Straighten A Bent 9" Ford Rear End Housing:

Exactly the information I needed for my Willys 38 pickup! Now I will try to find a shop that can do this for me in The Netherlands ....
Many thanks Drive Em!

 

Mine was bent 3/4". Straightened out just fine.

 

Thanks, this will be very useful

 

another good old thread surfacing
since this originally posted I bought a bar and pucks and had a pumpkin case pruned
I've straightened a few housings now but with the heat and shrink method
works good but
I like the idea of doing it without heat
I may have to build a jig now and try it cold

 

F.Y.I. Paul, mine was straightened cold in a press as well as chained down and using a jack. You'd be surprised just what it takes to get a 3/4" bend out of a housing that was narrowed.

 

Great thread.........subscribed!


Ray

 

I'm not sure that they are straight from the factory !!! Everyone we narrow has to be straightened !!!
Plus of course people bend them when welding on bracketry.

 

This is how I have been doing it for 35 years, 12 ton jack and some heavy chain. You can pump the jack, let it down on the rests, slide the end mandrels in for fit. Probably done 250 rearends with it. Circle track racing can be hard on axle housings you know.

 

good stuff. excellent thread.

 

This is a good one to bump back to the top.

 

Great post I have a set up like this for 8 and 9 inch rear ends a friend gave me maybe I'll try it out

 

I use a fixture like yours all the time. They work like a champ.

Good post.

 

It should be pointed out that these housings don't need to be dead-nuts straight to work. As a general rule, if you can install the axles and fully seat them by hand or with only light tapping, they're good. If you need to beat the axles in to seat them, then they're bent enough that axle bearing life will be shortened, sometimes seriously. Beware rear sway bars that mount to the housing, not the frame; these can and usually will bend the housing, particularly with wheels that have a lot of outboard offset (learned that one the hard way).

 

Some of the later housings are pretty flimsy too. They are just a sheet metal housing and some like the late Lincoln( think '80s) for instance are made of pretty light gauge sheet metal.

One trick that we have used when shortening one for hard use is to clip the tubes loose at the punkin and then install 3" ( .125 wall) mechanical tubing in place of the original tubing.

Ok I hijacked sorry.

 

I've got a early bronco 9" that I plan weld shock mounts &buggy spring hanger too. Should I straighten before welding and then straighten again after welding?

 

subscribe

 

Great thread,good information here. Thanks for posting.

 

Great article! Thanks!

 

Good info....just cracked out my MB housing kit and have my Olds, Pont on the stand, and I have about a 1/4" of misalignment . Has any one tried using heat wrench and or shrinking.......or face it bent....fix it...


Going to be fun.

 

Yup. Get it all loaded up with a gasket, properly torqued and all. Put in the bar and any housing end pucks you can get in.

Have a bucket with water and a rag standing by.

Where you cannot get a housing end puck in, observe which side of the puck "sticks out" from the side of the tube (where there is an open cap between the bearing bore, and the puck, not the side where the puck overlaps the housing flange.). That's the side you want to put heat on. You want to heat up that side to shift it toward where it needs to be. Don't over-do it.

Work slowly, as you can just make it worse. As you apply heat, you will get a feel for how the tube moves.

Apply heat near the center section, but where the tube is still round, until you see it start to move at the housing end. Discontinue heat, and apply the wet rag. Repeat as necessary, where necessary, until you can side the puck in smoothly.

The closer you work to the center, the less work you need to do. A small change there equals a big change at the housing end. If you find yourself having trouble controlling the movement, choke up, towards the housing end. The closer to the end, the less the change will be.

Remember, applying flame to something that was previously filled with a flammable substance is a bad idea if you haven't bothered to clean it out properly, and are not working in a ventilated area.

Be not a jackass.

 

Can't wait.....have three housings....ought to be fun...

 

Post so I can find it.

 

Are 9" 3rd member and 8" 3rd member's the same with ring gear different?
I have a 8" I would like to try to straighten.

 

I have also watched off-road guys run a bead of weld on a tube to intentionally warp it, back in the other direction of a bend. Not a super precise method in the field, but if you have an on-board welder, and are otherwise stranded, well....

I just built my stuff with 3" x 1/2" DOM and skipped the bending part.

 

Not even a little.

 

Great simple info. Thanks!

 

Posting so I can find when needed...great tech from the hamb contributors again!

 

Heat on the side of the tube on the side with the widest gap in the "crescent":

 

Everyone likes pictures, so I drew one!

 

any reason a guy couldn't just substitute the axle with bearing for the bar and mandrel? It wouldn't be subjected to heat. Straighten the housing until the axle/bearing will slide in place?