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Snapped an axle

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Finally got the new slave cylinder bled ( what a pain!). Went for a ride; dropped it in second and slung it out around a turn a bit. No big deal, I never beat on it and didn't then. A few moments later while pulling out the drive it just stopped moving. I have it all pulled down and started claeaning out bits of trash. I'll probably put it back together tommorrow if it'sa not cold out. I thought the later axles held up better?

Looks like the parts car will finally pay off. I have two good axles in that.

CRap !!! I haven't driven it in over a month and all I got was about 10 minutes behind the wheel.
 
The later axles are hardened so when they snap, and they sure do, they snap clean unlike the early axles which twisted apart. Cleaning out the new ones is a simple task, unlike beating out the twisted end of the early style.
How do I know this? I have snapped my share of both, my wife has snapped a couple and so has my daughter.
 
kellysguy said:
Finally got the new slave cylinder bled ( what a pain!). Went for a ride; dropped it in second and slung it out around a turn a bit. No big deal, I never beat on it and didn't then. A few moments later while pulling out the drive it just stopped moving. I have it all pulled down and started claeaning out bits of trash. I'll probably put it back together tommorrow if it'sa not cold out. I thought the later axles held up better?

Looks like the parts car will finally pay off. I have two good axles in that.

CRap !!! I haven't driven it in over a month and all I got was about 10 minutes behind the wheel.
Click to expand...

If it wasn't -2 deg F and if I didn't have my car put away for the next three months and if you didn't refer to any weather you have down there as "cold." I might be sympathetic, I really might. :devilgrin: (seriously - sorry - get it right quickly and get out again and enjoy it for them of us what can't - though how you managed to torque out an axle with a stock 1500 I don't know.
 
The end was twisted a bit. Looks like it wanted to break in two places. I'll get some pics for y'all. I think it wound up one way when I downshifted and then back the other way once I gassed it. You also have to remember, these are the axles that I had when I tried to break the pinion nut loose by using the E brake. The pinion moved but the drums didn't
 
STOCK?!?!?!!?

WHO YOU CALLIN' STOCK ?!?!?!?!

I got a jen-u-whine wun-awff hy purform'nce masheen !!!!!.

Thanks to my out of round crank; I've got varible stroke ~AND~ compression ratio !!!!
 
These axles break after time and use, just like Land Rover axles. I've even broken them with the stock 948.
(Changing them at night along side the road in minus degrees and snow can be rather challenging)

Later axles are better of course, then there are the special axles (940 and such) but they can be very expensive compared to spares from a breaker.

Axles are however supposed to twist under torque. It's just that there are stress concentrations where the splines are machined into them. That's where they fail.
 
There seems to be a good bit of unused spline. I wonder if grinding that down to the shaft would help keep it from breaking by not giving it a nice sharp point to crack from?
 
You'd need to do a long taper, then have the surface peened.
 
Exactly.

Where the torque transfers from the splines on the sun gear to the axle, there is a sharp ending of the sun gear spline. That one causes stress concentrations in the axle, which is -surprise- where they fail.

Rounding of either the sun gear splines or tapering the axle at that point could be a big help.
 
In almost 30 years of running a BE to work daily, autocrossing on weekends, etc etc. And a time when it was the only family car. My wife has broken one axle. I suspect it was from raceing this guy on the way to work almost every day.

She just got lucky.
 
Bummer. But it happens. Mine snapped when I was accelerating moderately from a traffic light, on a slight upgrade. Fortunately, it was only a mile from home, but I still needed a tow. The axle that failed, it turned out, was a cheapo Borg-Warner replacement. But, of course, the fact that the axle had previously been replaced says something, too.
 

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Sarastro said:
Bummer. But it happens. Mine snapped when I was accelerating moderately from a traffic light, on a slight upgrade. Fortunately, it was only a mile from home, but I still needed a tow. The axle that failed, it turned out, was a cheapo Borg-Warner replacement. But, of course, the fact that the axle had previously been replaced says something, too.
Click to expand...

Interesting to see it break on the hub end and not the splice end.
 
Little J-B Weld and a drywall screw and you're good to go.
 
Is that one of those two piece axles? I thought they were splines on both ends.
:jester:
Broke an axle or two in my time. I think up-rated axles are overkill till I see threads like this.
At least the failure at the wheel was an easier fix.
:driving:
 
I have the wire wheel axle on two of my cars, and really gets me thinking about being with out, I have a spare or two stashed just in case
 
All note just how clean it is in that pic. Well done, lovely.
 
Here is how to "Growlerize" a rear axle to make it quite a bit stronger.
This involves tapering the shaft and shotpeening the splines and hub end.

https://rides.webshots.com/album/15283945PMbEoDsIKU

I've broken 2.
The first was when I went over a railroad, made a hard right turn and gunned it. Some unusual forces there.
The second time I wasn't doing anything unusual, shifted gears and...nothing
 
Who does shot peening? What would I look for in the Yellow Pages to get it done. I have a spare axle that I bought many years ago from JC Whitney that I would feel better about having for a reserve if I knew it was as strong as it could be.
 
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