Axle break!

[Drayton]

http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-eek-blue.gif
The axle on my 79 F-150 broke on Sunday. I was on my way out to attempt to fly fish and was idling down a dirt road along side a canal and BANG! The right rear wheel came off and the truck groung to a hault. Lucky I was not on the highway.

After fishing my wheel out of the canal and getting a tow truck to get us both back home, I pulled the remaing axle out of housing. It broke at the bearing. What could have caused this axle to break? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-confused-yellow.gif

[jackrabbit]

I&#39;ve had a good number of these breaks over the years, once even when I was coming down the mountain highway at 55 mph. Usually my vehicle and axle had at least 60,000 - 120,000 miles on it; with big tires, and a lot of mud, washboard, and rock jumpin&#39; miles on the axles. When I had a break idling, or just turning a corner, I could tell by looking at the broken steel that I had already been running with some stress fractures across the axle, then over time, the axle just gave out due to the continuing metal fatigue. If you do a lot of jackrabbit, tire squeeling pavement driving, or rough dirt road and/or rock-hopping -- or anything else to put sudden, heavy torque on the rear end, this will be common.

[JDC]

Axle hop is the #1 cause of axle break at the bearing. (burnouts on pavement where the wheel is jumping)

other causes include:

Too heavy of a load for the axle rating
Severe rock climbing
Jumping the vehicle
improperly lubricated bearings which cause the axle to get hot in that area
monster tires / lifts

Right side axle.. right?

[Drayton]

Yeah. It&#39;s the right side.

By the way...http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif ... I am the new owner of this truck. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif

I "took it over" from my brother-in-law a few weeks ago. It&#39;s a long story but he just had all this stuff done by a "good buddy" 1 year ago. As far as the way this truck was driven...who knows. I have taken care of it but only for a few weeks.

[machine]

F150?????
would that have anything to do with it???? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-shakehead-blue.gif

[slyder]

I had a dual leaf spring break on my Toyota a few months ago. Dont ask how i broke both leaf packs at the same time......cause i dont know. One of those freaky things i guess. Axles are expendable items right?? If you drive your truck like you should those should be broke every couple of months. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-wavin-yel.gif

[jmabbott888]

I had a Ford 9 inch left axle give out on a 62 Merc Monterey from low lube in the rear end. Losing that axle in sunland at 2 am sucks!!!!! I got towed to Valencia where the car sat for 5 days cause those arabs that owned the shop couldn&#39;t find a 9 inch to put under it, I ended up getting one out of a wrecking yard with 4:11 vs the 3:73 that were in it.

[JDC]

Originally posted by machine@Mar 27 2003, 03:55 PM
F150?????
would that have anything to do with it???? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-shakehead-blue.gif
http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-newlaugh-yellow.gif

Oh wait.. that wasn&#39;t funny!

http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-face-moon-yellow.gif http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-no-no-yellow.gif

[Drayton]

Thanks for the info.
I didn&#39;t want to start a war over F-150&#39;s Just some friendly advice. It would be great if I had an F-250 or F-350 but alas it only an F-150.

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Could be the wheels are a bit big for it but I will take it easy on the rough stuff.

[JDC]

In case anyone mis- interpreted my second post, I was joking!!!

You know .. ha-ha-he-he-ho-ho. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-biggrin-aqua.gif

I don&#39;t take stuff like that seriously.

Drayton:

Big tires won&#39;t have an adverse effect on axles unless you really get unruly and super rough, or really like melting 150.00 tires.

[machine]

Me too! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-biggrin-aqua.gif
I wish I had an F250/350 too! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-wavin-yel.gif
Don&#39;t know why it broke though???

[Drayton]

I will post a picture of my truck when it has all it&#39;s wheels back on. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-rolleyes-green.gif

When this truck was offered to me I first thought...no way... but after driving it and listening to her "fairly new" rebuilt 460 engine I figured what the heck. She should help get me deeper into the deer woods. Just hope I don&#39;t have to walk out. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-cool-shades-down.gif

[KID CREOLE]

Drayton,

It depends on where it broke, if it broke between the diff and the outer bearings it&#39;s probably metal fatigue and the fact that it&#39;s 24 years old. Find another one in a salvage yard slap it in and roll!

[MudMagnet]

what size tires are one it????? is there a locker in the rear axle???? any tires about 35" with an open diff, or 33"s with a locked diff running a 460 v8 on only 1/2 ton axles will cause it to break pretty easy........i only run 31"s on my zuki with a locked rear cause i know i&#39;ll break if i go bigger, i really want a set of 33"s but don&#39;t want to risk it since i like the more hard core off-roading........ http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[Drayton]

The tires I have are 33&#39;s (33X12.50R15LT) and here is the axle...
http://www.millenicom.com/~mdpraed/images/F150axleschematic.JPG

Don&#39;t know if it&#39;s "locked" or not.
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[machine]

460 in a F150 http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hair-raisin-blue.gif

[Drayton]

I know it&#39;s a big engine but this is a 1979 F-150. Plus I don&#39;t go nuts in it. Just cruse from gas station to gas station. Sure wish it had dual tanks like my 89 F150.