I'm not sure if i bent my tubes or not. can anyone tell me how to measure it up to tell?:confused:

i know there's some type of jig big off road shops use but heres what i am thinking not sure how accurate it can be but seems like it'd work in theory. strip the housing completely down carrier, axles out. you can leave the pinion it shouldn't be in the way. now make sure the axle is perfectly level on one side(digital level.) use a laser preferably one with a level that you can set up on perfectly level side and shoot it straight through the axle. take the measurement at the point of entry, then the point of entry into the housing. then the opposite side entry into the housing and finally exit and that should tell you if its bent or not in theory. i would use a dial indicator and creep up on the laser till you can see the laser just barely hit the indicator then back it down slowly until it doesn't hit. thats at least how i would do it.


edit: easiest way to get it level is take it out of the truck and set it up on a work bench or at least your concrete garage floor. but make sure your starting surface is level or at least close and take that number into account

Give this a look. I tried it out on a front axle that I knew was bent when I bought it. This method agreed with that bit of info on my purchase. I ended up making a set of bushings and a solid piece of precision bar stock to verify that I got the axle straight.

http://performanceunlimited.com/documents/diffstraighten.html

Thats a pretty decent way for most people, nice post!!

Like the above poster, I've got some aluminum bushings I made to fit in place of the carrier bearings, and ground/trued/polished stressproof rod , which I use also as an alignment jig, as I'm working on fabbing my own housing. But I have a lathe, so its easy enough to make the parts..

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o230/DJ404564X4/TJ/REARENDREMOVAL035.jpg