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Tell me your story-Axle Breakage

T

TXsizeK5

1/2 ton status
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Tell me your story of how you broke your axle... and tell me what you broke whether it be the carrier, gears, axle shafts, even driveshaft! And what your setup is... gear ratio, type of axle, tire size, and if posible a guestimate of how muhc hp you put out

6in 87' K5 w/ 35" BFG muds.
305/Sm465/ NP208
Kn, 4.56's.
In desperate need of a rebuild.
Next- Eaton mech locker... Flows.
 
Re: Axle Breakage

My 85 was fully flexed out with 35" Boggers on 10 bolts with 3.08's. Gave it a little gas and I don't understand why I blew my spider gears and cracked the govloc carrier?
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Rod
Alameda, CA
85 K5 6"ProComp 35"Boggers 14Bolt/ Dana44 4.10's
<a target="_blank" href=http://coloradok5.com/gallery/K5Jungle>http://coloradok5.com/gallery/K5Jungle</a>
 
Re: Axle Breakage

LoL... my friend has 33's on a 10bolt with a auburn limited slip... he reved it up to about 3k and dumped the clutch... he blew his differential.

6in 87' K5 w/ 35" BFG muds.
305/Sm465/ NP208
Kn, 4.56's.
In desperate need of a rebuild.
Next- Eaton mech locker... Flows.
 
My sister broke my drive shaft for me. The parking brake was on, she revved the engine a little too much, and popped the clutch. Twisted the drive shaft and the truck didn't even move. After that I kept having problems with u joints wearing out very quickly and upgraded that.

Next, I drove off of a cattle gaurd (which shouldn't even be there as the cows can just walk around it) when I wasn't looking (idiot). It was made out of pieces of railroad track. I broke three of them with my front axle. I also cracked the axle tube right next to the diff housing about 3/4 of the way around. The transmission crossmember was bent severely and I could not use first or third gear because the stick hit the dash. I was able to dive to my buddy's place where my truck sat for 4 months until I towed it home where it sat for another two years. Now I finally have money (or at least, had money as we just bought a house) and have all the parts for it. I just need to put it together now. Need more time.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
<a target="_blank" href=http://photos.yahoo.com/dana60manual>http://photos.yahoo.com/dana60manual</a>
 
I was at my buddies house pickin him up for school, and we were late, so he jumped in, I threw it in gear and floored it. I heard a loud pop from the rearend. It didn't act like it was broken until I went around a corner, and it started to make the same loud popping noise. Then I knew I was screwed. I destroyed the Gov-Loc. I had 32's, 3.73, a stock to mild 350.

My Chevy isn't broken, its just out of gas.
 
I TWISTED my old 12bolt rear a few years back.
At the time I had 33"MudRovers with 3.73s and an Pro-Auburn posi. I also had 4"lift blocks under my stock springpacks.
Oh and I have a 350 built for lowend torque(don't realy know the HP) hooked to a SM465 4spd and 205xfer case.
I was climbing a hill and was loosing momentum so a downshift was needed. I down shift let out the cluch and gased it.....BANG SLAP BANG freaking drive shaft Ujoint let go and the shaft SLAMED into the bed floor. Rolled down the hill got out and I had a BIG crack in the axel tube going from the pumkin to the spot weld on the axle tube. Looking srtaight at the rearend you can see the tops of the tires were leaning in and the wole 12bolt had a slight smile to it..... TWISTED!!
I drove for 6 1/2 hrs to get my rig home in frontwheel drive with the rear shaft removed. Luckly I had a truss on that 12bolt and that heald the axel tubes into the housing long enough to get home......now I run a D60 rear
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72K5
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Led Zeppelin
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Rock ON!
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<a target="_blank" href=http://coloradok5.com/gallery/Burt4x4>http://coloradok5.com/gallery/Burt4x4</a>
 
I was climbing some rocks on a steep trail. When the truck got a little tweaked and stuck in a groove I gave it slot of gas. I guess my tires were pretty locked onto the rocks because all I heard was a loud SNAP! I backed the truck down off of the rocks to notice my tire sitting about eight inches out further than it should be. I snapped my axle completely in half. My truck sat on this trail for 3 days before we could get another axle to fix it. 35's, 4.10 gears, 10 bolt axles.

'87 Beast
Colorado, USA
 
Now this could be a very long story
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but I'll make it short

The last couple of seasons- let's see

4-5 stub shafts ( Dana 60)- 5-6 rear axles- Dana 60

Must be 3-4 driveshafts at least

This year we had some bugs to work out which accounted for two driveshafts-two rear axles, one stub shaft etc etc
Our steering went and well it was a domino effect after that. Boy, do I love cross-over

All the breakage was when pushing hard in deep shiat

Of course, there is always the stupid incident ( live and learn
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).
Broke a rear axle and driveshaft playing a pushing war with another big block

Specs- 468 Bbc- Locked Dana 60's , 44" boggers


<a target="_blank" href=http://www.whiteknight.scriptmania.com/>http://www.whiteknight.scriptma
nia.com
</a>
 
I broke the rear axle on a 96 suburban ten bolt. We were in a small mud hole and I got stuck. Hamered on the gas a couple of times in 4lo and all of a sudden BANG. Out gos something through the diff cover. (pretty sure it was a spider gear) This was with stock tires and an open carrier
shocked.gif
. Even the front CV shaft setup held out fine
shocked.gif
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. Shold never have broken, but it did. To make matters worse I was 17 and it was my parents truck. A friend towed it out with his Jeep and we had to pull it to the road on top of tow truck dollies. To make matters worse, my parents insisted on letting the GM dealer ship fix it. (Not under warenty) So it costed them like 2 grand. All the while I was telling them I could fix it for like 200 bucks, but they did not listen to me. Needless to say I was on my parents &amp;*#^ list for a long time.

Sparky

When all else fails... Check the blinker fluid.
78 K-5
 
'88 K5 Stock 350, Stock 700r4, 3.08's with Gov lock, 33' BFG Trail TA's

Blew first 10 Bolt leaving a friend's house, floored it and the 10 just blew up, had two holes in the diff cover where gov lock pieces when through

Second 10 Bolt, trip to Alto. Not as graphic as the first, cracked the hell out of the gov lock, drove the two hours home(very carefully)

Driveshaft. Decided to race a friend from a light, light turns green, foot hits floor, next thing I know the rear driveshaft is bouncing all over the place. The u-joint came loose on the slip yoke, destroying the yoke on the shaft. Wired it up out of the way, left the slip yoke in the back of the t-case and limped home in 4wd

Shoeless
'88 K5 D44 12B 33" MTR's 2.5" lift
 
10 bolt rear, pinion bolt loosened itself, pinion chewed teeth off ring gear.

12 bolt, pinion bearing failed, pinion locked in ring gear, put a hole in the top of the housing and spun the pumpkin 270* until it was pointed straight up in the air. Driveshaft hit ground.

Lost a u joint backing up in the school parking lot.

Lost rear shaft on I-80 at 70 MPH

Lost rear joint once due to only having three bolts in it...I had accidentally broken one off. (14 bolt)

Finally got my situation under control!!

Tim
'84 Chevy K10, lifted, loud, fast, and 3/4 ton axles
 
Bearings were going out in rear 10 bolt, it whined under throttle, took it out and got it rebuilt with 4.11's and an Auburn, put the new one in and it lasted 8 miles...no oil, shop forgot to give it to me, so they rebuilt it again under warranty.

90K5
 
ROFL, what kinda shop is that?


6in 87' K5 w/ 35" BFG muds.
305/Sm465/ NP208
Kn, 4.56's.
In desperate need of a rebuild.
Next- Eaton mech locker... Flows.
 
Lets see hear. I broke the spider gear in the Jimmy and the front pass brake line went out so I ending up rolling down the 75 foot hill that I was almost up. That was a 10 bolt open with 3.73s. Before I have broken an axle in the jimmy same setup trying to pull a truck out of sand stuck up to the frame. The burb I had the side gears in the gov-lock chip so I put and open rear end carrier in it. Its was 10 bolt with 3.42 gears and that pos gov-lock.

86Jimmy 4"&35"MTRs,87 burb 4"&35"MT,69Firebird w/525 hp,and 70GTO live in PHX,AZ<a target="_blank" href=http://www.geocities.com/modifierperformance>My vehicles</a>
 
So far...had the rear pinion bearing go out on a 12-bolt gov-loc with 3.73's on 33's. Had an NP 203 case lock up a block from home and scatter a decent TH350...of course found out the night of a run after changing the 203. Then the pinion bearing went on my front 44 after towing out a friend on 42's...whose front pinion bearing went...musta caught it from chaining him to mine,,LOL!!! I was only on 35's.

9/11/01..Never forget...Never forgive
 
Stock TBI 350, 700R4, NP241, 3.42 Gov-lok, 10 bolt, 31/10.50
I was driving home and started to hear the rear 10 bolt whine. I was about a block from the house and the pinion nut backed off the pinion gear. Dropped it into the axle destroying the R&amp;P and Gov-lok. Needed new carrier and ring and pinion, which I replaced with an open diff, and re-geared it 4.10.

Red 1989 GMC Suburban SLE V1500 - TBI 350, 700R4 w/ shift kit, Quad-shock front, 31/10.50/15 Pro Comp MT, 4.10 gears, Duals off cat
 
36" swampers, 10 bolt with 3.73s and gov lok, hit the power lines by my house, got a little sideways and nailed the gas...heard a loud pop followed by multiple clicks...pulled the cover and realized when the metal fell out i stripped teeth out of the internals of the gov lok...now im going 14 bolt

Later

Have you driven OVER a Ford lately?
 
Kind of interesting reading these... When I went to upgrade my 10-bolts to 4.56s and Detroits, everyone said not to do it, the 10-bolts are crap. Everyone said "Go 14BFF/D60". But, doesn't seem to me that too many people really do blow up their 10-bolts.

But I do see two very common things amongst most of these stories. (1) Most of the breaks involved the Gov-Locks. (2) Most also involved heavy throttle. The others mostly seemed to involve mechanical problems (pinion nut backed itself off).

From what I see, 10-bolts ought to work just find as long as a few things are kept in mind:
1. Don't go with tires over 35". The torque will kill the small shafts and gears.
2. Don't just drop the right foot.
3. Wheel reasonably knowing that its not a 14BFF/D60 combo sitting under it.
4. Perform regular maintenance.

Of course, this is all just my $.02.

5" of lift, 35" BFG MTs, Detroit locked 10 bolt with 4.56s front &amp; rear

Brian
Check out <a target="_blank" href=http://tx85gmcguy.alloffroad.com>My Jimmy</a> with all her projects!
 
I agree most are under maybe "worn parts" with the govlock, and with careless driver error maybe? such as dumping the clutch, giving lots of gas or wheeling really hard.. etc.

6in 87' K5 w/ 35" BFG muds.
305/Sm465/ NP208
Kn, 4.56's.
In desperate need of a rebuild.
Next- Eaton mech locker... Flows.
 
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