Broken Halfshaft!

[laser_jock99]

My rear passenger side halfshaft broke while I driving along. The wheel fell off and went rolling past the car. LUCKILY I was only doing 10mph at the time....

[slobodan]

Bl00dy 'ell, Any indication? noise beforehand? or just bang?

[Albannach]

My rear passenger side halfshaft broke while I driving along. The wheel fell off and went rolling past the car. LUCKILY I was only doing 10mph at the time....

Oh, not good! Glad you were going slowly.

[wishbone]

Now that is scary.....

[Albannach]

Have you got a Straight on pic of the shear point? There are cracks there?

[Albannach]

How old is the bearing?

[zolton]

Do you think the 4" lift and 33 " wheels are a factor?

[darkdezigns]

glad you were goin slow,by the looks of the oxidisation,must have been cracked for a while,no odd noises?

[laser_jock99]

Do you think the 4" lift and 33 " wheels are a factor?

Only thing I can think of is we damaged the halfshaft when we removed the last wheel bearing. It was a particularly stuborn barsteward I recall. We ended up having to burn the thing off with oxy-acetylene.

Lesson- don't do anything that might damage the halfshaft when removing bearings.

[Albannach]

Only thing I can think of is we damaged the halfshaft when we removed the last wheel bearing. It was a particularly stuborn barsteward I recall. We ended up having to burn the thing off with oxy-acetylene.

That's what I was eluding to. Do you have a pic of the shear?

[laser_jock99]

That's what I was eluding to. Do you have a pic of the shear?

If you look at the break you can clearly see part of the fracture is dark, old - metal presumably a crack from the last bearing change a year ago. The majority of the break is clean fresh metal.

[Albannach]

If you look at the break you can clearly see part of the fracture is dark, old - metal presumably a crack from the last bearing change a year ago. The majority of the break is clean fresh metal.

I wonder how long the central part of that break (the cleaner cracked part) took to grow? The final (from the failure) damage is the last 25%, the rough bit.

[KERRSURF]

that is scary stuff.
glad no one was injured.

[lord_flashart]

As you are OK and no one was hurt you can put it down as a funny 'Carry On' or 'Last of the Summer Wine' moment but that was very lucky.

Glad you are OK.

Did it ditch that corner onto the road or did it just sit there in limbo?

[TonyN]

Only thing I can think of is we damaged the halfshaft when we removed the last wheel bearing. It was a particularly stuborn barsteward I recall. We ended up having to burn the thing off with oxy-acetylene.

lol, i was going to say have you changed the bearing in the past with a torch?

change the bearing properly, or don't do it!

never use heat near a axle shaft. Exciting times.