Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob C
When people say you destroy the axle when you heat it I have to
think of the thousands of dropped axles out there.
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So far in this thread, no one has said anything about 'destroying' axles by heating them.
What has been said is that when you apply heat, there are tempering issues. I'm not a metallurgist, but its well known that heating to high temperatures affects the metal structure/grain in some way.
Some temperatures will anneal the metal, and some will temper the metal, but usually when high heat is applied in a somewhat uncontrolled manner in a localized area only, it will set up internal stresses. The results of those localized stresses? Anything from 'nothing', to 'catastrophic failure' at some point down the road (sorry for the pun).
So, you cant just hold up a home-brewed heated sample and declare that it works, and you can't do that after just a few hundred miles either. Also, without a statistical sampling size of home-brewed heated samples, you really cant draw much of a conclusion at all...and because there are so many variables, the sample size would need to be enormous.
If a drop axle was truly desired, one would hope that such a project would be well thought out and engineered. If it was me, I would heat-form the axle, then anneal the entire axle in an oven, and then temper it per Ford specs. But before I did any of that, I would consult with a metallurgist and/or engineer.
"...
thousands of dropped axles out there". Most were probably made professionally.
Welcome to my anal retentive life
.