tweaked front housing remedy?

[H8PVMNT]

I swaped a solid axle on my 94 truck and after a while the housing is cambering out a bit at the "ball" part of the knuckle. I probably should have welded some gussets in this area when I set up my front end, but I figured if I wasn't launching my truck this wouldn't be a big deal.

The truck doesn't handle bad because of this so far, but it does really wear out the inside of my tires and it looks kind of fallow.

My question to all of you is how to fix this problem. A buddy told me that he welded some gussets in real hot and it actually brought the housing back into alignment. I was thinking that it might be healthier just to straighten the housing cold with a bottle jack, a chain and a peice of railroad iron and then welding the gussets on carefully. Maybe I should scrap the housing and start over again with a fresh one.

Any advice is really apreciated. Thanks!!

 

[r0nin89]

For the $50 for a bare housing just get another.

 

[WristPin]

once you weld and rewel, bend and reweld the housing, it will be much weaker.
somthing that i wouldnt want to chance 126 miles from home on the trail.

i have not heard of or ever attemted this kind of fix.

it would be very good insurance to just get a nex axle tube.

 

[H8PVMNT]

Un-tweaked...

I think you guys are right, It's better to start new.

However... I used to work at a mill around some machinist/metalurgist types, and I saw them bend things aroud quite alot on machinery that has so much tourque and force applied to it that it baffles the mind. This has made me more comfortable with doing hoaky things like this than most people. They used to say that as long as you aren't heating anything up to much and changing the hardness you can get away with alot, especially on a mild steel part like our front housings. This is a fairly large dumb peice of metal (kind of like me), so I gave it a shot today, just for research and posterity.

I used a 20 ton hydraulic jack, a big peice of railroad iron and a log chain. I left the wheels on the truck so I could see how much I was bending and gently, slowly applied preasure. The outer chain was wrapped around the knuckle over the top of the steering arm. I thought this would break a trunion bearing, but it didn't. The factory camber back in the day is cambered in just a bit (positive camber?), so I went just far enough to accomplish this. After a couple of adjustments and re-checks to make sure both sides were the same it is strait.

I ordered Marlin's ball gussets last night. These weld on the top and botton of the ball area and replace the upper shock mounts. I'll weld them in real carefully and slowly letting the metal cool down and not get to hot so I don't tweak it again from shrinkage.

I'll run it and let you know if it works, falls apart, bends or whatever. If it fails you can all laugh at me publicly, if it works... we'll know it works. I've always had more balls than brains!!

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

Sounds like a plan