Left axle is broken. Easy fix.
10.25 complete axle replacement
- Thread starter Oelmensch
- Start date
compressionignitionrules
Full Access Member
at the flange or in the spline?
Oelmensch
Registered User
Haven't pulled the axle yet, but the video from opening the cover shows the driver's side spider spinning while those wheels sit on the ground, not moving. I hope to get it apart this week so I can get it rolling again.
that would be a first.
weren't we talking about never seeing this ever happening? :O
Its close to the spline , there is no dragging noise while rotating. At flange it should scrape a little.
My buddy Dan broke an axle a while back, first one I heard of at the time. Thus is number two.
My buddy Dan broke an axle a while back, first one I heard of at the time. Thus is number two.
Oelmensch
Registered User
Terrible, terrible progress
So, got the axle flange off, break is actually within a few inches of the flange. Cause of failure looks like it is/was cyclic fatigue; the hub bearings appear to be 'tatered and it is all sorts of sloppy, guessing things naturally sat spaced a good bit apart with the bearings like they are, hence the lack of grinding noise. Honestly shocked since I never noticed any shudder or wobble that I'd expect leading up to failure, dually related perhaps? The hub has a ton of play and the bearings are impressively shot, nearly 1/4" of play in/out. I'm hoping it is just a matter of new bearings/seals and properly torquing the hub, I'll find out when I get that freaky socket for the hub nut. The last time I saw anything like this was when I had to fix someone's old VW bug front wheel bearings that had been ridiculously over-tightened and turned into a pseudo-CV joint when they failed; wheel had an impressive amount of camber when parked and it had "a funny wobble in the steering".
Unfortunately, the broken end of the axle beat up the inside of the axle tube leaving a nasty burr that I had to grind down with a dremel before it would let the axle slide out. Little did I know that the splines are apparently ever so slightly larger diameter than the rest of the shaft and it gets stuck just before the axle is completely out of the tube (like the picture shows)
. Any sort of "slide-hammer" approach to forcing it past the burr is a no-go and literally a minute after my helping hands had to go I managed to get it back into the housing but just making contact with the outside of the spider gear, but not quite sliding in. 
Gonna give it another go tomorrow after work.
In the event that I can't get it (broken length of axle trapped in the tube by the burr) back into the spider to get access to the burr in the tube that I need to grind down some more, can I safely pull the differential and opposite axle and just pass it out the other side before putting the carrier/diff back in and reassembling? Given the state of the driver's hub bearings, I'm opening the passenger side to look at that hub regardless so it is really just an issue of pulling the diff unless that changes pinion preload or anything annoying. I'd still have to grind the burr down (it is just a couple inches into the opening of the axle housing tube) to get the replacement axle past it, but if I can't get the broken section back into the spider gear I can't otherwise access it.
Ultimately, is it possible/likely that there is enough internal damage to the tube that it might compromise the axle tube strength and be a liability in the future?
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So, got the axle flange off, break is actually within a few inches of the flange. Cause of failure looks like it is/was cyclic fatigue; the hub bearings appear to be 'tatered and it is all sorts of sloppy, guessing things naturally sat spaced a good bit apart with the bearings like they are, hence the lack of grinding noise. Honestly shocked since I never noticed any shudder or wobble that I'd expect leading up to failure, dually related perhaps? The hub has a ton of play and the bearings are impressively shot, nearly 1/4" of play in/out. I'm hoping it is just a matter of new bearings/seals and properly torquing the hub, I'll find out when I get that freaky socket for the hub nut. The last time I saw anything like this was when I had to fix someone's old VW bug front wheel bearings that had been ridiculously over-tightened and turned into a pseudo-CV joint when they failed; wheel had an impressive amount of camber when parked and it had "a funny wobble in the steering".
Unfortunately, the broken end of the axle beat up the inside of the axle tube leaving a nasty burr that I had to grind down with a dremel before it would let the axle slide out. Little did I know that the splines are apparently ever so slightly larger diameter than the rest of the shaft and it gets stuck just before the axle is completely out of the tube (like the picture shows)
. Any sort of "slide-hammer" approach to forcing it past the burr is a no-go and literally a minute after my helping hands had to go I managed to get it back into the housing but just making contact with the outside of the spider gear, but not quite sliding in. Gonna give it another go tomorrow after work.In the event that I can't get it (broken length of axle trapped in the tube by the burr) back into the spider to get access to the burr in the tube that I need to grind down some more, can I safely pull the differential and opposite axle and just pass it out the other side before putting the carrier/diff back in and reassembling? Given the state of the driver's hub bearings, I'm opening the passenger side to look at that hub regardless so it is really just an issue of pulling the diff unless that changes pinion preload or anything annoying. I'd still have to grind the burr down (it is just a couple inches into the opening of the axle housing tube) to get the replacement axle past it, but if I can't get the broken section back into the spider gear I can't otherwise access it.
Ultimately, is it possible/likely that there is enough internal damage to the tube that it might compromise the axle tube strength and be a liability in the future?
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if you found an axle with a LS, i would grab it...
nothing better than going from an open diff to a LS...
i did that in my 71 F250, found a sterling from a F450.
the only thing that sucks is that it has 4:30 gears or even lower.
i can now tach that 390 FE out on the freeway doing 65 mph
nothing better than going from an open diff to a LS...
i did that in my 71 F250, found a sterling from a F450.
the only thing that sucks is that it has 4:30 gears or even lower.
i can now tach that 390 FE out on the freeway doing 65 mph
Yikes. I could see really bad bearings causing that to fatigue. Geeze. It's tough enough to get that axle in there when you can get ahold of it. The axle shaft is junk. Can you push it out and cut a few inches off with a cutoff wheel to give you room to work on it? The axle will be fairly tough but I would think a cutoff wheel on a grinder would make pretty quick work of it.
Good luck. I'll be checking my hubs frequently.
Good luck. I'll be checking my hubs frequently.
If you gut the carrier there is no reason not to pass axle through imho...
Oelmensch
Registered User
Unfortunately, my only cut-off wheel option at this time is a dremel knock-off with those cute little 1" discs. Already tried a reciprocating saw, that was funny...
riotwarrior said:
Barring success getting the axle back into the splines after work tonight, this looks to be my best course of action to get it out without having to delay purchasing the replacement piece(s) due to exhausted fun-budget from buying additional tooling/equipment to get it out otherwise. I'll have to keep the shims in order, etc. but that isn't an issue as long as I don't need to be concerned about changes beyond torquing the bolts properly.
79jasper
Chickenhawk
Just use the axle as its own slide hammer? Lol
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Oelmensch
Registered User
Haha, I can't say I didn't try that already, results in that last of the 3 recent pictures with the axle splines being the only thing holding the axle in the tube. Takes a couple solid whacks with the BFH to get it moving again after that too. Definitely needs grinding.
jhenegh
Truck Still Earns its Keep
Couldn't you just take the hub off? Or am I totally missing something? Take the ratcheting nut off and pull the whole thing off, then slide what's left of the axle out
Shawn MacAnanny
Full Access Member
I'm not familiar with these axles but arent they just splined with no c clips or anything? Can't you just remove the axle from the other side and slide a bar/rod through the diff and hammer it out? I think the spiders will stay in place?
Oelmensch
Registered User
No clips or anything retaining the axle after removing the 8 bolts through the flange at the hub, splines 'float' in the spiders. Can't put a rod through the diff from the passenger side without pulling the spider-holder rod/pin for the non-axle-spiders at which point the axle-spiders don't have any reason to stay put; likely easier to just pull the diff with the 4 bolts at the bearing caps and then roughly proceed as you described since access to those bolts is a lot easier than the tight working space otherwise. I'll likely pass the broken section through the entire axle and out the passenger side though without resistance rather than beat the splines past the burr with 8' of steel rod I don't have yet.
Axle bolts to the hub at the flange you see at the end when the hubcaps/covers are off your wheels, but otherwise the hubs don't hold the axle in place. This thing is getting caught in the axle tube itself on a burr that protrudes into the cavity enough to bind on the splines.jhenegh said:
That ratcheting nut will be coming off tomorrow if the tool gets here so I can pull apart the hub assembly and see how bad the bearings carnage is; I assume I'm doing all bearings/seals on both sides before I'm done there.
