Bent front axle

Talk to a local frame shop . Second choice would be a fabrication shop with a decent sized press . IF you are brave & also depending on the placement & angle of the bend a chain and a serious bottle jack can straighten some pretty amazing things . I am spoiled as we still have the frame rack around & they have no problem straightening things like axles OR one of the racecars after it attempts to get off the track where there isn't an exit . Racecars ALWAYS lose that battle .:D
 
I have straightened a few axles in my 25 ton press but it doesn't take that much pressure. They usually start to move around 7 tons, (I have a good gauge on my press). However NEVER heat the axle, bend it cold a little past where you need it to be as it will spring back. If you heat it with a torch it will lose it's springyness and be "soft" and won't rebound. An old timer told me he couldn't fix some axles because they had been what he called "buttered". He described how the metal moved really easy and had no spring and in each case the owner said they had tried to straighten it with themselves with heat.
 
Are in or near a big city? If so, try the Yellow Pages and look for a spring & frame shop that deals in heavy trucks. They still have to deal with "primitive" technology-like straightening beam axles.
 
If you can get access to a press, axles are pretty easy to straighten. If you can't fix it yourself, I would think you could buy a straight '37-'41 axle for less $ than the shop labor cost to straighten your bent axle.
 
Thanks Gary .... and your latest just got here OK :cool:


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I straiten axles almost every day
Yes
Just do it cold with a press … I bend them in mine on a big 1 ½ flat plate and small ½ plates to shim where I need.
 
Did someone say bent front axle. You wanna see a bent axle, I'll show you a bent axle. You don't have a bent axle, you've got a deflection, THIS is a bent axle. Is this bent enough for you? I took this to several shops and they all threw me out. I guess I'm going to have to scrap it.
 

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Henry was a big believer in chromium vanadium steel and forging it to shape. Many a dropped axle by More Drop and others have been heated to taffy consistency for the drop then put them right back on the vehicle after completion. Many of these old dropped axles are still in service. Even cold, they bend a lot more than a person would think.

Cast steel or iron is a whole nother story though. I wouldn't mess with heating those and they would likely break during straightening anyway if they were deflected too far.
 
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