90's throw back.....Manche build

Well no good updates yet. Been having some issues with this used front housing. Discovered today that the short side of the housing is bent. So much so that the axle shaft will not seat in the inner c due to interference with the bell of the c. I suppose before I junk this housing and invest a couple more grand on a new housing and new c's, I'm going to cut the tube at the weld to the center section and attempt to get everything back in line. I can sleeve it internally, and there will be a truss for the steering ram. Any suggestions? The housing will be junk anyway if this doesn't work.

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Matt
 
Have you thought about heat and ratchet straps to straighten it? Big I-Bean would help too to hold down
 
i would try to find where it is bent, and then slit and bend it back straight. That or cut the tube from the center section and knuckle and weld a new tube in. Im guessing it might have something to do with the link bracket welded on.

@broncosbybart had a spidertrax 9 housing available at one point, that you could use for extra parts.
 
Man I hate to see a bent housing for you, but I'm sure of all people you can get it fixed and find a way to make ot look bad ass in the process.
 
Yep, fixed it today. All is well. Made my cuts in just the right spots, and when moved to the correct clearances, all the angles just fell into place. Sleeved it with 3" .250 wall from the seal to the c. Didn't get pics yet.

Ol'Jeeps came up today, had a good visit. All the people I ride with live hours away, nice to see a friendly face for some shop time. Appreciate you riding up Scott.



Technically this wasn't a 9" problem. Any housing can get bent, bent a few myself. This one came out from under Peter Basler's SRRS multi-year championship winning buggy. I'd say quite a few opportunities to bend a housing in that arena.

9" fords have been well proven in many forms of motorsports for decades. And certainly so in ultra 4. I chose this platform for weight and a fabrication standpoint. We'll see how they do, I'm sure...I will test them again.
 
The tube was actually straight I think. The "bend" so to speak was the entire tube was pushed back and up, pivoting on the weld at the facets of the outer shell. The inner plate in the shell had canted in the housing. Apparently the link/shock mount had prevented the tube from bending due to the fact it was bridged across both link tabs all the way to the C and the bolt through the heim, along with the shock mount. Since the heim tabs were still at the correct spread, I came to that conclusion. Appears that they had attempted a repair by cutting loose the legs of the C, so I did have to rework the lower uniball pocket to correct their lack of care for dimensional correctness.

Here is an example of how the tabs were on both sides.

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All in one piece now with no binding at all at 46° of steering left and right. Camber on passenger side 89.8°, driver side 89.4, close enough for government work.

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I'm very confident that this repair will hold, especially once the steering truss and lower C trusses are added to the equation.
 

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Last edited:
mcutler said:
All in one piece now with no binding at all at 46° of steering left and right. Camber on passenger side 89.8°, driver side 89.4, close enough for government work.

View attachment 214349

View attachment 214352

View attachment 214353


I'm very confident that this repair will hold, especially once the steering truss and lower C trusses are added to the equation.
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt! Now I will forever look at this truck and think Damn, I think the camber is off:flipoff2:
 
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