checking/fixing bend housing/shaft

hey everybody
Ive got a friend with a aussie locked 8.8 thats been having some issues. about a year ago the locker started disengaging, and popping randomly. Well it progressively got worse untill it got to the point that if he tried to wheel at times he would loose power to both rear wheels, and on the road it sounded like a machine gun going off.

He sent the locker back to Aussie, and fortunately they are going to warranty it. they did say though that it looked like the cause was a bent shaft or housing. Hes only running 33s and I seriously doubt hes ever done anything to bend the housing. Im running an 8.8 with 38s, and a lockrite and id hopped the rear off the ground, bounced it, and beat the snot out of it with zero issues.

but i figure that we should probably go ahead and check to see if anything is bent while its all apart. im assuming the shafts will be pretty straight forward...get a straight edge and check for any deformation. but the housing will be a different story. anybody got any good methods for that.

If it is bent, I see a rear truss coming for mine pretty soon

When my dad had a bent shaft on his rubicon we put the rear end on jackstands and had him slowly give it some gas, we just watched for wheel/tire movement.

Bent shafts typically will cause some weird brake wear, Id check the pads (but i dont know about that with rear disc). It might just be Aussie not wanting to fully admit fault.
Were the teeth just broken off the locker?

you need a setting fixture to check the housing. its basically a set of pucks in place of the diff bearings and and outer wheel bearings with a large diameter solid round stock thru the center. based on where the rod hits the pucks, you can heat the axle tubes in small areas to move the ends.

we will check out his pads when we put the rear back in.

the teeth weren't broken off. but the passenger side teeth were completely rounded. driver side looked brand new. theyre giving him a new locker either way. I really have no idea what the true cause was but im *hoping* that it was aussies fault. but with their reputation, and 3-4 of us all running their lockers front and rear with no faults (except this one) im not sure.

the teeth on the rounded side looked pitted. im thinking if it was a material defect that the pitting caused the teeth to begin to weaken, and then begin rounding off.