My Newfield held up, but now the axle broke, what now? (1 Viewer)

[teamextreme]

I've been running these Newfields for about 5 years now and have been very pleased with them. Last week in Moab, however, while trying to pull a buddy's totally dead CJ buggy on 40's out of Pritchett, instead of breaking the Newfield, I snapped a front axle. When I got home and inspected it, I found what you see in the picture. The shaft sheared so cleanly in two it looks like someone cut it with a fricken laser beam. Problem is, it broke inside the birf. Any great ideas on how to get that thing out? I think the Newfield is still good, so I want to remove this little stub. I've searched on birfield seperation techniques and the old pound in a vise method is obviously not going to work here. The only thing I can think of is welding on a bolt to the end of the broken axle and pulling on that. Any better ideas? Anyone else experience this? Should I get a Marlin’s 4340 shaft to go with the Newfield’s or sell the Newfield’s and get a full set of Longfield’s?

 

[Pin_Head]

1. Weld bolt.
2. Drill and tap (although the metal may be a little hard)

You can always get chrome-moly axle shafts so something else will snap.

 

[KY854RUN]

Take the Newfield apart and you should be able to push the broken piece out. Then reassemble the Newfield and install a new axle shaft.

 

[CruisinGA]

Get Long's chrome-moly 27 spline inners and start breaking the newfields...

www.longfieldsuperaxles.com

I've broken 3 gen II longfields with his chromemoly inners... Tryin to save the coin for the new longfields...

 

[Poser]

Should I get a Marlin’s 4340 shaft to go with the Newfield’s or sell the Newfield’s and get a full set of Longfield’s?

30 spline longs, and don't look back.

 

[peesalot]

take it apart. 1 ball at a time.

 

[teamextreme]

Any writes up on dissasembling the birf? I checked the tech links and there's none there. How does that cage come apart to dissasemble the birf?

 

[FJ40fiji]

I'd drill and tap it, then put it in a vise and get at it with a slide hammer. Won't be any fun, and will probably have a couple hours into it when you are done.

 

[FJ40fiji]

Anybody know whats up with that wear pattern in his splines? Does his knuckle turn to far?

 

[Poser]

Anybody know whats up with that wear pattern in his splines? Does his knuckle turn to far?

That is from the inner axle shaft rotating under power, and the fing birf not being connected to it any longer. It wore against the splines on the inner bearing (star) of the fing birf.

 

[FJ40fiji]

Makes sense enough, thanks.

 

[Poser]

Any writes up on dissasembling the birf? I checked the tech links and there's none there. How does that cage come apart to dissasemble the birf?

Get a punch and a hammer and tap the piece that the axle shaft is broken off in, one way, pop out the ball, and then the other way, and pop out the ball directly across from the one you just removed. Do this six times and then the balls will be out of the fing birf. You then rotate the cage 90 degrees so that the two wider ball openings are lined up side to side with two of the inner protrusion areas on the bell of the fing birf, and lift it up out of the bell.

 

[FJ40fiji]

Get a punch and a hammer and tap the piece that the axle shaft is broken off in, one way, pop out the ball, and then the other way, and pop out the ball directly across from the one you just removed. Do this six times and then the balls will be out of the fing birf. You then rotate the cage 90 degrees so that the two wider ball openings are lined up side to side with two of the inner protrusion areas on the bell of the fing birf, and lift it up out of the bell.

NEEDS TO BE IN TECH LINKS

 

[Poser]

NEEDS TO BE IN TECH LINKS

PICK UP A FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL

 

[teamextreme]

Yes, the wear would be from the almost 20 miles of trail left getting out of Pritchett with the front axle still engaged. I heard the nasty breaking noise and figured, there goes a birfield, I've heard that before. But then it didn't make the usual grinding noises, even without unlocking the hub, so I figured it must have been a broken hub. No such luck.

I second the tech links suggestion, although I do have a FSM, duh, I guess I'll look at that.

 

[teamextreme]

UPDATE....
the welding idea didn't work. Too tight to get in there and couldn't even get the soft bolt to stick to the hard axle. Drilling & tapping turned out to be a piece of cake. Tried 10-32, which wasn't enough. Then went to 1/4-20 and a slide hammer and it came right out. 30 spline Long's on the way to fix this problem, yea-yeah.

 

[peesalot]

No s*** Steve. I read that in a manual I borrowed from a friend when I first bought my 40. I used the manual to solve some wiring issues and in the process read the birfield disassembly procedure. cool. Never seen it done but I have seen the birf together then dissasembled so I know it works.