Ok, so I had some bad luck last week. I was at work and someone hit my jeep. I dont know what they hit it with. The only visible damage was to the wheel. Looks like the hit it with something like a box. Two gauges in inner rim and one on the spoke. I am running Sahara 18's.

Before its said it is not crub or rock rash. I wish it was I would wear it with pride. The problem is that the rearend was clicking. Like a rock stuck in the tread. Yes I pulled out the keys and pulled ever rock out. Noise staied in there. On saturday I went for a little trail ride. The clicking stoped and a lil bump was thrown in. Just like a warped wheel.

So after the weekend its time to figure out what it is. I put the jeep on jack stands and run it in gear and watch the tires. The right rear is wobbleing and seems to be the cause. This is the one that has the visible damage on it. So I take and swap it out with the spare. The spare seems to have a little wobble in it but not near as much as the damaged wheel. I did notice some up and down motion, in both wheels. So I drove to local tire store and stealership and both look at it, still felt a little bump in it(uncle says it in my mind). The tire shop ran it on a balancerand said its normal. Then off to the jeep stealership. They looked at it and said the axle seems fine. An I am stuck in the middle . What to do from here.

A little history of the jeep was t-boned in feb of 08 on that same side.

 

The axle flange ( the part of the shaft the lug bolts are pressed into ) is very prone to bending when the wheel is struck from the side. The only cure is replacement of the axle shaft. Jack up the jeep and spin the wheel, what wheel is mounted on the axle doesn't matter. If you have a wobble the flange is bent. This can cause the brake rotor edge to rub on the dust shield when the wheel turns, causing your noise. If you have aluminum wheels, in all likelyhood the wheel is not bent. If you have steel wheels, they will bend along with the flange....

 

That makes sense, I did leave something out. When I put the spare on, it seemed that the wheel bearing got tighter. I thought I was crazy. The flange may be bent, the ruler is coming out tomorrow. I am going to measure an thing that I can, on the wheel and tire that has damage to it. Then remove the spare and turn the shaft and check roundness in a few sports.


The wheel that came off may be damaged to, do to the item falling on it. I can tell a wear pattern is set in the tire, with only 200 miles being put on it since friday. The spare seems to be riding better, but still feels like i got a stick tied to the tire. It is not as bad with the spare. As I noted, seems to have some up and down movement.

I will have about 50 miles on spare after tomorrow. I would think that if I see a pattern in the tire that would be a dead give away to a bent axle.