Look what happened to me today!!

[Mgardiner1]

So i left work at 2PM today, i quickly ran to the auto parts store for a few items. I had a scheduled 3PM denist appointment (for a root canal) in my home town, about 13 miles from the auto parts store. I start driving to town, about half way there, i realized my YJ was shaking more then usual. I kept pushing in the clutch and trying different gears to isolate the problem. By the time i was 1 mile from my destination, it got so severe i considered pulling over, but figured i was almost there. With 1/4 mile to go, i had an enourmos CLUNK, and the rear of my jeep fell to the ground. I lost the rear left tire!!!!!!! In a controlled slide, i made it off the road, and watched my tire pass me in the WRONG lane of traffic. What was super fortunate, was that there was a break in traffic and NOBODY was comming in the other direction. The tire cut about 40 feet in front of me, and jumped the side of the road into an open field with waist high weeds. My first thought was someone shmuck loosed my lug nuts. Upon closer inspection, the axle snapped RIGHT inbetween the axle seal and the bearing!! I called back into work, and asked my boss if he'd be kind enough to send someone out in the flatbed to help me out, which he was kind enough to do. It took us (3 people) almost an hour to find the tire with the brake drum still attached. The guy who saved me was my youngest technician at my job, he got a good laugh out of it. I tried to convince him that my stroker had so much power that i snapped the axle!! But i showed him the cross section, and we both agreed that it had been fractured for awhile and we could see the fresh break where it finally just let go.



Oh, and i didn't get that root canal However, i am scheduled for it tomorrow LOL and i won't have an axle until monday

[Sighman]

holly cow, that looks scary! I'm glad you're ok and that it wasn't the front wheel!

[dwg86]

WOW! Glad no one was hurt!

[John]

And hope your underwear survived.
John

[Alex22]

Sounds like its time for some alloy shafts.
I had a D35 in my cherokee and I just knew I'd spit parts out and didn't want to wind up on the side of the road calling my uncle (owns a service station and tow trucks)

I've got a Super88 in mine now.

~Alex

[IH 392]

That's why I got a 44 in my Jeep!, we see them 35 PUKED all the time!

[Mgardiner1]

I just can't quite figure why it broke where it did, other then age and fatigue. Thats about the thickest part of the shaft, and i haven't done any offroading in 2 years. 2 years ago i did do some decent wheeling and i even had the truck airborne once

I've got a left and a right shaft coming from quadratec. Think i'll keep my eye on the open market for a D44. My friend offered me a D70 but i think thats too much work and the lug pattern is radically different

[gradon]

Sounds like an experience.

[gremlinsteve]

well that sucks...guess that psc1 aint going to be used before the weekend.


steve-o

[Alex22]

I just can't quite figure why it broke where it did, other then age and fatigue. Thats about the thickest part of the shaft, and i haven't done any offroading in 2 years. 2 years ago i did do some decent wheeling and i even had the truck airborne once

I've got a left and a right shaft coming from quadratec. Think i'll keep my eye on the open market for a D44. My friend offered me a D70 but i think thats too much work and the lug pattern is radically different

It is the thickest part of the shaft, but it is also where the lateral force from cornering, off camber wheeling and curbing a tire is transferred into the rest of the shaft. It does make sense that It would break there.

any pictures of whats left of the shaft?

~Alex

[Mgardiner1]

Thats with the hub still attached to the brake drum and the wheel. You can see the small sliver of fresh break in the right side of the shaft in this picture

[Mgardiner1]

I'm getting a little tired of this money pit....

I put both axles in tonight and all is good. I cut the cat out, but the local auto parts only had 2 1/4 ID flex pipe, and the cat and muffler is 2" OD so it sounds 10x worse then it did before.

Not to mention, i don't know if i popped a master cylinder when i slid off the road, but i've got almost NO brakes.....

I'm really not in a good mood after spending all this money to build this awesome stroker, and now have nothing but problems with a truck that has been mostly problem free and been well maintained.

[gradon]

Hey--hey now. . . So did you replace the drum and hardware, readjust the drums, bleed brakes, etc? How many ft did you drag on the drum?

[Mgardiner1]

Gradon thanks for trying to be the one to talk me through this!!!

I grabbed one of the guys after work today to "help me bleed" the brakes. When we got to the truck, first thing i did was jack the rear up and spin each tire. I was alternating between him pressing the brakes and letting off. So i adjusted the rear drums further to meet the requirements of "brake drag", however, i did not feel satisfied that this was the problem. I further confirmed my suspricion by driving the jeep up and down the driveway. I told him i'd sleep better tonight if we just tried bleeding the rear slave that had the wheel come off. Sure enough, there was a hefty pocket of air in that slave (assuming it was caused by lack of physical pressure reacting against the slave, allowing air to pull inside the line). So my brakes are now returned to normal. Thursday, friday, and saturday, the "custom" exhaust dude is at the local meineke, so i plan to drop the truck off thursday morning. Once the exhaust system is complete, i'll feel 100x better!!!!!!

[Sighman]

Well I'm glad you're feeling better about the Jeep now!!!