I am in the process of cutting the knuckles right now and am starting to get worried. I have cut through the center of the weld pretty deep and still dont see any separation or line where the metals meet. Should I be cutting to the tube side of the weld, knuckle side or straight down the middle like I am doing? How deep do I have to cut before seeing the crack form? I dont want to lop the whole damn knuckle off and thats what it feels like am about to do. HELP

I dont want to lop the whole damn knuckle off and thats what it feels like am about to do. HELP

Yeah, thats what you are about to do.........
You only have to go down the thickness of the axle housing. The knuckle ball is actually on a sleeve that fits into the axle tube, ands goes several inches past the weld into the axle tube....When you think you've gone thru the axle tube, its time to start twisting and pulling, I guess......

Someone who's already done this will probably pipe in on what you shuld do next.....
BUT IF YOU"VE GONE IN AS DEEP AS THE THICKNESS OF THE AXLE TUBE....STOP!!

Good Luck

[ 09-22-2001: Message edited by: Cracker ]

Rusty,
I never tried to grind down the old weld. All I did was remove all of the stuff off of the axle housing (shock mounts and steering stops) then get a big a$$ pipe cutter and cut it apart that way. That seems to be the easiest way to me. I was nervous about just grinding away at teh axle housing. I think Woody does it the grinding way. But I seem to think he is out of town right now.
How deep have you gone??? And how far into the housing have you cut? the welds are super wide and deep. The housing is over .25" thick so it can seem like a really deep cut.

Jason

Problem solved guys. I was cutting too far toward the knuckle on the weld and was never seeing the crack. When I finally came to the conclusion that I was too deep, I moved over a little toward the axle tube side of the weld and cut in about 1/4'' deep and SHAZAM there it was. I figure what was happening was I was cutting through the knuckle before it ever touched the tube so there was no crack to see. All is good now. I had no problems turning the knuckles with a 6' piece of 3x3 tubing as a cheater. Now it is time for reassembly.
Thanks for all the help guys. That includes you DOGHOUSE.

Rusty, i plan on doing mine myself too, just wondering, did you use a rosebud to heat before you rotated or did you just muscle it? thanks, Matt <IMG SRC="smilies/usa.gif" border="0">

I guess I just got lucky. It turned with out using a rosebud. I used a 6' cheater and grunted it out. Once it made the initial move, it moved with less effort the rest of the way for fine tuning the angle.My advice to you is to stay more to the axle tube side of the weld when cutting it out. I almost made a booboo. With the grace of God and the little common sense he gave me, I realized that I had to be doing something wrong when I had cut over a 1/4'' deep and still hadnt seen the separation line. Good luck with it. If all goes well tomorow, I will have everything reassembled and be waiting on a driveshaft modification.

me & my Bro just rotated his knuckles. we used the grinder method & when we turned it we only need a 2' cheater bar & one arm. it moved much easier than I expected. we cut an 1/8" groove just to the inside of the original weld.

HTH