Has anyone ever heard of a bent axle caused by slamming on and locking up the brakes on dry pavement in reverse? 5 speed, clutch in if that matters. I might have done this. Now I look in my side mirror and the rear left wheel appears to wobble slightly while driving...but I've never looked at it before so I don't know if it wobbled before. Can't really notice any excess vibration inside the truck but then it's always been loud and vibrating a lot since the loud exhaust and removal of all carpet.

I don't know if the right wheel does the same thing. Gotta get someone to drive behind me.

 

I would jack it up and spin it to see..... FWIW I cant imagine how you could bend the axle by slamming on the brakes. If there is a wobble, I would bet on a bent wheel, and even that would be from a pot hole etc.

 

I highly doubt it, now if you had said i locked up the brakes at 50 mph and skid sideways into a curb, then i would say yes, very possible...

 

Yeah I'm sure you guys are right. Only reason I was suspecting that is because I was in reverse and there was way more load on the axle than usual, and because the load was in the opposite direction that it normally is. But yeah it still doesn't really make sense considering the load the front axles get routinely.

I'll jack it up and see what it looks like. Thanks.

 

Possibly a damaged rim or damaged tire. I doubt it is the axle.

 

I'd say "then stop doing that" It is probably the tire giving you an optical illusion.

 

I really don't think it was an optical illusion, it was very obvious...however, it has now stopped! I believe that my parking brake was partially sticking all the time, enough to cause the wheel to wobble. It's been sticking really bad in the cold weather (cables frozen), but once it frees up I just assumed it's completely free. I think that was a wrong assumption...I think it was dragging all the time, not enough to cause a smell or too much heat but enough to throw the wheel off a bit every revolution. It's now been consistently above freezing and the parking brake has no slack in it when disengaged, indicating to me that the cable is completely free.

That's a relief.