Well i picked up a zexel rear end off a ls1 for 40 bucks if you saw my other post. Thinking i got a great deal. But as the saying goes you get what you pay for. Finished installing it. Did some some burnouts before i even took it for a test drive. Well the rear passenger tire has a bad whobble. Actually the axle im guessing as i changed the tire to see if it still whobbled and it did. Doesnt make any noises like bearings gone bad just wobbles. Is it the axle? Can i just swap it out ? piece of cake? I was also thinking the axle housing is bent too but probably not. Help a wrencher out. Or should i just dump it in the trash bin?

 

Check the axle flange for run out. If the tube is bent your alignment will be jacked.

GD

 

40 bux is a deal for that rear.

If the shafts are bent, you can get a new axle shaft, or with a little work you can swap the disc brakes and the carrier into your stock housing.

 

If it wobbles, the axle is probably bent.

Easy enough to change. Not too $$$ either. A set of brand-new axles, with bearings & seals, is around $250 or so.

I wouldn't change just one, and I wouldn't go with used.

That's most likely why it was such a good deal.

Butt hay, you got the good posi, the good brakes, etc.; even having to do that, it's still an OK deal if not quite as screamin' as it seemed.

 

You do need to check the housing. One way to do it is to remove both axes and the differential and look through the housing like looking sown the barrel of a shot gun. Like up all of the bearing bores as you look through it and if they don't line up just right then you have a problem. This isn't an accurate way of doing it, but if it's bent very bad you will see it.

Another way of checking it requires the rear end to be out of the car, with good axles and wheels on it. Block the wheels so that they can't roll. Put a tape measure from one wheel to the other and rotate the housing. If the measurement from wheel to wheel does not change then the housing is probably fine. If the measurement does change then it's bent.

The best way to do it is with a housing fixture.

 

Yeah probably just a bent axle no biggy. I know somebody who runs a spool and car is tubbed, bends them frequently and that is what happens.

 

Yup, you get what you pay for:

 

Well just finished swapping out the bent axle . Piece of cake. 40 dollar torsen diff not bad. Now for that prop valve hmmm.

 

Took like 5 hours for the swap. Hardest part was probably aligning the torque arm holes to put the bolts in. Besides that everything thing else was easy. You definitely Need an impact for this type of job, lots of tuff bolts to get off. Well i have a few problems only. My pass side caliper is seized and pushed all the way back. Is this common? Can I unseize it somehow? Fluid is getting to it . Also about the prop valve , what cars can i get it off?

 

Looks like you took off drum brakes? If so, your existing prop valve will work fine.

If you took off the crap Saggy brakes, you'd need a different one.

Easiest way to un-seize a caliper is with a credit card. Piece o cake. Use it on both of em; if one is like that, the other can't possibly be what could be called "pristine".

 

LOL

 

 

Good one. ill be picking one at the pick a part soon. maybe like 15 bucks at the most. Lots of fourth gens to pick from .

 

Yea they were drums.

 

I have an axle question. If you checked my post up you know I had a bent axle and changed it out and everything good. So the other wheel had a very minor slight wobble barely noticeable but I think it might be bent too. I don't wanna hit the junkyard again since I have two axles from my old open diff. Can I use those axles on my new torsen ls1 diff? My old rear was a 92 open diff with drums. I'm sure they are 28 spline as well but not sure about length as the fourth gen diffs are wider.