Heres the story. I bought a 57 chevy rear end from a friend last weekend. He bought it from some guys some time ago who had added radius rod mounts, behind axle perches and shock mounts. WOW right? NO I had to remove all the work they had done in order to mount my spring perches on top of the axle and differant radius rod mounts....well all was going find GRINDING and grinding off all these HUGE weld globs. Why they had done these welds so big and ugly was killing me! well let me tell why they did this(my friend is at no fault he had no idea what was under these shitty welds)....the mounts came off and low and behold the jack nuts had blow holes in the axle housing when welding on there mounts and covered them up with GLOBS of weld!!!! SHIT MAN now I have twice as much work and will have to puts patches on the housing in order to seal up the rear end! So I have some ideas for doing this...but what do you guys think? Gobble Gobble I love the turkeys who fuck up and pass it on to the unknowing
When you weld all the way around a tube it cancels itself out to a degree, but doing a bunch of welding just on one side tends to pull the tubing towards the side you are welding on. Stress relief and keeping the Heat out of the tube as much as possible will help, but if they gobbed a bunch of weld on it, the damage may already be done.
Put a straight edge on it and see if it has pulled, and how much. I imagine you could stand a little bit without hurting anything, but I don't know how much. If both sides are pulled, it could cause toe-out, assuming the welding was done on the back of the tubes. If one side pulled more than the other, it could cause inconsistant handling, or Dog-trotting.
Thought I would add a method I use to see if the rear end is warped. I mount the tires and block them so the rear doesn't roll away.Then I turn the whole rear end over and over. If the rear is warped the tires will wiggle. I put a dial indicater on the tire and heat the housing as required untill I get rid of all wiggle.
I guess you could also bolt a set of bare Wheels on and measure across them at several points to see how much it has pulled. That is assuming your wheels aren't bent.
Great advice folks!! Now heres the second question I have. If it is pulled in and to far gone. what should I do. My really really really good friend and club mate sold this to me unaware of the problems. Should I ask for my money back or just chalk it up as a loss and move on to another rear end, without the chance of fucking up a friendship over money
That would work also, but there is a chance of over straightening one side and have it measure OK. This way is for sure.
Personally, if I knew for a fact that he was unaware of the problem, I would just eat it. No sense pissing off a good friend over something he knew nothing about. Besides that, you may be able to straighten it without too much trouble.
Don't let a bad rearend come between you and your friend! I'd write it off as a loss...but if your buddy sees your pain, he'll probably offer to buy the next case of beer and y'all can drink to better luck next time! Find the guy that sold it to your buddy and put 100 Christmas trees on his lawn one night...
"That would work also, but there is a chance of over straightening one side and have it measure OK. This way is for sure." No, I wasn't suggesting that method for straightening it. that is just an easy way to see if there is actually a problem. During the straightening process, you would have to measure how far each side is pulled.
I bet the holes are from when someone torched off the original leaf spring pads and was not careful. You should be able to fix it, I bet it's not that far out. Just more work. I think you should just repair it and use it, or use it for parts, but your friend did not try to rip you off. He did not intentionally do it, so it is like any case of buyer beware with used parts. Sometimes you get a bad piece. One of those chances you take.
yup I agree Ill just eat it and move on......Maybe its not bent..they ran it like this so hell who knows. You learn every day. My friends more important than some cash!
"I bet the holes are from when someone torched off the original leaf spring pads" If the damage has been done that close to the ends of the tubing, it probably isn't pulled enough to hurt anything. I was thinking the problem was more towards the middle of the tubes.
yea the holes are on both sides at the ends of the tubes...Im gonna measure it. if its ok Ill have to weld in some patchs and see what I get. the holes are on the bottom so to maybe you wont even be able to see them
I bought a complete 9" from a buddy. He said the guy he got it from said it worked. Turns out the carrier breaing supports were busted, and the whole center section was junk. But, for what it cost me, the housing and axles are good, and the brakes rebuildable. 'Cause I can still use most of it, it's not worth it to me to try and get my money back. -Bugman Jeff
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