Quote:
Originally Posted by dave in australia
How easy is it to straighten/re-align the bell of the axle housing. Whilst mounting one of my housings in my lathe, as I rotated the housing to check for rotation clearance, I noticed a.070" difference on the mount face between top and bottom. The housing is mounted with both the inner bearing on a centre fixture on the lathe spindle, and the outer axle exit mounted with a live centre on the tailstock. This ensures the axle alignment is running true. Has anybody straightened tthe bell with any success, and how was it done.
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Yes, I have done many. Likely like you, I use a live center mounted into the differential race on my headstock end so that I know I have true center. On the hub race end, I am now using a 4-jaw chuck mounted onto a live center mounted on my tail stock to clamp around the hub bearing race. I indicate off of the flange where the Brake Housing plate indexes and adjust to get a true centerline. Then I use an indicator to measure runout along the taper rotating the housing about 350° (-minus the area where the weld is) and find your runout there. I use acetylene torch heat and shrink the tube to bring it back into its original location. Then put an indicator onto the gasket surface of the Diff Housing flange and see what your runout is there. If it is 0.030" or less, just face the flange to make it perpendicular to the centerline. If there is more runout than 0.030", heat and shrink in the flared area to draw it closer followed by facing the gasket flange as I described above.