Axle trussing?

[Matt]

Bent the axle on my brothers sj and am looking for ideas on what material etc to use for trussing a new casing so we don't have the same problem again!

[courior]

Sorry that this doesn't help... but how did you manage to bend it??

[ScottieJ]

Pretty easy to make trusses using 75x50x3.6mm box section and rockwatt makes knuckle ball gussets/ you can order them from low range offroad.

You need to make sure you truss/brace the full length of the axle, the most common place for them to bend is outside of the spring perches and that's where most people miss the trussing.

Also make sure you take your time and don't put too much heat into the axle case while welding. It's really easy to bend sj axles with the heat from welding.





My axles are sleeved fully with 3" OD redband tube, 6mm wall I think? And trussed. Ask Dan2k how strong they are after my dukes of hazard impression at wagtail at 40odd mph not sure how far or high we went but we were airborne for quite a while

[Matt]

Thanks Scottie that's really helpful, looks like artwork, now we at entering challenges we are slowly finding the week points and this time is just so happened to be the front axle casing! If we were to do the front would it be a good idea to do the rear at the same time?


Courier.......we were doing a bit too much of this...



And ended in this.....





And still managed to come second on the day

[ScottieJ]

This is actually one of the few things that I didn't fabricate myself on my SJ. Tim pink built them for his old comp safari SJ and when he swapped to non Suzuki axles I snapped them up, think they are about as strong as you can make SJ axles. I did have to tweak some of the trussing and mounts for 410 spring spacing though, the perches double up as extra bracing at the ends of the axles.

Oh and the diff guards are made from 8" pipe caps.

Personally I would strengthen both front and rear.

[mike harris]

I would advise against the low range knuckles as there only about 10mm thick, rockwatts are thicker and wider. But there better than not doing it. Suzukis axles by the time you have offset wheels and spacers are under a huge strain. If you get hold of Richard speak to him, he was telling me there's no point to truss the top of an axle, only the underneath. May be a money saving option? If I bend my axle cases I think I would have exhausted the caperbiaties of my fabrication skills and the limits of an Sj case !!