WOW! Dang Doug it sounds like you are the 1st to do that! Never heard of it happening on a KJ before. You might be able to get it spun back and fixed, but I'm guessing it will have to be removed and on a bench to do it.
Remind me to not let you drive my Jeeps!

wow, you need a truss. I beat the crap outa my 8.25 and it has yet to spin a tube. Weld em up and truss em. if it's straight as it sits, just cut off the shock mount and relocate it.

Please explain a little further. What is a truss? It sounds like my problem is a somewhat common experience, but not on the 8.25. I would still like to see if I can put a big @$#% pipe wrench on it and spin it back home, and give it a big old fat plug weld. What do you think? I was looking at a schematic of the rear end and it seems like I can reweld w/o pulling an axle.

if the axle tube has spun in the housing, that means the only thing keeping it from coming apart is the c-clip. which is very bad, and definitely not safe to be driving around on. the only way to fix it correctly is to take it to someone who narrows axles and use an alignment jig to line everything up so it won't eat axle bearings before welding it up. i have seen and fixed several spun tubes, which is why i weld around the tube where it is pressed into the housing on all axles i build just to make sure they don't come apart. if it's still under warranty, or even if it's not, i would have it towed to wherever it is getting fixed because if that comes apart the two halves are going to hit the ground in the center and tip the top of the tires in until they hit the inner fenderwells, which would make an ugly wreck at highway speeds.

when axles with cast center sections are built they rely on two things to keep the tubes in place, the tolerence fit by pressing a tube into the slightly under-sized hole bored into the casting, and the two plug welds. if the tube has spun at all it means both things they are counting on have failed. the reason it stopped at half an inch is that a raised part of the plug weld that was sheared finally got wedged between the tube and the housing, which usually results in a hairline crack. so now, instead of the tube being tight all the way around inside the housing, it is only tight where the two plug welds seized and it can now wiggle back and forth on those two high points. it won't take much driving with that tube flexing inside the housing to widen the cracks and the tube WILL slide out until the only thing keeping it from pulling further apart is the c clip inside the carrier. this happens most frequently in 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks with dana 44 front axles running big tires. the additional weight of bigger tires plus jumping or bouncing the front end of the truck while wheeling hard makes the spring perch on the axle (or 4 link mounts) act as a pivot point for a lever with the bouncing, heavy tire on one end and the pressed and welded together center section on the other end. when this happens enough times to open up the housing just a small amount on axles without c clips, out comes the tube and axle and the ends hit the ground. if the axle has c clips, it flexes up and down a while longer until the c clip shears.