Axle bolts sheared off? Why? (1 Viewer)

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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.

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There IS a thread or two here on mud describing exactly the same thing - sheared full floating axle flange studs.
It’s not as uncommon as you think. There is an upgrade that can help prevent that from happening again. Bigger studs screwed into oversized tapped holes
 
There IS a thread or two here on mud describing exactly the same thing - sheared full floating axle flange studs.
It’s not as uncommon as you think. There is an upgrade that can help prevent that from happening again. Bigger studs screwed into oversized tapped holes
Awesome. I’ll try that search term. Thanks.
 
This thread has more info:
@cruisermatt has devised a fix/upgrade (see thread)

 
Crazy. I cant see a reason why the shaft couldn't be reused as long as there's no damage too it. The damage to the bolts appears to be consistent with a reverse bending fatigue failure as mentioned in this article Fracture Failure of Bolts Assembled in Tuning-Wheel of a Marine Diesel Engine - Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11668-016-0109-y
In the article is states that a low load was recorded during the breakage of their test specimen consistent with what your stating. Reverse bending makes sense here IMO, every time you decelerated and accelerated you were causing a bending fatigue, I would suspect the bolts where improperly torqued thus causing a bending force to occur which the studs are not designed to withstand, either over or under-torquing could cause this fault. I would be curious to hear somebody's opinion who works in the field who could verify my thinking.

Proper torque is so important and alot of mechanics go by "Feel."
 
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IMO that hardware is undersized for any serious use with a tire larger then 33" or so with lockers on.
 
Before going to the trouble to drill out the hubs for larger studs, I would replace them with Toyota sourced hardware. The hardware sold from even legit suppliers is often soft chinese crap.

That said, you may find that removing the sheared studs causes so much damage that you have to oversize to salvage the hub.

Don't forget the alignment dowels.
 
Before going to the trouble to drill out the hubs for larger studs, I would replace them with Toyota sourced hardware. The hardware sold from even legit suppliers is often soft chinese crap.

That said, you may find that removing the sheared studs causes so much damage that you have to oversize to salvage the hub.

Don't forget the alignment dowels.
Funny enough the dowel is the only piece I recovered on site. Thought I’d see how they broke to solve it but I guess they were explosive and the dowel just rattled down the street a bit. Thanks for the advice on going Toyota factory.
 
Upgrades are not required. This failure is almost always just poor bearing maintenance, a close inspection prior to the failure would likely have shown the dowels were walking their way out. Trash the axle, trash the hub, get new replacements and rebuild without upgrades.


Before big trips, and at least once a year. Jack up the rear, remove the axles and check for play in the bearings. You cant check play with the axles in. Also jack up the front wheels and check for play (axles can be left in on the front for this test). A visual inspection of the grease (or lack thereof) can be done when the axles out for inspection as well. Bearing play checks are done by grasping the wheel with both hands and rocking it from side to side and up and down - any bearing issues will result in the wheel wobbling on the hub - for obvious reasons the wheel has to be off the ground when you do this check.

During trips, check the dowels for movement in the rear and at least once every few days put your hand on each hub after a long drive and check none of them are particularly hot.
 
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On my 18th birthday I was pulling out of the parking lot in my 1966 ford 100. The front drivers side wheel fell completely off.

Long story short, my dad was busy and paid a shop to do the brakes on the ford and they didn’t torque the lug nuts in the proper sequence. This allowed the lugs themselves to spin and wallow which led to them boring completely through the hub.

Different failure, I know, but I sympathize with that horror when you hear and feel something like that. I’m glad you didn’t loose the wheel too like I did.
 
Upgrades are not required. This failure is almost always just poor bearing maintenance, a close inspection prior to the failure would likely have shown the dowels were walking their way out. Trash the axle, trash the hub, get new replacements and rebuild without upgrades.


Before big trips, and at least once a year. Jack up the rear, remove the axles and check for play in the bearings. You cant check play with the axles in. Also jack up the front wheels and check for play (axles can be left in on the front for this test). A visual inspection of the grease (or lack thereof) can be done when the axles out for inspection as well. Bearing play checks are done by grasping the wheel with both hands and rocking it from side to side and up and down - any bearing issues will result in the wheel wobbling on the hub - for obvious reasons the wheel has to be off the ground when you do this check.

During trips, check the dowels for movement in the rear and at least once every few days put your hand on each hub after a long drive and check none of them are particularly hot.
I read in one of the linked threads that cable locked trucks have a different axle shaft than regular trucks? Happen to know anything about that? I just find the shafts have all versions of trucks from 40, 60, 70, 80s listed as fitting. It seems like a one off comment compared to other info.
 
If the part numbers are the same, the part (axle) is identical.

You can look up part numbers on different land cruisers in the drawings below:

 
A cable- or e-locked axle has / needs a longer spline section on the side with the locking collar. That's the short side on the rear.
 
I read in one of the linked threads that cable locked trucks have a different axle shaft than regular trucks? Happen to know anything about that? I just find the shafts have all versions of trucks from 40, 60, 70, 80s listed as fitting. It seems like a one off comment compared to other info.

Yes, I have heard exactly the same. I dont have any details, sorry.
 
Those studs shearing is a lot easier and cheaper to repair than a FF axle. When you upgrade to the larger studs, the axle becomes the thing to break, unless you upgrade the axles, too.

Also, install the axle flange gasket dry; it helps the clamping against the hub.
 
It seems to be false. The shaft part number for full float and semi float axles are the same (42311) as per Toyota parts diagrams.

The discussion was around cable locked diffs.
 
The discussion was around cable locked diffs.
(Edit: I have included the part number pages for the rear diff and axle. You can see there is a differentiation between cable locked and non cable locked diff, but none is made for the axle shaft itself. Unless any concrete evidence of something else, I am going to get the axle shaft listed and install it.)

Yes, but there is no part number for cable lock diff axles. There’s no section that differentiates cable locked vs non cable locked axles and parts.

I’ll measure the axle splines and shaft I pulled out of mine when I get home and post it so we can compare them to non locked measurements. If they’re the same (within a couple mm, I don’t own precise calipers) it should put the claim to bed. If not, it looks like I have more research to do.

I will admit, however, it is always possible that the PO of this specific truck may have installed an axle shaft not meant for the HJ61 cable Locked axle. I’ve found lots of strange unadvisable things in my Hj.

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I believe the 5 digit # on that diagram (42311) is used to find the 10 digit part number in the parts number list.

I have swapped e-locker diffs into 60 series axles... I'll say again the inner axle is different between locked and non-locked full floaters on the short side rear (and long side front). The long spline axle for a locker will work with an open diff, but not the other way around. The splines for a locker are ~3x as long as needed for an open diff. Unless there's wallowing of the pin holes on your current axle shaft, I'd reuse it.

Edit - pics of short side shaft from a non-locked, full float 60 rear axle.
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