Topic: bending live axles

[Rocking-M]

Any of you car guys ever bent a the solid axle tubes to set rear camber and toe?

I've just read in a chassis engineering book I have than a 1 degree bend would not
harm the rear differential or the wheel bearings. I'm looking for a least 1 degree negative camber and
1/16" toe end on the rear.

[fuzzybutt]

i've bent axle tubes on an 8.8" ford rearend, not voluntarily though, it was a hard launch with slicks that bent it.

[754]

Ford axle tubes at least on a 9 inch are prettythick tubes.

I am wondering how you will bend it and not go over..seems a bit tricky.

Drifting slightly off the topic,
For some reason this made me think of somethong a circle track racer told me..he said he sets up the rear end and torques up the crush washer..I forget where it goes. But anyway I think he runs it a bit then pulls the crush washer out and machines a solid spacer. He said that it is done so that if the car gets smacked in the wheel or bounced off the wall the clearance will not change as it usually will an burn up the diff or hurt it before the race is finished .. sounded like a good idea..

[Rocking-M]

Hey Fuzz, the fiat would never do that

[Rocking-M]

The common way is to heat the top of the tube on each side(between the punkin and the wheel), a spot about 6" in wide,
heat cherry red and let cool, it causes the tube to shrink in that spot as it cools and puts the camber in it.
I was wondering if anyone had tried it or other means to get the camber.

[754]

Jeez that reminds me of this hiball tranny guy in our town.

He has a 24 inch swing lathe in his shop and he bought it new..!!

So one day I was there and he had a whole 1ton or 3/4 t housing in the lathe, less guts. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was straightening the housing for an insurance claim!! .. in the press but he was checking runnout on the lathe..

[CrisPDuk]

Bending the axle is the redneck way of doing it RM

For our old Mk2 Escort rally car we had a set of camber shims machined up to an array of angles from 0.3 - 1.5 deg.  They were effectively just thin pieces of steel that went like a gasket between the ends of the axle tube and the hubs.
After the first couple of events we modified them by stamping an 'up' arrow on them, because we found that we got some 'interesting' handling traits when the 1.2 degree ones went in upside down


The same effect can be achieved by putting washers in the lower bolts but you don't get a dust tight tube that way.

[Rocking-M]

Hey Chris, I was wondering bout that. I'm not sure I can shim between the axle tube and  the hub but
I'll surely be checking now. I like your idea much better cause I can experiment more with it.

(Yea I was using a redneck chassis engineering book

[CrisPDuk]

 

The Escort axle had a nice square flange on the end of it which made this sort of thing very simple to do, obviously your truck may be different?

[Rocking-M]

The Escort axle had a nice square flange on the end of it which made this sort of thing very simple to do, obviously your truck may be different?

Hey it's the Fiat I'm setting up the rear on. The truck can stay like it is.

[CrisPDuk]

What sort of Fiat be this then?