ciscohusker

I just bought a 94 dodge 4 x 4 cummins that was wrecked, when they fixed it they put a dana 70 back in place of the dana 80 that got damaged. Anyway I got the damaged dana 80 that the center member was cracked but all internals look good and another dana 80 housing with no guts. My issue is this, on the empty housing just the outer hub is slightly bent enough to cause it to be out of aligment. My question is this can it be straightend or is it possible to have a shop pull one of the good tubes off of the wrecked one and replace the bent one. One important thing you need to know this will never see the street it is strictly a truck puller. Thanks

Captain

I'm pretty sure axel tubes are just pressed in? So maybe someone could pull and repress it? if its a puller you might want to have them welded in so they dont twist. I know we used to do that on drag cars.

scottsjeeprolet

A good Driveline shop should be able to retube the rear. It is critical that it is perfectly straight.

Crimedog

There should also be some place near you that is capable of straightening the axle. We have a frame and alignment shop that is capable of straightening axles. Try calling some local body shops to see where they source their frame straghteners or axle work. That's how I found out about our place.

ciscohusker

I will call around I would bet it would be cheaper to have someone straighten it out vs replaceing the tube.

scottsjeeprolet

Don't want to see you waste your money, they will never be able to straighten the axle perfect to within thousands of an inch. That will cause axle seals to leak, bearings to fail and so on and so forth.
Do it right the first time. Plus the driveline shop can set up the gears for you after they retube it.
Remember most Body shops are as crooked as the insurance company's that support them. But not all. Frames don't have to be as straight as a rear.

gorms

If I do recall, the tubes are pressed in AND welded from the factory.

Rawbrown

I may be a novice with all this diesel tech, however... I am an experience axle builder.
axle tubes are typically pressed in on a jig and then plug welded. Yes you can have a shop straighten your housing. but it really depends on where the bend is at. If the bend is somewhere in the middle of the tube then yes you could be OK having it straightened... but if the bend is near the housing then I'd advise that it be retubed.
to have a diff retubed I recomend taking the housing to a reputable diff shop and let them handle the removal of the carrier. They may even want to strip the housing and have it cleaned. the reason I suggest letting them deal with removing and replacing the carrier is because the housing needs to be spread so that proper preload can be maintained on the carrier bearings. Otherwise you could end up with premature bearing failure. and with the power that these trucks are putting out, you need to make sure that the rear end is in tip top shape. It shouldn't cost you more than a couple hundred, maybe $500 to have all the work done with pulling the carrier and retubing the one side.