Technical warped axle tubes

I have a 31 model a with a 9" rear end. It is mounted with ladder bars, coil overs, and a panhard.My rear tires are wearing unevenly so I checked and I need to do something to correct the problem. What has happened is that the tubes shrunk where the brackets were welded on. Seems I should be able to heat shrink the opposite sides of the tubes to bring them back. If anyone has thoughts on this I would like to read them.

 

You need a fixture to make sure that its straight but yes we have done that before. If you want to think warped we welded up a short 9" with a full back brace. We had to heat the opposite side to bring it back around straight but we got it straight as a string.

Something to think about is that if you are wearing tires you are also wearing bearings. This is a good time to git 'er done.

 

A bit of toe-in makes them turn into the corners better! (but not to the point of wearing tires) It's as easy as welding opposite the toe-in, weld a small bead, check for change, weld some more, check again, etc.

 

I warped the axle in my PU the exact same way and went thru a set of tires in 20,000 miles. Took the rear end (after pulling the gears and axles) to a local racing shop who had a press and $75 later I had a straight axle. They did say that mine wasn't warped too badly but if it was they would cut the tubes off and reweld rather than heat and bend. I did replace the bearings also and it seems to be running well now although I hadn't felt any problems until the tires wore out too fast. Good luck to you!

 

Are you sure it isn't dog tracking down the road? Get a 4 wheel alignment done on it and get a printout of where it is right now. The newer machines can tell you if the rear axle is off to one side and the angle the rear end is in relationship to the front axle. That rear end would have to be bent quite a bit to wear tires unevenly.

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Thanks guys, I spent an hour and a half doing shrinks but I got it.

 

I had one axle go in pretty hard but I'm not done welding on my axle tubes yet. Damn! Hope I can get that one axle shaft back out of the Q.C. axle tube! I also wish I could remember which direction it's warped.

 

All right! I took the 31 for a drive tonight. It is a pleasure to drive now. What I found was that both axel tubes were bent, the right wheel bearing had developed a rumble . With all that fixed I also removed the 3.55 and switched to a 2.75 ratio. I know those are long legs but with highway speeds at 120 kmh or 74.5 mph + the hamb correction which is about 85 mph that old bbc is just going to be quite happy, and my wife will stop asking why the engine is going so fast.