As you may know, I am re-building a rear hub after a wheel bearing packed its bags. I took the opportunity to replace the disks too as they were past their sell-by.

On pulling the long half shaft I discovered this:



At last, some good timing with the bluddy thing - got to it just in time

I think I might be putting the spare in

Bish doing maintenance?

Butler's day off ?

His last slave died... of disobedience.

Bish, check t'other side as well, if it's like the pic, you might just need another spare shaft.

nice twist by the way

The short side is fine. Which is a bit odd considering the conversation I had this weekend where everyone said they always broke the short side... .



Oh and TC, it was insubordination

My short side breaking theory was relating to front axles, good find though!

Yep, I've found that out too on front axles.

so your running 10 spline with ARB then - front and rear? and thats a std shaft?

's what I run too. ARB in the rear only.

Chris

^^^^Wot he said.

ARB in the rear only.

Standard shaft with 235 x 85 tyres.

Autobox helps a lot though.

is that your first shaft?

i also prob have a set of rear 10 splines that will fit yours, will bring them to next event to check! Oh and they dont look like the one at the top!

Chris - how many if any half shafts have you had to change?

Yep first one.

My shafts have separate drive members, not the mushroom type which seem to be more common.

Could do with some spares......

heres my front, bogged in, no lockers:

i'll take a photo of the ones i have and email at some point to confirm. they dont fit mine anyway!

Must be all that high box off roading you do Bish

Bish doesnt spend long enough off roading to find low box necessary!

I think the total to date is 4, maybe 5. 2 of those were during the change from Detroit to ARB though. I had borrowed an Rover open diff as a stopgap measure and managed to break the diff and twist BOTH shafts (like the one Bish showed above) in one foul sweep. The other 2-3 have been in a haze of red mist at Slindon and Shoreham cement works - the latter was attempting a step at the bottom of a steep hill, slipping back and landing on one wheel with the throttle open in low first. I use the mushroom headed type.

Chris

To follow up on this, I went to fit the spare shaft I was generously given by our resident Beardy armchair driver and found a small problem:



Spot the difference?

My shaft is 950mm long and has a bulge that I think corresponds to the stub axle seal position. The replacement is 963mm long and has no bulge.

Bluddy Land Rovers!

So for now the twisted shaft is back in and I am on the desperate hunt for replacement shafts before Seven Sisters....

The longer one should fit yours with a thick drive member

OK, but what about the bulge?

Without it I will have EP90 in with the bearings.

Suppose that's OK? - may stop terminal meltdown like the last one

bish must a bit of an animal, ive run 10splines & a detroit for over a year & only ever had one shaft go - wasnt even me driving when that happened. i swopped cars for a day at tom's farm up in wales, was funny getting a j**p stuck everywhere & the owner having to tow it out with my car, she didnt find it as funny as i did.

come to think about it, it was the short shaft that snapped on mine - my theory the longer shaft allows more give so absorbs the twist better than the shorter side.

In simple terms

Short shafts tend to break as they are short and have little ability to take abuse, when overloaded they simply snap

As opposed to long shafts, these have more flex, so often they will twist horribly rather than the eqivelent short shaft which doesn't have the flex and therefore snaps.

The lonb shafts (then with a nasty twist) are on borrowed times, another 'good loading' and then they too will shear.

Its just a matter of catching them 1st !

Fit upgraded shafts if you can, makes a huge difference,

nige

Yep EP90 in the bearing is better than rust and water like the last one.

The short side shaft is more likely to break before the long side.

The longer shaft has a greater volume and can absorb more impact energy, by converting it into strain energy, at lower values of stress than the short axle. In mechanical engineering, this is known as resilience.