[Spridgets] Broken Halfshaft and Thunkin Punkin

[Kitterer Bob]

Bud,

David is correct.  The first years that I had my car I twisted an  
axle off about every 18 months.  Having very few tools, I would pull  
the differential and  just wash everything off in gas (27 cents a  
gallon) and put it back together.

Bob Kitterer

1960 Austin Healey Sprite (Mk IV in disguise)
1966 Austin Healey Sprite Mk III (Trevor) - still in boxes
2000 Miata Special Edition




On Jul 19, 2008, at 3:29 PM, David Lieb wrote:

>> All of which makes me wonder - what is the root cause? I cleaned  
>> the diff
>> guts
>> in gasoline. There is no obvious damage, other than some scoring  
>> inside
>> the
>> cage bearing hub on the side of the broken halfshaft. But the  
>> bearings
>> move (a
>> little stiffly, with no lube) and the ball bearings inside don't look
>> damaged.
>> What could have caused the halfshaft to twist itself in two? Just  
>> fatigue?
>
> Bud,
> That is the typical tale of the broken halfshaft. They were not  
> very well
> built, especially the ones that came in Bugeyes. The ones built  
> after they
> discontinued the Sprite tend to be a significant improvement (musta  
> bin all
> the extra cash they had on hand when they didn't have to pay  
> royalties to
> the Donald any more ;-). I have heard that a good machinist can  
> clean up the
> taper where the splines hit the rest of the shaft and spread out  
> the stress
> over a greater length of the shaft, too.
> David Lieb
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