Arghhhhhhh !!!!

[PercyUK]

Hi everyone, I have a question.
My frame was bent like a banana and needed a lot of straightening. All done by hand using jacks, a 10 tonne porta power and large block of wood to press against.
A new front bumper was required and lots of work.
It looked good on the ground and a laser appeared to show that it was straight, or as straight as I was ever going to get it.
I have assembled the front and rear axles and the rear is nice and square but the front axle appears to be 1cm out to one side   !!! arghhhhh. !!!!!!!
Have any of you got any good ideas to fix this ?
Options include cutting the spring hangers and re fixing, lots of work, or finding a way to move the axle the 1cm to the left.
I think the problem is a slight twist in the frame where it was in a collision but I would have thought that most jeeps were bent is some way simply because of their off road ability.

Any ideas.
Thanks

[RICKG]

I'm not so sure 1cm (3/8") would even be noticeable visually or adversely affect performance and/or tracking.. heck they may have been that far off straight out of Toledo.. just sayin if you straightened a badly bent frame and got that close then "good on ya"

[squidtone]

Have you mounted the axles with springs completely? That is, with new "C" shackles in front? Could it be that one or both of them are not fully seated? Are both spring hanger flanges (on each side) straight (perpendicular to the ground and not skewed)? I wouldn't be surprised if you loosened everything up and push the axle toward center and retighten everything it just might get closer to true center....

But I agree with RICKG, these things are crude machines, or "agricultural" as the wheeler dealer TV show guys say (haha). So I think 10mm is not too far off from the bell curve of what came out of the factory. When you stack up all the tolerances, I'll bet a lot of these old Jeeps exceed that number, even when they were new.
I appreciate your attention to detail though...sometimes these sort of things can drive one crazy. Good luck in your decision!

[athawk11]

I'm with the others Percy.  I would be pretty satisfied being 1cm off. 

[PercyUK]

Hi everyone , thanks for replying.

It is an OCD thing, we all have it when building and restoring cars. We want it to be right so it does not bug us for the rest of the vehicles life.

10mm doesn't sound much but it is fascinating how the human eye can detect that small error !!.

I think the hangers not being perpendicular is the most likely reason. When I used the laser I ran it from front to rear across the rivets and bolts securing them to the frame. I noticed then that some hangers , although straight, were not all perpendicular but thought that the spring would probably bend a little and effectively take up the slack.

I plan to do some more measuring in the next few days and try a little adjusting before committing to any radical plan.

More to come.

Cheers

[PercyUK]

Hi friends, You could not make this up if you tried !!!
In order to get the wheels square and strait I have done lots of measuring.
As previously mentioned the front passenger side wheel is out, know confirmed to be 3/4".
After a lot of time and struggling I have discovered that the Dana 25 is 3/4" wider than it should be !!. So my track at the rear is 48" as it should be and the front 48 3/4 .
Even weirder is that the error appears to be all on the passenger side as the drivers side front wheel seems to be the correct distance from the frame and the same as the rear drivers wheel.
Any comments would be appreciated as I am frankly baffled.
Cheers

[PercyUK]

Ok....I went off and had a pint, or two at my local pub, came back and started again.
The Dana 25 I still longer between the hub back plates than the rear axle but I now think this is normal.
All my tyres are NDT 16 x 600 but it is clear now that they are no all the same.
By moving wheels around I came up with a far more satisfactory situation and am starting to think that it may turn out true after all give or take a few mm.
As it was so badly bent in the first place I can live with a few mm out !!.
I hope you didn't spend too much time thinking this one over.

Thanks

[RICKG]

Ok....I went off and had a pint, or two at my local pub, came back and started again.
/quote]


Splendid! Nothing like a pint or two to help a fellow see things more clearly!