apalmer1

So i put in a 4340 chromoly shaft from Superior gear and axle. this shaft has so far had about 5 weeks of extremely hard use and has apparently already either bent or destroyed its first wheel bearing driving to the college today i noticed my tire was wobbling like crazy so i turned it around and went home. wheel was on tight, brake drum wasnt bent so i put my dial indicator on the axle and pulled a whopping 21 thousands total runout, 15 thousands higher than average at the worst point.

i pulled the axle out and stood it up on some blocks, doesnt appear to be visibly bent but the wheel bearing isn't as flush as it could be. gona see if i can do anything about it if not then screw it its goin back in there untill i get a replacement this damn thing is sitting in a brand new axle housing too so im really going to be less then pleased if it bends anything else

sorry for the rant

tc

Sounds like your housing is bent.

Hope you have AAA for when your truck looks like this:

dirtoyboy

What happened to your stock shaft? Did you break it? just curious....

apalmer1

housing isnt bent. im positive of this because its litteraly 2 weeks old

the old axle housing was horribly bent due to an impact from an F150. the insurance wouldnt pay me to replace anything and because of this the shop that did the work didnt change anything but the shaft. after this whole ordeal i ended up buying a new housing, bearings, backing plate, chromo axle, and all associated parts.

when i looked at this i pulled out both axles just to be sure the bearings were still good. both were fine, i checked runout with the good axle in each side of the new housing to see if it had possibly been bent already and each side was fine. the chromoly axle actually bent the flange that all the wheel studs go in. i marked the two points with the most negative runout and they are directly across from eachother showing that the flange managed to fold by .025"

its not bad enough to worry about the wheel falling off or anything, i will contact superior today to get a replacement. Im sure ill get some bad tire wear on because of the vibrations this is causing but its not a safety issue yet, i just drove it 450+ miles this weekend and it was fine.

tc

Just because it's new doesn't mean it's right. Better to NEVER assume that. However, it sounds like you checked it (below) and it is probably OK.

Not sure if I understand you here. You checked runout on what?

Isn't the flange that the wheel studs are in part of the cromoly axle?

If it wobbles, it IS bad enough to worry about the wheel falling off. The ONLY thing holding that axle in is the press fit of the bearing on the axle. You walk that bearing off or split it and the wheel WILL come off (and in a hurry).

SERIOUSLY. These rear axles are semi-floating. Small problems will have a HUGE effect, and it is NOT trail-fixable. That bearing goes and you will have a VERY hard time getting off the trail (and WILL incur more damage trying).

I was not kidding in the slightest when I asked if your AAA membership was up to date.

apalmer1

yes i checked the runout on the flange on the end of the axle shaft then checked the shafts seperately oustside of the vehicle. I was just saying that the flange is bent but not the shaft itself.

i understand the dangers of a semi-floating design ive trailored a lot of tacomas to my shop that threw the axle because the bearing crapped out. and beleive me mine was less than safe to drive witht he bent housing before.

im not worried about this yet as it is a brand new wheel bearing and the new shaft is on its way and should be here within the week. free of charge thankfully.

and yes im positive the new housing is good as i mentioned i checked the runout of the good axle and then put it into the other side of the housing and verified that the runout was the same.

dirtoyboy

What was wrong with the stock shaft? Did you break it?

apalmer1

an F150 T-boned me which is what caused all the damage that started this mess.

ive broke/torched a couple shafts in that side since then but that was just because i was running around on a bent housing untill now when i replaced it.

the only real reason i didnt go back to another stock shaft is that they are so freakin expensive and no junkyards have the abs style shafts available. the chromoly shafts cost half as much and when i break one like i did here its free to get another one no questions asked.


however difficult the stock axles may be to break i wheel my poor truck pretty hard. it took a bad landing last night and ripped both front spring buckets off of the frame and put them up into the wheel wells i replaced them with some new spring buckets me and a friend made out of 3/8 plate steel