Broken leaf spring (1 Viewer)

[Godwin]

@cruiserinsanity since getting his license last year has taken over driving one of our FJ60s. During this past year we swapped on a set of used OME heavy springs I pulled from my FJ60. Springs had > 200k miles on them but appeared good and delivered a nice ride. They have been well used in a variety of non-pavement situations. Two weeks ago he noticed a front spring was broken; he'd put about 100 miles on it like this. I swapped out both fronts today.

The broken eyelet came off with the shackle and it was pain separating the eyelet from the shackle . You can also see the broken edge and that this has been fatiguing for some time.

 

[MoaByte]

This is why the military wrap goes on the pinned end.
My stock spring broke there the first time I took it on a trail after I bought it in 2014. OME to the rescue.

 

[kirvesmies]

you swapped out? there's your problem h3ll, he's driving it, he should fix it.
ok, i'm off my soapbox. so other than a broken spring, how's things man?

 

[pawnthatdude]

My original spring was broken in the same way. It was stable enough so it never "unseated" itself like yours. It wasn't until I replaced the suspension that I discovered the spring was not connected to the shackle anymore!

 

[Godwin]

you swapped out? there's your problem h3ll, he's driving it, he should fix it.
ok, i'm off my soapbox. so other than a broken spring, how's things man?

He helped before he went to work and he's gonna help pay for this since he's making the big $$ at Oreillys.

 

[OSS]

I had a broken rear spring. One leaf snapped a few inches away from the wrap. Like yours, the break was rusted — so it was a stress crack from long ago that finally weakened it to the point where it failed.

 

[HemiAlex]

That’s a fatigue crack terminated by a shear overload.

That worked its way out over a long time. It shouldn’t break, that’s a result of poor metallurgy and a manufacturing inclusion.

It would worry me more if it was a clean and fresh overload with no rust on the fracture.

A simple can of dye penetrant and contrast paint could have picked up that crack forming.

 

[cps432]

I saw a video yesterday showing a standard brake drum from a Silverado that sheered off at the 90 degree point where it goes from the hub to the braking surface. Apparently it only drove a few miles before it shattered and sheered off. It was likely over torqued, but should never have sheered off. It seems like a lot of metallurgy problems are laying it wait for us in the future as general manufacturing is increasingly becoming crummier and crummier. Be ware.

 

[3_puppies]

I had pics of a broken leaf, similar place but the driver side on a 60 I was parting out, maybe 12 years ago
I had pics on mud, not sure I can find them.

found the thread:

just a heads up to all

rig is an '85, had 150,000 miles, bought it for parts, had a broken rear leaf which I've seen before, first pic, but NEVER had I seen a leaf break in the front, at the shackle end. I found it when I was removing the axles before going to the recycler for $.02 a lb.

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