[Spridgets] Broken Halfshaft and Thunkin Punkin

[Nigel Hales]

Broken half-shafts...more than likely the vehicle has been jacked one to 
many times from under the diff centre housing, this has the effect of 
putting a bow in the axle housing, end-2-end, particularly as the diff 
housing ages and the welds weaken to the flanges. Not always the case, 
as I have seen some that have simply sagged down, while others have a 
side ways twist, most likely the bow was in the construction from day 1 
when not jigged correctly. This puts a lot of strain on the axles, as 
they no longer line up with the output gear, and run at an angle, and 
the most likely time for failure is when cornering, as the wind up in  
the diff causing the bind to be exaggerated. Over a period of time, a 
twist develops in the shafts, evident by some dis-colouration of the 
shaft close to the spline, as this is where the maching initially caused 
the weakness.  This was all to prevalent in early landrovers, when many 
a weekend was spent in 2 wheel drive with the centre diff locked due to 
axle breakage. Simple fix is take out the complte axle and check for 
true end-2-end, most likley you will continue to break axles until the 
bow is fixed.