I've been searching through past posts about bent axles...but I still have a question. I just put new bearings in my rear end and my friend noticed that my driver's side wheel had considerable runout. So, I pulled off the rims and brake drums to check the runout on the axles. Here's what I found:

Driver's side: 0.090" on the O.D., 0.007" on the face
Pass side: 0.050" on the O.D., 0.005" on the face

I read a post where a guy had 0.050" runout on an axle O.D. and he was told that was too much. However, the side with 0.050" runout actually appears to run smoothly with the car running on jack stands. The 0.090" side is where my problem appears to be. I found an axle for $45 at a local yard, but I was wondering if I needed to go ahead and replace both sides while I'm at it.

Any thoughts?

 

The OD of the flange isn't a particularly welll-controlled surface; runout there doesn't matter. .00anything on the face is insignificant. The better test is with a wheel, like you did, on jack stands. If a wheel seems to have runout, swap another wheel on that axle, make sure it's the axle and not the wheel.