Any way to fix a bent wheel?..and
 

Well, I thought the noise coming from my rear was either the axle shaft or wheel bearing, so I tore it all apart today and replaced the bearing, which seemed fine...already had all that time into it so I went ahead and put a new one in. Well after getting half way through with that I decided to take the wheel somewhere to see if it was bent, and sure enough, the outside of the wheel hops while spinning, but the inner side spun straight..the guy balanced it for free (lol) and I went home.

Sooooooooo tomorrow I'm going to put the wheel on my buddy's GT and we'll see if it makes the noise still, if it does, either have to figure out how to get the wheel fixed or replace it (FML). And I still need to put the brake back on, swaybar,both the wheels, and fill the diffy fluid. The damn brake piston somehow got pushed out a little while I had the caliper off so I need to compress that...how the fuck do you compress the rear break pistons? I know the don't just push in like the fronts.

Shit is frustrating, spent my whole day basically going backwards in progress.


Oh yeah, the rear diff gasket I bought from autozone about a month ago happened to be the wrong one, go autozone. So I just said fuck it and used RTV as a gasket, hopefully it doesn't leak..lol.


So I gotta get all of this shit done, find time to go to the gunshow, take 72 fucking film photos, and study for a mid-term tomorrow. This blows

Man that sucks. I'm not sure if you can get a rim fixed that is bent but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to ask a rim shop. I know you can get a broke rim fixed though.

Do a google search on wheel fix, wheel repair and a bunch of sites come up.

I know a guy that does rim repair, and does a damn good job. Of course not every rim can be fixed. I'd rent the brake tool from autozone and make your like a lot easier. You have to compress and turn the rear caliper piston counter-clockwise to get it to press in. I use a c-clamp and pliers normally. RTV sealant is fine on the rear diff cover as long as you got a good bead on it.

What kind of RTV did you use? I found some @ the Ford dealership that was specifically meant for diesels and that shit won't leak.. lol It was like $12 or something like that, but I promise you that my diff. won't leak ever again unless I break it..

You can get a wheel fixed, but most likely, depeding on the severity of the bend, it will be cheaper for you to just replace it. I mean, you have 17's, right?

Yeah, but it's still $150..lol. If it's under $70 to fix it I'll go ahead and get it straightened out. I used the red high heat RTV stuff.

Oh boy... It's prob. gonna leak.. lol Shoulda used black/gray RTV.

See if you can find a wheel repair place near you, check the yellowpages or something like that, or do you have a local forum, like SVTOA?

Rims can be fixed, but rarely if the outside of it is bent. (unless its just the lip, and rims dont usually bend on the outside) For 150, Id choose the peace of mind that a new rim will bring.

Haha yeah, the RTV was initially supposed to just be an adhesive for the gasket, not the gasket itself. But I used a metric ton of it on both the lid and the differential and gave it about 12 hours to dry before I put the fluid in. Drove about 30 miles and it seems to be fine. If it does leak I'll just go find a gasket that actually fits and replace it.

I found a wheel repair guy through a friend, gonna call tomorrow and see where it goes.

Don't waste your time, they don't work. I bought a lube-locker gasket when I replaced my fluid/axle bearings and it didn't seal for shit. Go the ford dealership and get some of the stuff I was telling you about. All you need is a caulk gun to use it, but the stuff works, just make sure you clean the diff. and cover to a spit shine.

RTV works just fine on the rear end. Everyone uses that instead of the gasket.

Well I put my buddy's wheel on my car and mine on his, his car didn't make any noise, the noise still persisted on mine. Then while swapping the wheels again we spun both of our axles while the car was jacked up and mine is clearly making an unnatural noise. The axle has go to be fucked up, but this sucks because I already went through the PITA of taking it out once. Ffuuuuu

Might just buy a new rear end if I can find one.