Infectious Off-Road.com

so, what exactly happened to your rear diff?

Ouch! That sucks!

Well I did the following:
1) Broke the spiders inside the locker
2) broke twisted splines on new Superior Evolution shaft
3) shredded ring gear
4) bent dif cover and busted bolts

Some believe that the axle caused the damage when it failed under torque load (this has been known to break Detroits). Others believe that the Locker spider gear failed first and caused the other damage.

Bad news is that my rig is out of commission for a while.

Good news is that 4WP is stepping up and replacing all broken components under warranty . Im also going to step up to a siddy in the rear to match my front one

[attachment=1]IMG_0280.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=0]IMG_0281.JPG[/attachment]

Hey Chris if you are getting replacements on that 44, locker, axles, and such id be interested in buying them for you.

Mad props go out to 4wheel parts to step up and take responsibility.

I believe the torque story. Just look at that axle shaft. I've seen some crazy broken shafts. I'm a bit curious. did you come down on something with it all torqued up, or was this trying to get on top of something under load?

Question...were you on the skinny pedal?

[quote="REDxj5150"]I believe the torque story. Just look at that axle shaft. I've seen some crazy broken shafts. I'm a bit curious. did you come down on something with it all torqued up, or was this trying to get on top of something under load?[/quote]
I just spoke with Richard (goatman) and he also thinks it started with the axle shaft loaded under torque then giving. but who knows, it could have been a number of things. I was trying to get up on the very last ledge on the HV rock climb (I usually get up that part easy and have trouble at the beginning in the loose stuff). One of the disadvantages to my build at this point is my 2.72 low; on tough obstacles I have to give it some skinny pedal to get the tires moving (that problem is about to be solved too). The 2.72 is perfect for 90% of my wheeling, but its that 10% that gets me. Its OK, soon I will have my cake and eat it too.

[quote="Bert338"]Question...were you on the skinny pedal? [/quote]
A little but nothing crazy. Like stated above, my 2.72 low doesn't allow the gears to do most of the work and I kept high centering and gave it a couple of small bumps to try to get up the main line. When it blew I was actually just slowly trying to crawl up a different line, and bang-pop. I really wasn't wheeling hard and we just started the day. The damage may have even been from a previous trip and it finally went on this day . Ask anyone who wheel with me, I'm not one to go crazy on the gas pedal - but some situations call for it . That was a tough axle; nothing in or on that thing was factory.

Point is, I like to play hard and push the limits of my Jeep. Its not my daily driver, its my weekend toy. I try to buy the best components so my rig can meet the challenge, and honestly I am always able to drive it home. After going through the toughest trails in California every couple of weeks over the last year, this is the first time I needed help to get home. It was bound to happen eventually. Some folks were wondering why it took so long

FWIW, my XJ had to get trailered home all the time

[quote="VICTORG93307"]Mad props go out to 4wheel parts to step up and take responsibility. [/quote]
Yea, really cool of those guys. I know that everything was still under warranty (the gears are lifetime), but they gave me no hassles at all Thats pretty rare these days.

Just like the axle that's twisted, the other side was probably twisted and finally gave out. Funny sometimes how the actual break happens on nothing hard, but the damage was mostly already done. Another reason I think it was the shaft going first, once the ring gear strips there's no power going to break the shaft.......but, I've also seen everything break at once on a really big bounce under a big load.

As far as major breakage goes, this is a pretty good one.


Crawling is coming......