Axle tube spun in housing?

[toddwirges]

Hi all,

I swapped in a 3.42 used 10-bolt this weekend, replacing my 2.73 factory setup. Come to realize after doing this that the right side of the car is now sitting crooked, driver's side seems maybe a tad high, but the passenger side is definitely a good inch or so low. Enough that it's noticeable. I used the gap from tire to wheel well as a reference.

After taking a looksee at things (springs, isolators and such) it looks to me like the passenger side axle tube has spun slightly in the housing.

The rear seems to be fine. There is no bearing noise, no indication of major impact damage, and just a very slight gear whine around 40-50, which I think is fairly common. I can pick up the whine when cruising but if the window is cracked or the top is down, there's no hearing it, so it is pretty faint, definitely livable.

Any recommendations on what I should do? For the short term I just picked up a couple coil spring boosters and popped them in the passenger spring. This leveled things right up and functionally life is ok for now.

But I am concerned that the tube might slip again, or maybe the diff is a time bomb at this point. I was thinking of having the tubes at least tack welded with a couple really small spots for insurance, but it sounds like this is somewhat contraversial and not easy to do, either.

It doesn't seem to be a very common problem, so any help would be appreciated.

Tks.

[Joe 1320]

Hi all,

I swapped in a 3.42 used 10-bolt this weekend, replacing my 2.73 factory setup. Come to realize after doing this that the right side of the car is now sitting crooked, driver's side seems maybe a tad high, but the passenger side is definitely a good inch or so low. Enough that it's noticeable. I used the gap from tire to wheel well as a reference.

After taking a looksee at things (springs, isolators and such) it looks to me like the passenger side axle tube has spun slightly in the housing.

The rear seems to be fine. There is no bearing noise, no indication of major impact damage, and just a very slight gear whine around 40-50, which I think is fairly common. I can pick up the whine when cruising but if the window is cracked or the top is down, there's no hearing it, so it is pretty faint, definitely livable.

Any recommendations on what I should do? For the short term I just picked up a couple coil spring boosters and popped them in the passenger spring. This leveled things right up and functionally life is ok for now.

But I am concerned that the tube might slip again, or maybe the diff is a time bomb at this point. I was thinking of having the tubes at least tack welded with a couple really small spots for insurance, but it sounds like this is somewhat contraversial and not easy to do, either.

It doesn't seem to be a very common problem, so any help would be appreciated.

Tks.

A competant driveline shop can fix your problem, straightening the housings and tubes on performance rears is commonplace. Lasers are used to check the geometry, the axle tubes are manouvered via press back into alignment and even rewelded if needed. The question is whether all the teardown and reassembly would be worth it on a stocker, you'll have to check on the pricing comparison with just getting another rear from the local recycler.

The next question... are you sure the coil springs are both good?

[fastTa]

It's not uncommon for the axle tubes to twist inside of the housing; their are usually a few spot welds on each end from the factory. But, a twisted axle tube should have no effect on your ride height. But it will wreak havoc on the axle itself if not fixed.

You likely have a problem with either a spring and/or shock. Don't overlook the shock. A good shock does carry a portion of the load.

[Christopherrr]

well, the problem might also be exceberated by the fact that our cars tend to be weight biased on the passengerside...the passengerside tend to sit lower.

[Dave Vince]

When we were running the heads up class at Sunshine some of the guys were bending the Ford 9" rears even with the back brace on. It seemed to always be the passenger side that did it, I guess that side is under more stress.

[toddwirges]

Well, I do know the car didn't sit lopsided before this axle. I'm rather picky about these things and noticed it felt funny at the first drive. It was at night by that point though, and the next morning I noticed the squat.

So given that the shocks and springs didn't change I figure it is the axle, it is visibly evident that the right spring perch is not prependicular to ground while the left side is. Is are the upper body contact points on the same plane?

It's a really big difference too, I put four spring booster blocks in the right side and it just barely squares it up. So I'm not sure if that could be attributed to just a shock, but I'm open to it. I let the axle hang from the shocks at the last stage and the right one got torqued on pretty bad. I didn't think about it at the time but that probably wasn't a good idea.

Whatever the case my shocks are shot and I'll go ahead and do those. They aren't totally shot though, they at least still expand themselves. I have an email into Stranoparts about the right shocks to get, but recommendations are welcome.

The car is a vert, ride quality is important to me, and I have about 60lbs of audio on the trunk shelf at all times. I figure Bilsteins are in my range but I'm not sure about what to get. The car will never be lowered and will stay on stock springs, so long as they are good.

I marked the axle tubes & housings with a paint seam. I'm mostly concerned if the thing moves again, taking my gears with it or just plain coming loose (which I hear is a pretty exciting thing to have happen). I guess I'll just womp the tar out of it for awhile and see if it stays put.