Walt
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2014
- Location
- Indian Trail, NC
This is not a build thread, the build of my "light duty" WJ took place in 2013-15. A couple of years ago (maybe way more than a couple) i had a rough landing on my front axle during rock crawling. I didn't realize at the time that I had bent my front axle, my pass. front tire attained heavy negative camber (top of the tire went inboard). I only drove the Jeep to trail and back (mostly uwharrie) didn't really use the truck for anything else. My bent axle didnt bother me too much but I knew I needed to fix that one day. Recently I had to drive the jeep a couple of hours away on highway so the axle needed to be fixed. This is a short story how I did it.
Turned out that the long tube of the axle was bent into a U shape (just a few degrees of course), the rest of the axle was fine. I took front tires off and screwed back three wheel nuts on each side to hold the brake rotors. I put the jack stands under the hub protrusions of the brake rotors and made sure its level. Vertical level on the driver side was fine but the passenger side had negative camber. I found that I can use the top beam of the Harbor Freight 20 ton press to help this job. I made four "ears" out of 1/4" plate, drilled holes in them for the bolts to go through and welded them to the ends of two pieces of chain. I also made spacers for the bolts in the beam so I can tighten the bolts. I assembled the beam and chains under the jeep and finally did the main part of this job, straightening the axle.
The Harbor Freight 20 ton press top beam was about 25" between the bolt holes and that matched nicely with the axle construction dimensions. I used a Harbor Freight 20 ton jack to straighten the axle. Judging by the amount of effort I had to put into pumping the jack it took all 20 tons to bend the axle tube. It took me several press-release-measure passes until the passenger hub was sitting vertical with zero camber. Praise God the job is done. The Jeep handled the road very well during the trip. There was a little death wobble a couple of times but that is due to another issue I have to fix.
Turned out that the long tube of the axle was bent into a U shape (just a few degrees of course), the rest of the axle was fine. I took front tires off and screwed back three wheel nuts on each side to hold the brake rotors. I put the jack stands under the hub protrusions of the brake rotors and made sure its level. Vertical level on the driver side was fine but the passenger side had negative camber. I found that I can use the top beam of the Harbor Freight 20 ton press to help this job. I made four "ears" out of 1/4" plate, drilled holes in them for the bolts to go through and welded them to the ends of two pieces of chain. I also made spacers for the bolts in the beam so I can tighten the bolts. I assembled the beam and chains under the jeep and finally did the main part of this job, straightening the axle.
The Harbor Freight 20 ton press top beam was about 25" between the bolt holes and that matched nicely with the axle construction dimensions. I used a Harbor Freight 20 ton jack to straighten the axle. Judging by the amount of effort I had to put into pumping the jack it took all 20 tons to bend the axle tube. It took me several press-release-measure passes until the passenger hub was sitting vertical with zero camber. Praise God the job is done. The Jeep handled the road very well during the trip. There was a little death wobble a couple of times but that is due to another issue I have to fix.
