Bent axle

[A G Wood]

That is a plan method so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel....!

[andrew34ruby]

This has left we wondering... How do axles get bent? What should we avoid?

[Parazine]

This has left we wondering...  How do axles get bent? What should we avoid?

Major accidents.

Many damaged cars were stripped for spares years ago and these find their way back into the supply chain, often having spent years in someone's shed.

[Stumpi]

Its easy to bend axles if the bodywork hits the diff casing during Trials,fitting some good bump stops to the axle helps to prevent this happening.
I have straightened axles by passing a 7/8th bar through the assembled axle casing with the adjusters fitted.I used a press until i could pass the bar through freely. 
Andy

[andrew34ruby]

Thanks, seems they are bent by severe impact then. I always worry when jacking up under the diff but hopefully that is ok.

[Rogerfrench]

Simplicity's axle was bent years ago, about 1950, before Simplicity was built. It certainly stayed bent as long as my father had it, with slight but discernible negative camber, and I think remains so today.

[Bruce Nicholls]

Thanks, seems they are bent by severe impact then. I always worry when jacking up under the diff but hopefully that is ok.

A previous owner of my car evidently worried about that, so he jacked up the car with a trolley jack under the petrol tank. It still has the clear imprint of the jack around the drain bung.

[Bob Culver]

Hi Bruce

In my experience with old cars it was just as likely to be a "mechanic" or his apprentice. In garages they never seem to have any odd blocks of wood for jacking cars not with the now standard reinforced sills. Javelin cars have an integral sheet metal box section chassis and these are always very damaged by garage jacks.  My Minx car has a front cross member which would suit an armoured car. Yet some "mechanic" has even managed to dent that. The car has jacking points at the extremities but I always have to stop warrant of fitness  "experts" jacking on the sills.