremy]

Probably not a big deal in most cases but i wouldnt want to leave it as is either. Depends how nasty things got. I forsee issues with nuts holding torque/coming loose/off. In the past I've done the same thing in desperation, then used a small socket that made good contact on cone washer to wack things back into shape, relying on the washer to find its own happy place. Not an ideal situation by any means, but I feel the thin bit of material on the outermost edge isn't doing a whole lot anyway. Nontheless metal fatique is a scary thing and I wouldnt want to do this too many times inspite of my confidence in the quality of OEM bits. I also feel the studs and cone washer fitment are indeed a critical junction allowing the even distribution and transfer of torque from hub to axle. I've only had to resort to this on vehicles that haven't been apart in a long long time. My usual method of wacking the end of the stud good and hard with a brass punch (in my case usually a piece of hefty aluminum flatbar edge on) has always done the trick on anything Ive taken apart for service the second time or beyond. Yes it will beat up your punch, but thats the point of a soft one, to save the stud.

 

[bram]

Can you post up some photos of the damage?

Not until the weekend when I am back down at my garage. Basically if you look at the countersink its 5-10% out of round.

 

[2fpower]

bolt em' up and see if you have a vibration. If so, replace. Great thing about these axles is that you don't have to jack the car up or even take the tire off to do this.

 

[Stumpalama]

How many are misshapen-ed?

 

[maxamillion2345]

Meh, seal it up and run it.

 

[bram]

How many are misshapen-ed?

I guess they are all out of round a little bit. Its really obvious on 2 or 3 on each side.

 

[bram]

Meh, seal it up and run it.

So can anyone give me a good explanation of what the cone washers do and how they work?

 

[bram]

bump for a good explanation of what the cone washers do and how they work.

 

[maxamillion2345]

My thoughts are that they help center the holes for one. For two, theyre conical spring split washers so they help keep tension on the nuts and help to keep them from backing off.

 

[inkpot]

My thoughts are that they help center the holes for one. For two, theyre conical spring split washers so they help keep tension on the nuts and help to keep them from backing off.

They also take all of the play out of the fitment between the flange and hub. It would be really hard to make this into a hard-fit situation like when you press on parts with a couple of thousandths of interference. John

 

[bloc]

To tag on to what inkpot said, the cone washers effectively reduce the length of the stud. This reduces how much they can stretch and flex by only having a small portion of it free floating.. the rest is clamped by the cone washer, transmitting torque to almost the whole ID of the cone shaped hole.

Take a look at how big the bolts need to be on a USDM full-float axle flange from a 3/4-ton pickup.. toyota basically did the same with a 6mm stud and 12mm nuts via clever engineering.. and while I don't know actual numbers, if they are like many other things toyota, they are likely stronger than the USDM equivalent.

 

[Howard705]

Use a file across the flat hub seating surface when defoming it may have burred that. File until file is making full contact across flat surface

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