Broken Nose cone!

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Poser

Poser

Oh...Durka Durka Durka.
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Have you ever broken a nose cone off the Land Cruiser one-piece transfer case?

How is your truck configured?




Suspension configuration?
What size tires?
What engine?
What transmission?
What differential ratio?
What were you doing when it broke? (wheelin’ duh!)




I am spring under, with 42 inch swampers, with a 2F engine, 420 trans, 4.88 gear ratio.



I broke my only front output housing back in July of 2004 in the Black Hills. While repairing it and trying to figure out what caused it, I noticed that there were marks on the drive shaft yokes where it had been binding up. I also found three cracks on the frame that were likely allowing my spring under suspension to flex even further when the driver side tire was stuffed and the passenger side was allowed to drop out and be forced down further. The top ears were cracked and the lower two were still intact. It was replaced with a Warden nose cone, and then, the whole Land Cruiser transfer case was replaced with an Atlas.


Repairs-06.jpg




Repairs-05.jpg




If you have pictures, please post them up!


:beer:
 
Only when the companion flange didn't get torqued and it shed all it's bolts! Seriously, other than that, no. SOA 40, 37 inch tires, TBI 350, sm420, 4.88s,lots of front shaft slip available. Lots of Rubicon trips. nice Warden's cone in the background!
 
Would one of Georg's nose cone savers have helped?
 
I doubt it in my case, with one bolt in the flange the driveshaft flange smacked the tranny. Lot's of lateral stress' there!
 
350/TH400/NP203/16 spline case. 4 linked rear/SOA front 4.10 gears 36 TSLs

Busted four, I think.

Number one while doing way flexy stuff at the Cliffs. I had been out on the same configuration a few times, but was following the trail boss out there doing crazy stuff.

Number two was the same deal. Three was a few feet later and probably had to do more with being unable to get more than two bolts to hold the cone in. The others were busted off in the case.

While fixing between the second and third I shortened the driveshaft splines. I think under extreme stuff I was bottoming out the rear shaft and blowing the front out.

It's hard to say if that fixed the problem. The case held together for a while after that, but I was having a lot of FI problems so I didn't beat on it hard.

The 4th time I was doing lots of steep short hills climbing in and out of a ravine (read stupid lines) We smelled gear oil, then noticed no front drive, then no go at all with lots of noise. I could have landed hard on the front driveshaft, bound the rear or bound the front. The later two seem unlikely since the limit strap on the front was fine. the rear limit strap had snapped the stud and pulled the Bilstien shaft out of the eye, but the coil spring was still captured and i did much worse a couple of weeks later without binding the shaft. I think it's more likely that I busted a 68 case with 350 torque and gobs of traction. The case fell in half when I drove out the shifter pin.
108_0549.jpg


108_0546.jpg


Two hard days at the badlands chasing Woody around caused no problems with a 79 fine spline output case, Georg output saver/stud kit and Poser case saver. Steve saved the day with a fine spline coupler too. :beer::beer::beer:

Blew a hub in half, but the case is OK.
 
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Steve, so since there be an atlas is there a Warden nose cone for sale.
 
My friend JB broke a nose cone. Virtually identical to your vintage.

Stock 6, SM420, 3speed case, 4:88s, 36" IROKs SOA. Replaced with another cone of similar vintage approximately 6 years ago with no further issue.

Now he breaks FF rear axleshafts!:eek: 3 so far. 2 were aftermarket upgrades:hhmm:
 
I broke a nose cone while in my Rock Pit abusing things. I think the nose Cone had something to do with the Split Case. (Mine Split just like Gumby's above)

When Broke 2F, H42, Stock T-Case, Detroit in the rear and ARB up front, SUA 4" lift and 2" body lift on 35"s.

Repaired with 2F, H42, RockBox, Orion 3:1, Detroit in the rear and ARB up front, SUA 4" lift and 2" body lift on 35"s.
 
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I broke two, FJ55, SOA stock springs with added cruiser leaves, 36's -38's (can't remember which tires were on at the times) but... TBI 350 SM465 4.10 gearing... I was climbing loose rocky trails both times. I modified the front DS because it was bottoming, causing the nose cone to be torqued at bad angles... got more travel in the DS and all is well. I am pretty sure the front springs wore to the point of allowing the DS to bottom, breaking two. I thought I was an idiot because I couldn't figure out how I broke the first, then broke the second and was fresh out of spare nose cones : ) but got it right... 3rd time ya know, LOL.
 
I've broken three front nose cones over the years . One just last weekend . I'm running 36" iroks locked front and rear .Arb in the front . Sm 420 with a fuel injected 2f . Had it happen in a variety of scenarios . Once backing up and getting bound in between two trees , Once going forward with a little wheel hop and once it was caused from extreme flex causing my d/s slip to come partially disengaged . I wheel quite hard in this rig and I am very surprised that they last as long as they do . Does anyone have a wardens nose cone on here ? I'd like to see some pics.
 
Hi All:

Wow! That billet aluminum nose cone from Warden's is great! Too bad Danny decided to hang it all up . . . . truly end of an era! :frown:

Regards,

Alan
 
I broke 2 nose cones in the same week at the GSMTR in Tellico back in 2006. At that time my Cruiser had the 5.7L Vortec/SM465/Cruiser t-case, SOA, SR, stock 4.11 axle gearing, and 39.5" Iroks. I had just finished the V8 swap the day before I went to Tellico.

The nose cone broke due to the u-joint binding, and pulling down on the cone. When I put the V8 in, I had to redo my front driveshaft - making it about 3" shorter. The shorter driveshaft put it at a steeper angle that the u-joint couldn't handle under full suspension droop.

I broke it the first time on School Bus. I thought the driveshaft had compressed all the way and pushed on the nose cone, so I cut about an inch off of the male end (square driveshaft). One of the guys in our group had a spare so we changed it on the trail.

I broke the second one on Guardrail. I strapped it up and limped back to the cabin. I found a spare at Crawford's and fixed it that night. I realized why it broke this time. I used my trailer axle straps as limit straps on the front to limit the travel temporarily, and it worked great.

My permanent fix for the problem was to swap in an NP205!
 
good post steve!

i think there are three reasons why the nose cones fail:

1) u-joint angle. too much operating angle will cause the u-joint to bind and the cone can and will break off the case. simple fix: run the proper length limiting strap!

2) driveline length. if your front driveshaft does not have enough slip, it can cause spline seperation when flexed out. that can bind up the shaft and cause the cone to break. if your front shaft is too long and is allowed to bottom out, it can cause the shaft to "push" on the case which can and will break the case and possibly the nose cone. simple fix: run the proper length front drive shaft and go for a longer slip, at least ^'. the stock slip is not nearly enough for rigs with flexy suspension

3) this is the one most poeple don't think about: gear deflection. the stock t-case gears have a healthy helical cut to make them run quiet. when power is applied, it causes the gears to turn but they're also constantly trying to push away from each other. under extreme loads ( rig bound up in the rocks and tons of torque going into the drivelines ) this can and will cause the nose cone to push away from the case, causing the ears around the bolt holes to crack and the cone to fall off. this is the least common scenario and it's what my "nose cone saver" was designed to help prevent. i say "help prevent" because if you try hard enough, you can break just about anything.


i believe that most of the failures can be attributed to #1, but at least 2 of the failures mentioned above sound like gear deflection issues to me.

i have seen a few broken nose cones. one was on FC's pig at the little sluice. definetly due to gear deflection.
 
danny warden has not made the cones in a few years now. he used to have them machined in groups of 20 or so to make it worth his while. i have tried to contact him about the billet cones but have'nt had much luck. i'll keep trying.......
 
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