Possible axle damage?

[Wolfman]

We were involved in an accident with my challenger Some stupid person pulled out on me and swiped my O/S/R wing as we were going straight down the road. I took the old girl down to JC to have a chat on options and get a quote. On the way there I noticed a heavy vibration come in over 60mph so I had to keep the speed down. I had not driven it since the accident and this vibration was not there before. When I looked a bit closer she actually hit the wheel and pushed me into the nearside kerb, as well as the rear wing. Can a side on hit have done any damage to the centre section? the axle is not unduly noisy either. There is not any run out when you spin the wheel up, but I will get the balance checked after the assessor has been out. Any advice please

[MattH]

Wheel or axle shaft damage to the side that hit the kerb, run out may not be visible but wheel could well be out of balance.

[RobTwin]

When we bought our '63, and drove it back from Tony O's place down south (Tony imported it for us), we noticed there was a bit of wobble in the rear and found that the driver side rear axle flange was bent, ie not perpendicular to the axle shaft, so we bought a new pair of half shafts.
The previous owner didn't mention this before we bought it, and we weren't able to road-test it as the engine was stripped for a refresh, so we're guessing it might have had something to do with the damage to the driver-side rear quarter which had been there for ages previous to us buying it... and is still there to this day

[Wolfman]

Wheel or axle shaft damage to the side that hit the kerb, run out may not be visible but wheel could well be out of balance.

I did put her on axle stands and run the wheels up, I could not see anything obvious. Trouble is she hit the O/S wheel and then pushed the N/S into the kerb to make a good job of it. I have not even been able to get the insurance to get the assessor out to look yet How the hell am I going to find if anything is bent

[Dave999]

dial guage on a good solid stand against wheel rim or axle flange? might work need smooth floor and a heavy stand or steel plate to magnetic it onto

you could if you have a nice smooth level floor take out suspect shaft and let it roll round to where it wants to sit
if it repeately stops in the same place.... probably bent.

same can be done on V blocks used for pressed motor cycle (usually 2 stroke) crank alignment checking, ideally you would use 3

or in a lathe if you know a bloke with a bloody great big one knock out studs and clamp the flange end in the jaws around the wheel centre register and see if the shaft has run out at the bearing section and just before the spline

these guys have some big lathes

http://denebank.co.uk/ and close to both of us...

if its the axle case its a bit more akward

it should have a slight toe in....
wheel alignment kit would show up more than a slight toe in if it was bent in that fore and aft direction
trouble is it could also be bent up or down, but i would not expect that to mainfest itself in a particularly obvious way other than more distance betwen tyre and arch. which most of them have anyway.

there are places that will flex an axle case to correct it... it can be done as part of a mega extensive wheel alignment but i don't know what they use to do it.


Dave

[Charger]

have you checked/adjusted the axle end-play??

[Wolfman]

dial guage on a good solid stand against wheel rim or axle flange? might work need smooth floor and a heavy stand or steel plate to magnetic it onto

you could if you have a nice smooth level floor take out suspect shaft and let it roll round to where it wants to sit
if it repeately stops in the same place.... probably bent.

same can be done on V blocks used for pressed motor cycle (usually 2 stroke) crank alignment checking, ideally you would use 3

or in a lathe if you know a bloke with a bloody great big one knock out studs and clamp the flange end in the jaws around the wheel centre register and see if the shaft has run out at the bearing section and just before the spline

these guys have some big lathes

http://denebank.co.uk/ and close to both of us...

if its the axle case its a bit more akward

it should have a slight toe in....
wheel alignment kit would show up more than a slight toe in if it was bent in that fore and aft direction
trouble is it could also be bent up or down, but i would not expect that to mainfest itself in a particularly obvious way other than more distance betwen tyre and arch. which most of them have anyway.

there are places that will flex an axle case to correct it... it can be done as part of a mega extensive wheel alignment but i don't know what they use to do it.


Dave

The Assessor is out tomorrow morning, I will see where we go from there