Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

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Tommy g
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Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

I will show step by step how i fix my axle, which has a bent housing and a broken planetary gear, plus stripped axle splines.
to do this i had to cannibalize an lj80 axle for parts.
First thing,I took out the axle and took it apart.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

heres the damage
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

on the left you can see part of the gear i cut off the lj80 with splines, on the right you can see the lj20 gear with that part broken off clean
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

Here it is sitting on the splines. I have a friend who can tig weld it properly and my brother can machine it after.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

The inside of this case is pretty mangled, luckily after the gear is welded, it will be oversized being of an lj80, so this has to be bored out anyways
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

I tried to straighten the axle this way but the floor jack is no were near strong enough to bend it so I will try it again with a bottle jack and i will post pictures when i do it.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

lol I can see how bent the housing is even in the picture it looks curved
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Frankenstein »

Try and hook up the chains on the end of the housing, gives your jack way more strength!
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

frankenstein wrote:Try and hook up the chains on the end of the housing, gives your jack way more strength!
I had it hooked up to the end of one side of the housiing, because one side was more bent then the other. Originally i had both far ends hooked up but the jack still woudllnt budge it.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Frankenstein »

A big bottlejack could do it then!
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by zukimoo »

you need some heat...get some torches and heat the side that is outside of the bend...I mean alot of heat. We did a set of toys after the guy added alot of bracing and it took alot of work to get it straight.

you heat a pretty big area to a very hot point and you let it cool....the cooling action will make the metal come back or pull into that direction. This way you can work either sides differently.

Put a piece of pipe in a vise and heat one side till it's red/hot...then let it cool...repeat a few times and then look at the pipe...it will have pulled. I've made bumpers out of sche 80 pipe with a nice curve to it using this method.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

zukimoo wrote:you need some heat...get some torches and heat the side that is outside of the bend...I mean alot of heat. We did a set of toys after the guy added alot of bracing and it took alot of work to get it straight.

you heat a pretty big area to a very hot point and you let it cool....the cooling action will make the metal come back or pull into that direction. This way you can work either sides differently.

Put a piece of pipe in a vise and heat one side till it's red/hot...then let it cool...repeat a few times and then look at the pipe...it will have pulled. I've made bumpers out of sche 80 pipe with a nice curve to it using this method.


The housing is really bent, i might just send it out to the axle shop and get them to straighten it. I will still post pictures when i get it done.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by zukimoo »

why don't you just get another housing?
81 LJ80, 3500lbs winch, 1.0 HO, 1000cc's of pure power....brap...listen to her go

Mods 2 come
-Lockrite in the back, -spring over done right and complete,-cross over steering,-seats,-6000lbs +- winch on front,-3500lbs winch ,moved to back,-highlift jack
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

zukimoo wrote:why don't you just get another housing?
your right, ill just go down to the local parts store tomorow, hopefully they will have one in stock. or if i cant get one new, ill look around in pick a part. Theres gotta be another lj20 in a junkyard somewere, In bc canada!!! there so common here.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

anyways tomorow i am going to drop off the housing at the axle shop and ill drop off the axle to the spline guy. when i get it back i will post pictures of assembly and maybe reinforcment of the housing
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by stevec »

Tommy g wrote:
zukimoo wrote:why don't you just get another housing?
your right, ill just go down to the local parts store tomorow, hopefully they will have one in stock. or if i cant get one new, ill look around in pick a part. Theres gotta be another lj20 in a junkyard somewere, In bc canada!!! there so common here.
I'm only a few hours south of you...
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

stevec wrote:
Tommy g wrote:
zukimoo wrote:why don't you just get another housing?
your right, ill just go down to the local parts store tomorow, hopefully they will have one in stock. or if i cant get one new, ill look around in pick a part. Theres gotta be another lj20 in a junkyard somewere, In bc canada!!! there so common here.
I'm only a few hours south of you...
I know, Its just such a hassle to get across the border. Plus this axle will be as good as new when its done. But i still need some parts off of you steve, I really need a grill, and some other small parts like lenses etc.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Ruby »

Tommy g wrote:
zukimoo wrote:why don't you just get another housing?
your right, ill just go down to the local parts store tomorow, hopefully they will have one in stock. or if i cant get one new, ill look around in pick a part. Theres gotta be another lj20 in a junkyard somewere, In bc canada!!! there so common here.
I'll say it, no room for smart asses around here. There's a really good group of guys here that will treat you right if you do the same.
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Ruby »

Oh, I should say no room other than Tweeder :D
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by tweeder »

Ruby wrote:Oh, I should say no room other than Tweeder :D
What you did there... I see it. :Flip:
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

update, the housing was straightened by a frame shop, my brother welded and machined the planatory gear, i dropped off the axle shaft at a machine shop they are going to shorten it and cut new splines. I will post pictures of assembly when i put it together
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Re: Front axle rebuild. How to straighten housing

Post by Tommy g »

This axle rebuild was a fail. I ended up getting one from Steve. Pretty much what happened was the guy who was suposed to straighten it for me made it way worse were the diff carrier wouldnt bolt up. So delete this thread Its useless now.
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