Broken Axle Question?

[ABfish]

Last weekend, I decided that the Sprite would be a good vehicle for teaching my teenage son to drive a manual trans. A good plan, it seems, except that an attempted 2nd gear, tire-chirping takeoff resulted in a broken axle.

My problem is that the axle is broken at the splined end, in the differential. So far, I've been unsuccessful in driving the broken portion of the axle out of the differential. Using an thin screwdriver, I can pound the broken part out from the inside, but it's hanging up when it's roughly flush with the axle bearing. I can't use a punch due to clearance issues.

Please share any tips or tricks you may know. I sure would like to get this bugger out without disassembling the diff.

 

[David_Doan]

Drill it, tap it, and yank it out? Maybe with help from a slide hammer?

My car survived teaching my son to drive, but I found a twisted axle when I took mine apart

 

[taskadog]

It's been awhile since I was in "there", but you might try drilling the axle enough to thread an easy-out in it and pull it out w/ vce grips on the easy-out.
Speaking of easy-outs, they have to be the oxymoron of all tools. When you need to use one, it's anything but easy

 

[Jim_Gruber]

So some EN17 Axles are in order. That's the one you want to look for. Probably best to replace both. An you should totally pull apart just to make sure there are no chips floating around in there to mess up something else after you get the parts out.

 

[ABfish]

Drill it, tap it, and yank it out? Maybe with help from a slide hammer?

My car survived teaching my son to drive, but I found a twisted axle when I took mine apart

That's impressive.

I tried drilling the middle out last night and screwing in a self-tapping screw that's used for securing wooden decking in tractor trailers. I then clamped the screw with vice grips and beat on it with a hammer. The broken piece would not budge and eventually the threads failed.

My next attempt will be to mig weld a bolt to the broken axle and try extracting with a slide hammer.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Is it possible to cut the axle and drive the broken piece towards the center. Or is that the last resort. If things are all twisted and jagged try going the other way? Just curious if that is possible.

 

[David_Doan]

If it is that stuck, continuing to bang on it could damage the carrier bearings. At this point it would probably be a good idea to take the carrier out, and press (or beat) the axle stub out from the other side. If you leave the bearings on the carrier, your "setup" is intact and you can just bolt it back in without messing with shims or measurements.

 

[ABfish]

In a fit of inspiration (or maybe desperation), I fabbed this tool from a piece of Sch 40, 1/2 pipe. I drilled a 1/2 inch hole at the upper end of the slot and then cut the slot with a die grinder.

The slot in the pipe fits around the pin in the carrier and allows the broken piece to be driven out the other side. A few whacks with a ball pein hammer and the offender popped free. The axle remnant was not just broken off, but sorta fractured or split, which explains why it was so tightly wedged.

In the foggy recesses of my mind, it seems as if I've seen this technique before, so I'm not going to take full credit.

I bought a couple of used EN17's off of Ebay, so I hope to be riding again this weekend.

 

[HealeyRick]

I broke one like that when I was a teenager too ... in 1967. Came out pretty easy with a long rod and I was good to go after a trip to the junkyard and a visit to the rear end of a Nash Metropolitan.

 

[David_Doan]

I broke one like that when I was a teenager too ... in 1967. Came out pretty easy with a long rod and I was good to go after a trip to the junkyard and a visit to the rear end of a Nash Metropolitan.

Rick,

I've read all the details about your "NastyBoy" in the Big Healey forum during and after the build. That's an impressive car. Do you have Pics and background on your Sprite? What does "55hp Stage V mods" mean?

Thanks,


David

 

[HealeyRick]

Rick,

I've read all the details about your "NastyBoy" in the Big Healey forum during and after the build. That's an impressive car. Do you have Pics and background on your Sprite? What does "55hp Stage V mods" mean?

Thanks,


David

Hi David,

Thanks very much for the compliments on the Nasty Boy. Much appreciated. My first car was a 1959 bugeye bought for $350 while I was in high school in 1967. Typical New England car, bad rockers and holes in the floor, bad synchros and non factory hardtop but it was all mine. I painted it 1968 Corvette yellow and sold it on a year later, but it turned me into a lifelong Healey guy. I bought my present bugeye in 1977 also for $350 and it was about in the same condition a my first one. I did a complete restoration that included as many of the '59 Sebring Sprite mods as I could find. The factory made it easy to figure out what they did in the Sebring cars by publishing a "Special Tuning Guide" which listed modifications ranging from Stage I to Stage V. My car has the original 948 motor bored 60 over, flat top pistons, 88G 229 cam and matching dizzy,HS2 carbs an LCB exhaust and factory Special Tuning muffler and a 126 295 head. It was fully balanced and loves to rev. The transmission was replaced with a NOS ribcase that I imported from the UK from a company that had bought a bunch of them from the British postal service who used them as spares for their Morris Minor postal vans. The suspension has the following NOS Special Tuning parts: competition front shocks, anti-roll bar and Armstrong adjustable rear shocks. I also did the disc brake and wire wheel conversion. It has a 4.55 rear which the Sebring cars which makes acceleration peppy and fun for autocrosses but is a bit tiring on the highway with earplugs a necessity. Nevertheless, I've driven it from Mass. to PA for a few of Rick Moses's Spritefests. I don't have a lot of pics but here's one of my favorites taken by Dan Stapleton. (the hardtop was borrowed, it's not on the car now)

 

[Gerard]

Hi David,

Thanks very much for the compliments on the Nasty Boy. Much appreciated. My first car was a 1959 bugeye bought for $350 while I was in high school in 1967. Typical New England car, bad rockers and holes in the floor, bad synchros and non factory hardtop but it was all mine. I painted it 1968 Corvette yellow and sold it on a year later, but it turned me into a lifelong Healey guy. I bought my present bugeye in 1977 also for $350 and it was about in the same condition a my first one. I did a complete restoration that included as many of the '59 Sebring Sprite mods as I could find. The factory made it easy to figure out what they did in the Sebring cars by publishing a "Special Tuning Guide" which listed modifications ranging from Stage I to Stage V. My car has the original 948 motor bored 60 over, flat top pistons, 88G 229 cam and matching dizzy,HS2 carbs an LCB exhaust and factory Special Tuning muffler and a 126 295 head. It was fully balanced and loves to rev. The transmission was replaced with a NOS ribcase that I imported from the UK from a company that had bought a bunch of them from the British postal service who used them as spares for their Morris Minor postal vans. The suspension has the following NOS Special Tuning parts: competition front shocks, anti-roll bar and Armstrong adjustable rear shocks. I also did the disc brake and wire wheel conversion. It has a 4.55 rear which the Sebring cars which makes acceleration peppy and fun for autocrosses but is a bit tiring on the highway with earplugs a necessity. Nevertheless, I've driven it from Mass. to PA for a few of Rick Moses's Spritefests. I don't have a lot of pics but here's one of my favorites taken by Dan Stapleton. (the hardtop was borrowed, it's not on the car now)

Rick,

Interesting history... and I'm surprised by some of the similarities to my first one. I purchased mine in Michigan on March 26, 1968, and in similar condition. I did a rolling restoration over the first year of ownership, and I too painted it '68 Corvette (Safari) Yellow (with acrylic lacquer). It looked phenomenal after being repainted, but unfortunately, lacquer was a really bad choice and by the mid 70's, the paint was looking worse than the original factory paint. I began a second round of restoration around 1977. I owned that car just shy of 30 years when I bought another rust free car to build instead. Ironically, my first one was the very rare Nevada Beige. Though the replacement Bugeye was red when I bought it, it turned out to also be an original Nevada Beige car.

Going Iris Blue this time.