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Bent 44 TTB knuckle, need some opinions

alk1174

alk1174

Well-known member
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
132
Working on rebuilding the front alxle on my son’s 96 bronco with the Dana 44 TTB setup.
It came from a heavy salt state so there was a lot of rust and stuck parts. The spindles took a fair amount of force to remove but a heavy plastic dead blow eventually got them off. The knuckles were the worst. The lower ball joint was seized in. Took a lot of hammering a pickle fork and some heat to get them off. Upon reassembly we learned we used too much hammering and now the brake pads don’t for between the ears on the knuckle cause we bent the knuckle. My question is can we just heat them with a torch and bend them back into place or should we replace them? To me it looks like there is a thin spot in the knuckle right at the top where the knuckle bent over. Some heat right there and bend it back into place and we should be good to go. Just looking for a second opinion from someone that knows more about fords than me.

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Projectjunkie said:
I'm leaning towards "beat it back into shape so he can go to work tomorrow, but locate nice parts Monday and redo this job in January "
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this. Find a better one on eBay and make what you have work for now. Depending on how hard you swung your purse, you definitely could’ve bent the upper portion.
 
I am guessing it’s bent along the blue lines. The distance along the red line is shorter than the distance along the green line. I figure they should be the same so the pads can float freely. Both sides are bent so I dont have a good comparison. We have a back up vehicle so I am leaning towards looking for replacements and putting straightening as a second opinion.
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I think I'd wire wheel both sides of the blue line, put a bit of heat on it and tap it back straight, not full on cherry, but where the cherry follows the torch tip, and inspect for cracks, and put it together and run it until you can get better parts


This is also assuming your son is experienced enough to notice when something changes, and can move his truck to the shoulder if things go wrong, not a total novice
 
He is pretty in tune with the vehicle but is still young. I have some time think on it and look for parts not going to rush it.
Thanks for the advice.
 
About an hour north of Greensboro 40 minutes west of Roanoke. The local place has some listed on car-part. Plan to call them tomorrow.
 
Top of the knuckle was the most inline with the ball joints never thought the knuckle would bend.
 
reptillikus said:
Make sure they're 94+. The 4WABS trucks switched from a 6 bolt spindle to 5 bolt to make room for the ABS sensor.
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Thanks for the tip. I would assume if we went with an earlier knuckle we would just need the spindle and the rest is the same?
 
The abs system on this thing is a mess and hasn’t been working since we got it. Not sure if we will ever try and got it going again.
 
Heat it up and bottle jack it.

I wouldn't worry about "hurr durr muh cast iron". I've cut tabs and arms off for stuff. You can't just cut them half way and hammer. They're pretty ductile.
 
I'd think bending them back would be fine.

If it were me, I'd likely use a grinder to get back the distance between the ears required and make things square again.

Relative positions and clearance is all that matters. If course, if it gets tweaked and locks up in the future I'm also fine with that :flipoff2:
 
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