Howling

I pulled my '06 Cummins on last Friday night at the local fair.The next day I was going over the truck to make sure everything was good and noticed my carrier bearing was tweaked a little.(Bent toward the fuel tank).I also noticed that some contact was made at the lower passenger bedside opening by my tire.(rubbed some paint off).The driver side had no contact.

So I started to do some closer inspection and noticed the passengers side leaf spring perch looked like it made contact with the axle tube,or the axle tube flexed.

I got some pics of it but it is hard to make out.-









In the last pic it looks like the perch and block do not match up,but that is because of the ubolts are off.But there is defenitaly more room between the perch and axle tube on the rear most part of the perch compared to the driverside.

Do you guy think it would be alright if I still drive this or should I be pricing a new axle.The truck only has 12,xxx miles

cbrahs

a set of ladder bars is a must for next time. I would assemble it and take it in for an alignment (4 wheel) to see if anything looks out of wack.

ripping r

I think i would be looking for a new houseing. looks crushed in the first pic.

Snoxracer

Look next to the center section of your rear in, I'd bet your axle tubes turned in your center section.

What is your truck, a 2500? Makes me wonder because I have done quite a bit of pulling and have had no problems. But mine is a 3500 so I wonder if the 11.5 AAM has bigger tubes then the 10.5 that is in the 2500 truck?

Anyway hope that you can get it all straightened out!

Dustin

jmccart

Zowie! Any idea how that happened? I am pretty sure all the 2500/3500 Cummins have the 11.5, so do all the gas one tons and any stick shift HD's (IIRC). Dually 11.5 has bigger tubes I believe.

I had a 12 bolt in a 69 Buick GS twisty one of the axle tubes. I had it turned back in place & welded up.

Good luck buddy.

BigIron70

Those Cummins diesels sure do put out the power, too bad the trucks are not Ram tough.

XLR8R

Looks like the leaf pack deformed enough to allow tire rubbage on the fenderwell lip interior; if the driver's side perch is still parallel to the lift block - the passenger side axle tube spun inside the center section housing. ()
AFAIK, however, the AAM axle tubes are pin-welded into the housings... ?

Yet another reason for properly engineered traction bars!

I would loosen the driver's side U-bolts so everything can "relax" and try to re-align the rear axle assembly as best you can; when the torque rotated the axle tubes (after bending the leaf springs) inside the U-bolts and caused the paint contact, it could've cockeyed the spring perch/lift block parallelism w/o spinning the axle tube... have you measured the difference in length between the axle centerline to lower rear control arm bolt centerlines on both sides?

Howling

I thought the tube twisted in the center section also but it does not appear to be twisted it might have it just shows no sign of it.Just crushed a little by the perch.

I wonder if and how much it would be to retube on side of the housing.

XLR8R

11.5" AAMs have been standard in the rear for years now on 2500 & 3500 CTD Rams - no difference in axle tube sizes... pretty sure even the 10.5" AAMs are 3-7/8" OD.

Howling

Yes the tubes are pin welded to the housing.

Before I disassembled everything there was no gap between the lift block and perch.

I dropped 2 plumb bobs down from the same point on the frame,the passenger side was 1/4" closer than drivers side.

Another thing I noticed was the front of the passenger side overload leaf(bottom spring) had less room at the front than the drivers side.

I will be fabbing my 2" DOM traction bars in the next week,just not sure if I should do it to this axle.

XLR8R

Have you measured the extent of crushage? How out-of-round is the axle tube? Hard to see from the pix...

When you had the full weight of the sled, remember any wheel hop or hitting any "holes" in the dirt?

I can see the axle tube crushing with massive weight on it through the leaf pack and getting shocked by hop or a bump enough to exceed the yield limit of the tube.

pos dodge

Stacked07 on here told me he twisted and bent his axle shafts and blew out his seals, as well as broke the front driver side axle, but that was at the drag strip. I have never heard of anybody twisting or bending these axles before that. Now this!! You have me worried as the sled pull is my favorite hobby.

Howling

I have to find my dial calipers and I will measure the amount of "crush"

The truck has never hopped when pulling,don't really remember any holes out of the ordinary.

Floridacracker

did u put the blocks in or did someone else
are the block also shimed 1 might be turned the wrong way

Howling

I put the blocks in,the blocks are flat since I have a 2 peice shaft.