Rear Axle "bent" On 2002 Silverado?

gmchevroletruck · July 8, 2009

Question...if anyone can make sense of this:

Have an 02 Silverado, has 130k on it now, problem started probably...25k ago (yes, I know...save that for later)....

Problem is this: left rear wheel has too much negative camber, the wheel is "in" at the top, and "out" at the bottom. Left rear wheel only. Was not like this when I bought the truck, and not exactly sure when it happened, I just noticed it one day. Of course, that tire is worn on the inside badly, while the other 3 are still decent. I would like to figure out what the problem is, before I spend money on tires that will just get chewed up immediately.

What I had guessed that it was is, that I had overloaded the bed one time (put way too much weight, delivering wood flooring pallets for a customer), and I assumed that maybe I had bent the rear axle by doing this. However, several fellow truck owners I have talked to, have insisted that an axle housing will either break, or not break, but since it is cast, it will not bend. It also does not appear to be bent, and the more I look at how "close to the edge of the axle" that the "bump-stop" is, which is what would make contact with the axle anyway, it appears pretty unlikely that you could bend anything that way, unless it just put too much weight on the wheels, which are of course connected to the internal parts of the axle, inside the housing, and caused the shaft to bend?

Anyone experienced with rear axles, have any ideas on what is causing this? It does not appear to be affecting the rear right at all, and that tire is just fine. Only the rear left.

Thanks for the help, in advance

Spurshot · July 8, 2009

I've seen bent axle housings. Usually was from some yahoo jumping their truck. It's exactly why the axle truss was invented. A heavy load while driving nice doesn't sound likely to do this. Nevertheless, it sounds like it did. If it was on the stops and you hit a good bump, it puts a lot of leverage on the axle in bending.

Pull a rear wheel off and sight down along it as best you can from the rear of the brake disk and see if you can detect a bend. I'll bet you can.

It's not a difficult fix. Find a donor truck or a rear axle assembly in the junkyard with the gear ratio that you have/want and buy it. It shouldn't take long to replace.

gmchevroletruck · August 17, 2009

I've seen bent axle housings. Usually was from some yahoo jumping their truck. It's exactly why the axle truss was invented. A heavy load while driving nice doesn't sound likely to do this. Nevertheless, it sounds like it did. If it was on the stops and you hit a good bump, it puts a lot of leverage on the axle in bending.

Pull a rear wheel off and sight down along it as best you can from the rear of the brake disk and see if you can detect a bend. I'll bet you can.

It's not a difficult fix. Find a donor truck or a rear axle assembly in the junkyard with the gear ratio that you have/want and buy it. It shouldn't take long to replace.

Thanks for the advice...I will try that. Another question...I found an axle housing on car-parts.com for a really reasonable price locally, and provided that it's not bent as well....would it be a lot of trouble to remove the axle shafts and bearings, and the rear end gears in mine (3.73 locker) and swap them over to the other housing?