Hi all.
I have a question about how to proceed here. I recently picked up a 88 LX 5.0 with a few needed fixes. Most have been simple, exaust leak, speedo not working etc. But, one thing I noticed right away was an alignment issue. Long story short, its not the front end, but the rear axle housing. Passenger side axle tube seems to have been twisted and rearward by about 3". The Diff housing seems to be fine, just looks like the axle tube/rear wheel met with some "external resistance" causing this issue. Since I've been keeping it in the garage for the better portion of the last few weeks, waiting on warm weather, I broke one of the C-Clips going down my driveway (about 50 ft) causing the passenger side axle to walk out. Lucky it was right in my driveway, was able to jack it up and simply push the axle back in, and back up in to the garage. Essentially the rear end is toe out. So.. In reading a few items on this topic, it is suggested to weld the axle tube to the Diff housing, but this doesn't sound like a job I'd want to trust to "Bob and Bobs" autoservice. Should I break down and get a whole new housing? At the moment I am going to just replace the C-clip avoid towing costs, but I also don't want to get the wrong housing for this. I'm probably looking to have this done by some shop since I've limited space in my garage to work on this. Also, this S clip thats in the diff, is there a special tool to remove it to put a new c-clip in? dunno, this is new territory for me, any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Pictures of what I am seeing:
I have a question about how to proceed here. I recently picked up a 88 LX 5.0 with a few needed fixes. Most have been simple, exaust leak, speedo not working etc. But, one thing I noticed right away was an alignment issue. Long story short, its not the front end, but the rear axle housing. Passenger side axle tube seems to have been twisted and rearward by about 3". The Diff housing seems to be fine, just looks like the axle tube/rear wheel met with some "external resistance" causing this issue. Since I've been keeping it in the garage for the better portion of the last few weeks, waiting on warm weather, I broke one of the C-Clips going down my driveway (about 50 ft) causing the passenger side axle to walk out. Lucky it was right in my driveway, was able to jack it up and simply push the axle back in, and back up in to the garage. Essentially the rear end is toe out. So.. In reading a few items on this topic, it is suggested to weld the axle tube to the Diff housing, but this doesn't sound like a job I'd want to trust to "Bob and Bobs" autoservice. Should I break down and get a whole new housing? At the moment I am going to just replace the C-clip avoid towing costs, but I also don't want to get the wrong housing for this. I'm probably looking to have this done by some shop since I've limited space in my garage to work on this. Also, this S clip thats in the diff, is there a special tool to remove it to put a new c-clip in? dunno, this is new territory for me, any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Pictures of what I am seeing: