For all the work, why not cut, rotate, weld, sleeve?

 

I've heard of them being used on XJs to adjust Caster but combined with adjustable CAs it might work.

Interesting idea ...

 

I did just that with mine. its a d 30 though but same idea. I have a total of 7 degrees of wheel caster but its the same as 5.5 degrees without them. You can do them yourself in your driveway in about 3-4 hours with a press from the parts store. Rides great now.

 

For some people, 2° with an adjustable ball joint isn't nearly enough to have good caster AND good pinion angle.

 

I had to do what you are talking about on my CJ8. I put a pipe clamp around the axle tube (to get a straight cut) used my portable bandsaw and cut through the tube. after having the tubes cut I ground the ends to a bit of a point for penetration reasons being careful to leave a slight lip on the inside. when it came time to go back together I clamped angle iron to help align the tube back up and only tacked till i was 100% sure all was straight. I used a wire called "dual shield" it is supposed to be stronger than 7018 rod. When all was done I did not sleeve the tube or strengthen the axle in any way and it is holding up good.

I was able to point the pinion at the transfer case and used a dual cardon CV joint. the drive shaft has a 12 long slip joint and that has never giving me problems pushing 40" tires.

good luck!

 

why not, press out the tubes and replace them with a heaver tube while your at it,,,,, building a jig should be easy enough so if you do decide to do it,,,, i would just replace everything..... get what you need, weld it up solid and brace it while it's out.....

 

Not a JK, but here is how it was done on an early bronco.
http://www.broncofix.com/viewtopic.p...ghlight=caster
Tom

 

I've just done this on a D30 as an experiment - the axle had already been sleeved, so I was not sure how well it would cut.

We ground out the welds between the axle tubes and the diff housing, and rotated the housing by 5 degrees relative to the axle before welding it back in place.

The whole axle assembly was clamped down on the bed of a big lathe whilst we did the work in order to keep everything else in it's place. It did take a fair amount of force to rotate the housing.

 

The track bar bracket alignment might be a concern depending on how much you try to rotate the C.

 

I was hoping to minimise that by rotating the center - the C's have not moved relative to the control arm brackets - I have a full set of adjustable control arms to set caster at the C, but now I can also have minimal pinion angle for the drive shaft.