bent axle ......I hope not.

[UNSTUCK]

So it wasn't leaking before you had the welding done? Now it's leaking. You've put two sets of seals in it since the welding and still leaking. Just take it back to the welder and tell them to fix their mistake. From the picture of the passenger side of the axle it looks as if a ton of welding took place. Pretty suspect when they say they didn't weld it enough to warp it.

 

[Pike2350]

So it wasn't leaking before you had the welding done? Now it's leaking. You've put two sets of seals in it since the welding and still leaking. Just take it back to the welder and tell them to fix their mistake. From the picture of the passenger side of the axle it looks as if a ton of welding took place. Pretty suspect when they say they didn't weld it enough to warp it.

They are a pretty good shop (or at least appear that way) I hope to get the seals RE-replaced after the new year...I just have no time or $$ with the holidays....at that point I will focus much more on this and hopefully have a better idea as to what is wrong (if anything)

Does anyone have experience with the sealsit.com axle seals? I emailed them for information and still haven't heard back (it was a week ago or more)

Also, I hope fortune cookies are true.....I got a funny one last night considering all the money I've put into this thing lately...and not being able to enjoy it.

 

[UFAB]

Seals it are hit or miss. TG ones rip and burn up axles.

A real seal floats on oil like a bearing.

 

[Pike2350]

Ok, so I'm finally getting to the point to tackle this issue. I first need to swap out the steering box.....since it's leaking out of the sector shaft BAD. Honestly, I'd rather a shop do this work.....but I don't know who to take it to. I was discussing this with my co-worker, and it seems there are very few shops that are really good with 4x4 stuff. I got a quote from Tunex (had decent luck with them in the past) about it, and they quoted me 1.5 hours to do just the one side.

Does anyone have any ideas on any other shops that could do this? I kind of want someone that is familiar with 4x4's, that may be able to assess the axle and make sure it's ok.

 

[Pike2350]

Well 3 months later and I finally got to a point I could get this looked at. I sent the truck up to Dusty at Sexton....I wanted a shop with a jig and true bar to check the axle....and luckily enough he called me today and says it's straight *WHEW* that's such a relief. It turns out the axle shaft at the seal surface was jacked up....not sure how yet since the truck is still up there....but I'm having him replace it with a Chromoly shaft. I'm so relieved it 's not a bent housing.

I did get around to changing out the steering box....and in doing so found out that 1 of the 3 bolt holes through the frame wasn't sleeved....and I started to crush the frame a little. The other 2 are, so hopefully this won't cause me any issues later on.

I'm actually very happy right now. I might actually get to use my truck soon. It still needs a bit of work, but nothing that makes it non-operating. Bumpstops and sway bar are next on the list....maybe shorter coils (or moving the upper mount a little higher) to get it a little lower....but otherwise it is "usable" once this is fixed.

 

[Pike2350]

CRAP. I spoke too soon. Well sort of. So I received a call yesterday, apparently things aren't going quite as well as the shop planned. It's true that the tubes aren't bent...however, it appears that the inner 'C' is tweaked somehow. We don't know how for sure...but the guess is that when the shop that did the 3 link welded the coilover mount/'c' gusset, it may have tweaked the 'C' on the axle tube. The only thing that could have caused this is, IF when they built the axle they didn't get very good penetration on the 'C' to the tube. Supposedly just opening up the 'C' more wouldn't cause this misalignment.....since, at least according to the owner of my work and the tech here, the bottom of the 'C' is what would determine the placement of the axle.

You can see in this pic that the axle shaft is coming out of the tube out of center (it's too high) this is causing deflection of the seal, and hence allowing it to leak.

 

[bryson]

Was the lower balljoint preload spacer adjusted properly? Than being improperly adjusted could cause your issue. I think...

***Edit*** I am wrong above - the preload spacer is in the top of the inner "C"...

The balljoints could be bad (or the wrong joints? Were they replaced just before the issue started?) and that could place the knuckle in the wrong position to properly align the shaft. I'd lean more towards something like that before I'd suspect that the C is bent/warped.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Pike2350]

I thought I'd follow up on this having been a year now. Sexton was able to get it fixed. It took 2x to get it done, but so far, with the sealsit seal, it's still holding. Sexton got it changed after the last pic and "straightened" the C by heating it up and putting a wedge between the coilover mount and the trackbar bracket...then welding it, and adding more weld around the C. It did leak after a trip up Wayne's World, but that was a normal seal....I took it back to Sexton, and they didn't charge me to replace it again...which was awesome. I had them do an alignment as well. I gave them a shout out, but want to say how good they were to deal with. I just wish they weren't so far away.

I've now been driving this thing for the past 7 months of so as my DD. It's doing ok, other then getting a lot of surface rust on all the front end components.

 

[mbryson]

Good feedback about Sexton!

 

[Raleigh]

Wow, what an ordeal!

Glad to hear it is working out finally.

I had an axle that had a slight bend in it, was a PIA to straighten it and had to truss it to keep it straight.

 

[Bart]

Glad to hear that Dusty took care of it. They do great work at Sexton Off-Road.