Rusted 14SF axle tubes

[VCaddy]

Getting my 14SF ready to swap in, wire wheeled it down to find this. The U bolt plates held crap against the tubes so now there's deep corroded spots. Those JB Weld spots are covering pinholes where the rust went through the tube. Would you use this axle? I'm leaning no, but there's probably thousands of these trucks running around with axles corroded through just like this one.

At least I know for sure I'm doing a U bolt flip kit to remedy the terrible original U bolt plate design.

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[Ironhead]

The question is will it break and cause a possible accident? Not sure any of us can answer that, but we can only offer our own opinions. If this were my situation, I'd want a new axle housing, just because I like the peace of mind. The guts are the expensive parts, and I have a hunch there are lots of good 14 bolt SFs lying around in the wrecking yards.

 

[VCaddy]

The question is will it break and cause a possible accident? Not sure any of us can answer that, but we can only offer our own opinions. If this were my situation, I'd want a new axle housing, just because I like the peace of mind. The guts are the expensive parts, and I have a hunch there are lots of good 14 bolt SFs lying around in the wrecking yards.

Yeah, and I'm putting a Truetrac in, so that's a really expensive part. Eventually, I'd like to LS swap the truck too, so I need to know it's going to hold up. Well, at least I can search for 6 and 8 lug axles now since I have some good 6 lug axle shafts.

 

[Justin S]

I just put together a SF 14 bolt with the Truetrac as well for my project. I've had a Truetrac in my daily for the past 7 years and its been nothing but awesome, definitely worth the price for the upgrade.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

A 14b tube is about 3/8" thick, so if it rusted through, I would replace that housing. I mean, you could re-tube it, but why?

 

[VCaddy]

I guess I'm not meant to have a good 14SF. Went and got another one from the yard, this one had much better axle tubes, still a little corrosion though. Got it home and tore it down to find a chunk of the G80 stuck to the magnet. I guess that chunk caused the damage in the pic. That's a gouge in the housing that apparently crushed the inner pinion bearing race so that it wore through unevenly. So another junk housing, first one rusted through, this one with a trashed pinion bearing bore.

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[df2x4]

Probably a dumb question, but just out of curiosity can you still buy these housings new? If so what's the price difference? I'm sure it would be astronomical compared to the pick and pull, but I'd be tempted to pay it after some luck like that.

 

[VCaddy]

Probably a dumb question, but just out of curiosity can you still buy these housings new? If so what's the price difference? I'm sure it would be astronomical compared to the pick and pull, but I'd be tempted to pay it after some luck like that.

No longer available. I found one listing at a GM dealer that still showed the price, even though part is discontinued. $1700. There's only one 4WD 14SF left at my yard, and the U bolts looked terribly corroded on it.

 

[df2x4]

I figured that was probably the case. Good luck on your search, maybe see if there are any other yards within a couple hundred miles that have online part inventory?

 

[Jrgunn5150]

car-part.com is always a good source.