Olean NY Jeeper

Ok, I dont know if my dana 30 housing is bent or not, doesnt look bent but I have been wheeling for a year with no reinforcement. If it was slightly bent, can u still sleeve it?

I am a little worried about getting this done and after the drilling they find out it is bent and now my axle housing is filled with lots of holes and not useable anymore. Is this a legitimate concern?

MBRP Tech 1

Our 4 door JK was wheeled at EJS in 2009 with a stock front, and Rock Jock 60 in the rear. We did bend the front slightly with 35" tires and when we went to install the 37's the bend looked even more severe.

We got sleeves from Burnsville Offroad and when we tried to install them the would not go in the whole way. We used the center jack, and a series of ratchet straps on the hoist, combined with heat, to bring the axle back to being straight enough the tubes slid inside fairly easily. I would not drill any of the holes for the spot welds until you have the sleeve in place and ready to weld up.

Hope this helps...our axle was for sure bent, and this helped big time. We also installed gussets on the C's at this time as well.

Steve

TeraFlex

Yes you can but it can be a pain. Have you gotten a alignment recently? If your camber is too high, that could be a sign of the axle being bent.

Olean NY Jeeper

I have never gotten my jeep aligned. Frankly, there is no one I trust to do it right as most of the "alighment shops" are owned by crooks with incompetent uncaring people working for them. The tire place that does my installs is the main shop that does alighments in my town and I dont trust them at all. I asked them to rotate my tires when I ahd my last set of tires and found out they didnt do it when I went home and took a closer look. Its aweful not having anyone I trust to touch my jeep. the dealer isnt any better.

My Jeep seems to drive fine and I have not noticed any unsual tire wear. I do rotate every 3000 miles though with 5 tire rotation.


I have to travel 80 miles to find a off road shop which is where i am going to get my gears done and I want to have them do gussets and sleeves at the same time. I was jsut really worried that they would start drilling stuff and realize they couldnt get sleeves in and ruin my housing. Sounds like if it is slightlly bent they still can be installed which is good news. I have looked at it and it doenst look bent but those things can be be very hard to see with naked eye.

07XMan2Door

[QUOTE=Olean NY Jeeper;1920024]IMy Jeep seems to drive fine and I have not noticed any unsual tire wear. I do rotate every 3000 miles though with 5 tire rotation.
QUOTE]

Sounds to me that if it is bent it's not that severe. I't pretty easy to remove your axles. I'd just remove the passenger side axle, as I think this is the only side that ever bends. Slide a sleeve in there. If it will go in, you're in luck, it's straight.
Interesting how the above member worked his in there. I'd love to know how that is holding up. Wonder if the axle tube bent his shaft once the straps were relaxed.

Good luck.

jeeperaf

This is a perfect way to straighten your axle housing. It should work on any bend barring an actual fold or crease in the metal--and if that were the case you wouldn't be driving on it now anyway.

The drawback is you need the tools to pull this off; hydraulic ram jack, chains/straps, and possibly a torch for heat. Also, to go this far you'll need to remove your axle from the Jeep.

Once you do this, the sleeves should slide in, drill your weld holes and you should be straight and ready to re-install.

Best of luck...

nthinuf

It also depends on the labor costs where you are.

My local shop quoted a 'minimum' of 5-6 hours of labor to straighten mine. Add up the labor charges + sleeves/gussets + the regear (my gears were toast from the bent housing) + whatever else, then decide if a new 44 might be a better way to go than dumping a ton of money into a 30...

07XMan2Door

No question whatsoever!! Scrap that bent 30. Screw the Chrysler Dana 44, it's not much stronger than the 30 (as far a C's & tubes go.)

Bite the bullet & get the pro rock. Then we'll be jealous of you!!!

I almost shit-canned my 30 and it was in perfect condish. I decided to keep it since it wasn't bent & I have my own welder.