This was supposed to be a successful first off-road trip thread. Clearly it is not. Pics included.
My inner axle popped out. Felt a slight “thwunk” and then lost power to the wheels Felt like the clutch slipped out of gear. No. I jumped out and the rear axle was sticking a full foot out of the bearing. Every nut and one pin holding it in was sheared at the face.
We had gone out to red rocks, Wellington ,Nz (quick google to see the terrain type). Didn’t push hard since I was testing the HJ61 out there. No obstacles, I didn’t go through devils gate, I stayed on hard pack and rock trails, so no soft sand. I was in 4high the whole time, no lockers were on (I have the stock cable locker system and tested them previously). We came off the beach, turned off 4wd, turned right onto the coast road, turned left into island bay, and as we climbed a slight incline, it happened there. That was all the driving it took with rear wheel drive.
How/why would this happen? Tow guy said he’d never seen this on a cruiser. Is this common? Can’t find any replicated examples of this exactly in threads here. I suspect PO didn’t torque the nuts to spec and the rocky terrain plus touchy 12ht throttle to loosen them more until…shear.
Can this axle be reused? It looks good still. The bolts on the bearing housing are the ones that took the brunt of damage. The diff end still looks good. Zero dirt/sand in the housing, and lots of oil, so it didn’t slowly give, it just went.
My inner axle popped out. Felt a slight “thwunk” and then lost power to the wheels Felt like the clutch slipped out of gear. No. I jumped out and the rear axle was sticking a full foot out of the bearing. Every nut and one pin holding it in was sheared at the face.
We had gone out to red rocks, Wellington ,Nz (quick google to see the terrain type). Didn’t push hard since I was testing the HJ61 out there. No obstacles, I didn’t go through devils gate, I stayed on hard pack and rock trails, so no soft sand. I was in 4high the whole time, no lockers were on (I have the stock cable locker system and tested them previously). We came off the beach, turned off 4wd, turned right onto the coast road, turned left into island bay, and as we climbed a slight incline, it happened there. That was all the driving it took with rear wheel drive.
How/why would this happen? Tow guy said he’d never seen this on a cruiser. Is this common? Can’t find any replicated examples of this exactly in threads here. I suspect PO didn’t torque the nuts to spec and the rocky terrain plus touchy 12ht throttle to loosen them more until…shear.
Can this axle be reused? It looks good still. The bolts on the bearing housing are the ones that took the brunt of damage. The diff end still looks good. Zero dirt/sand in the housing, and lots of oil, so it didn’t slowly give, it just went.