Axle housing replacement options????

[Vanhack]

Well my GQ LWB's front axle housing is bent. Have replaced the seals twice, the leak was visible around the bottom of the knuckles within 5 weeks of new seals.

Anyhow the dealer has given me a quote for the replacement axle housing, which is AUD 2000.00. Now for that price I can do the following:

1) Get a scrapped complete axle, and swap that, this would cost 1320.00 but I have no gurantee until I fit the axle that it is not bent as well, or some other issue, also the age will not be known, as the scrappies here will not give the honest information.

2) Would laminting the axle housing be advised, my GQ has just over 150,000km and the axle bent due to the last 3 years of extensive offroading in the dunes here in Dubai. Fairly short life for the axle, perhaps the axles can't take the weight of the TB42E and bend in the dunes.

Any help would be great here.

[chunderlicious]

ask a body shop to straighten it for you. if they have a chassis alignment machine they should have the ability to straighten your housing. then brace it

[Vanhack]

To straighten the axle would be ideal, but there is no one here who I know would be able to do this from experience.

[Woop]

Is the axle housing definantly bent? When you say there is a leak from Knuckles, is it gear oil or grease? MAYBE the seal is not centered on the knuckle housing--check same amount of shims are under both bearing caps. When i had a bent axle housing on my GQ, it was almost impossible to remove the righthand side stub axle--or spindle. Check this is the case with yours.

Nick

[Vanhack]

Is the axle housing definantly bent? When you say there is a leak from Knuckles, is it gear oil or grease? MAYBE the seal is not centered on the knuckle housing--check same amount of shims are under both bearing caps. When i had a bent axle housing on my GQ, it was almost impossible to remove the righthand side stub axle--or spindle. Check this is the case with yours.

Nick

The leak is definetly diff oil only, very slow weep. The shims are all good. The axle was not reported as an issue by both garages. I took it to a 3rd garage, and they say that the axle is not bent, by doing a visual inspection. They claim maybe the top/bottom knucle bearings are gone, and cause the leak, but they are not experts on patrols, but do know 4x4s as they are a reputable modification garage for jeeps/lcs/patrols.

Any tests on checking the axle is bent would be a good idea here please.