Tom's Weld On Axle Truss for 9"

[Brent13]

Any of you purchase and install this piece form Tom's? I maybe should have asked the question before my purchase. I bought it, it is marked down 20 bucks, so figure I would go with it. The initial fit is really, really poor. I fully expected to do some fitting, absolutely, but not sure I am going to be able to get this to work. One of the pieces fits really well out of the box, the other, not even close. I will try and get some pictures, but anyone have experience with this piece?

Thank You

 

[DirtDonk]

Does your diff housing look like the one in their pic? What year is your Bronco? Not a '77 by any chance?
I'm assuming it's not, since you said one half of the brace fit very well, but figured I'd ask anyway.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[Brent13]

Yes, looks just like the picture. Mine is 1974.

 

[DirtDonk]

Ok. Well bummer on the needing to massage the pieces to fit. But I've seen it before.
Not with the truss you're using, but a different item.
A local shop was installing an early Duff 4-link rear setup and the brackets were just not fitting around the shape of the Bronco's rear end. It was a little beat up looking, but nobody thought much about that until they got another housing to test fit the Duff brackets and they fit (almost) like a glove on that housing.

Not sure just what the variations could be other than just a beat up housing, but it was quite an eye-opener seeing the different fit on that 4-link stuff between two different housings.
Took a crap-ton of grinding to make the brackets fit the guy's existing housing. Probably would have been cheaper for him to buy another housing to fit the brackets! Labor ain't cheap around here.

Good luck. Hopefully a little grinding will do the job. Or maybe Tom's has some suggestions or maybe knows if any of their trusses have any slight variations that they might be able to send you the one section you need that's slightly different.
I doubt that last scenario though, as most cutting and stamping processes are pretty consistent these days.

Any chance you know someone nearby with a 9" in their car or truck that you could lay your truss up against? That way you could at least see if it's any variation in yours. Or if it's just the nature of the beast.

Good luck again.

Paul

 

[Apogee]

I haven't run Tom's, but I did do one of Ruff Stuff's on my full-width 9" and it took some fitting to make it happen. Get out the grinder and get to work.

 

[JSmall]

Both trusses took a lot of cutting and grinding to get the proper fit.

 

[pcf_mark]

Both trusses took a lot of cutting and grinding to get the proper fit.

Holy crap that is sure not bending.

 

[Brent13]

Here is photo. Think that piece on the right needs to move to the right. Based on that, the two pieces are certainly not going to join in the middle....

 

[Apogee]

I would slide the part on the right over, contour the portion where it mates to the ring gear hump and tack it into place. You can always make a back rib to connect the two for aesthetics, at which point it's slightly more like the Ruff Stuff one pictured above by JSmall.

FWIW, that Ruff Stuff brace came in one piece, pie-sliced to bend and fall into place. After fighting it for a while, I finally just cut it into three pieces, fit each piece separately and saved a ton of time.

 

[JSmall]

Holy crap that is sure not bending.

Hope not;D

 

[Brent13]

I got it, got the gaps a bit smaller and tacked both pieces on. The right side piece became pretty tight with some careful grinding. The left side retained some pretty large gaps, but think it will be fine. I did cut some length off of both pieces to avoid interference with the u-bolts. Still need to cap the ends. Also got a piece fit and tacked in on the pumpkin where the two pieces came up short. Think it will be a nice add and should stiffen the housing. Is it recommended to drill a couple holes in both sides of the truss, or should I go for water tight welds? Was thinking a couple of drain holes might be a good idea.

 

[sykanr0ng]

I got it, got the gaps a bit smaller and tacked both pieces on. The right side piece became pretty tight with some careful grinding. The left side retained some pretty large gaps, but think it will be fine. I did cut some length off of both pieces to avoid interference with the u-bolts. Still need to cap the ends. Also got a piece fit and tacked in on the pumpkin where the two pieces came up short. Think it will be a nice add and should stiffen the housing. Is it recommended to drill a couple holes in both sides of the truss, or should I go for water tight welds? Was thinking a couple of drain holes might be a good idea.

I'd say keep the water out.
Let water get in and there's no guarantee it will come out of the drain holes instead of staying in and causing rust.

 

[Apogee]

I fully welded mine since once mud and water get in, there's really no getting it all back out.

 

[rafitz24]

I had the same issues. Took some time but ended up being a good fit.

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