rear wheel alignment?

[sodafeld1]

I recently replaced rear wheel bearings, front tie rod, relay rod and new heavy duty 500kg springs in rear and extra leaf spring to front.

Fiddled around with front alignment and toe in. After a 200km drive, not too bad but needs a little bit more.

So, then I used some long straight 4mm steel flat bar as my straight edge guides and ran them along the length of the troopy, tyre to tyre.
The good side, the flat bar touches the back of the rear tyre, front of the rear tyre and without front tyre toe in touches the back and front of the rear tyre. Dead straight. Sweet.

But, on the other bad side, the flat bar can only touch the back of the rear tyre whilst touching the front tyre. It is not straight, front of rear tyre would be 5-8mm from the flat bar when touching the back of front tyre.

I think this explains why, when replacing rear wheel bearings, the bad side inner rear wheel bearing was stuck on the diff end and took some cutting and grinding to get off.
This leads me to think my rear diff got a bit bent in a previous life. It is ex rural fire brigade so not surprising. Could have been an all mighty whack on that rear wheel whilst reversing fast, maybe. Something pretty drastic to bend it.

I travelled well over 100000km with regular tyre rotations without even knowing my rear diff was a bit out. The tyres look ok and do not exhibit any noticeable uneven ware, coopers at3.

This means I have a 5-8mm banana bend over the (just under) 3m length from rear axle to front axle on the troopy .

It would be better if my rear diff end was dead straight. Simplest and best would be a whole new diff. Straigtening the end of a diff would be a difficult job with limited tools.
The rear hub fits and spins fine, just a pain to remove the inner bearing.

Do my observations sound possible? Should I be concerned?

 

[roscoFJ73]

Straigtening the end of a diff would be a difficult job with limited tools.

Not for a good suspension shop. I was at one shop observing the Monday morning carnage and they were fixing bent landcruiser diffs as a routine job for a Monday.

 

[sodafeld1]

Thanks Rosco. Good to know it can be done.

I would never have linked the bad bearing to a bent diff unless I had ran the straight edge tyre to tyre. Would never have known. She hums along fine road , dirt and mud. Don't know much. Probably a good inspection test pre purchasing if one could afford to be fussy with older tojos. I wasn't going to bicker when I saw my troopy to buy. Fire brigade looks after maintenance very well. Far as I can see, Troopies have nearly doubled in price in 5 years, and rare to find at that. I like the old ones due to the simplicity, robustness and lack of electronics. Never want a new one, I think the old ones shall outlast the new troopies.

When replacing the rear bearings, the axle shaft looked like new. Tough bastards for sure.

Guess I shall go to a big bang workshop like Russel Coight to straighten it by a couple mm. I wonder how they straighten the rear stub axle diff end? Disconnect rear shaft, remove the whole diff, empty all the cogs, heat it up and bend it back in some sort of jig? Or just heat the end, put a jig on and bend back. Or bend it back on some sort of cold press lathe. (theoretically a cold bend process would weaken the steel). Looks like one piece of cast steel as far as I can tell.

I am about to get delivered another hj75 troopy wreck. If that diff is straight and good, it maybe more straight forward to swap diffs.

 

[sodafeld1]

Ok, it is on you tubby, couple of old blokes cold pressing the empty isolated diff. Hmm,maybe it was me, by loading too many bricks too often..thought I was pushing it.
got ya

 

[roscoFJ73]

I am about to get delivered another hj75 troopy wreck. If that diff is straight and good, it maybe more straight forward to swap diffs.

That is what I would be doing. A heat treated and straightened diff will never be as strong as an original. And you are going to have to remove and replace a diff either way.