Almost a tragedy

[winston vizsla]

Interesting. My girlfriend was leaving a gas station and spotted a silver EB earlier this year. She always pulls her phone out to snap pics and send to me. Well as she was pulling her phone out, she saw the back left tire rolling down the road towards her. Sounds like the same problem. From the picture she took it lookes like the shaft broke at the back of where the bearing is seated. The driver said thank god it happened before he got on the interstate. Here are the pics:

 

[broncnaz]

Almost every stock ford axle shaft I've seen break was right at the bearing. have yet to see one break as so called "designed"
Seem aftermarkets do the same thing mostly due to a bad housing.

 

[xcntrk]

^Oh I get it now. These are breaking on the other side of the retainer... Yikes!

 

[MartyG]

Wholly cow...So glad everyone is alright!
I automatically think "that could have be me, my wife and my girls"...and it freaks me out.
Glad my wife doesn't read this site.

 

[motoman]

Glad everyone was ok! That is soooooo scary when you are just along for the ride!

I snapped a 6 year old Moser 31 spline axle running 35" tires.... was doing a donut in a dirt field and "WAM!"

Screwed up the new disc brakes

Snapped right at the end!

Just makes no sense where it broke.

 

[EricLar80]

Interesting read that helps explain it...Here

Most likely you had corrosion on the axle at that point, that why it looks like it has multiple points of origin (as indicated by the huge ratchet marks typical with high torque on a shaft), and final failure.

If you have a good close up picture, it would be pretty easy to see where the failure started. Why it failed exactly is a little bit of a guess, but usually corrosion starts it, and incorrect material properties don't help.

Eric

Glad everyone was ok! That is soooooo scary when you are just along for the ride!

I snapped a 6 year old Moser 31 spline axle running 35" tires.... was doing a donut in a dirt field and "WAM!"

Screwed up the new disc brakes

Snapped right at the end!

Just makes no sense where it broke.

 

[bigjhoov]

I've done it on a stock 28 spline.