Hello on Monday I had hooked my trailer up to my uhaul hitch on my 94 Plymouth grand voyager and after about 90 minutes of driving something went terribly wrong. I think the trailer had too much weight in it this time. The transmission did not mess up once but what did happen is the back axle of the van completely bent to the ground and the brand new tires I got the day before are completely messed up. The axle is all messed up with the tires wobbling so I had to use the AAA to have it towed on a flat bed. I need to get this fixed A.S.A.P. as I rely on it every month for a 1000 mile round trip custody visitation. Can anyone tell me some steps and what all is involved in fixing this. Thank you so much!

 

You need to have the axle replaced. It was probably weakend due to internal rust. I've seen this happen several times living in the rust belt.

 

Hi, I got a little bit of time today to put it on stands and get the tires off. I definitely need to replace it because I can see where it bowed so bad that it has a hole in it where some of it bent. I'm trying to figure out what all I need to do to get it off and replaced. There are 2 u bolts attaching it to support straps on each side. They were so rusted that I snapped 3 of the 4 bolts off on one side and can't fully get the U bolts out. Also there is one bolt attaching the strut to the axle on each side and I can't break it loose with a breaker bar. Do you know any other stuff I will need to disconnect? Know how to get the wheels off of the axle? Thanks!

 

this is why you use heat (torch or www.theinductor.com )

You also need to remove the Shock.

To remove the wheels from the axle, you need to remove 5 lug nuts per wheel.

you'll need to remove the brake lines and parking brake cables.

 

I got it all figured out and picked up an axle for $100 bucks at the salvage yard. Unfortunately I overtightened a u-bolt and snapped it though. I don't know where to get any cheap in town so I guess I'm driving all the way back to the salvage yard. There is only 1 leaf spring on each side of this plymouth but my caravan has probably about 4 on each side???