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I have a f-350 6.0L with 37s that I had a spool in the front with 38s and I recently switched to a powertrax lock right for the obvious turning problem. went out 4x4ing and snapped both u joints in the front and I replaced them when I did the locker any reasons for that or upgrades to stop it in the future?
I can’t believe you snapped both u-joints. I used to snap the front joints back in my mud racing days. What shocks me is that’s a Dana 60 and that should be able to take most anything a 38 can throw at it. You must have really been pounding on it. I think your only option is RCV axle shafts for the front end. If you’re not familiar with them google RCV and check them out. They are expensive but the strongest option you will find. I had them in my Jeep with a Dynatrac pro rock 44 and never had a problem. They don’t cause the jumping a U-joint does when you’re off roading hard or digging in mud or snow. They do not have a U-joint.
taking it easy isnt an option If I did that might as well stay on the highway and remove the front drive shaft but what I went through I would consider mild to what I have done with the truck when the axel was solid I'm not a rookie and I minimize wheel hop cause to avoid snapping axels but the parts I used were moog u joints
If you are snapping u joints then you are well on your way to cratering some axle shafts.
Did they both snap at the same place and time? Or did one go and later the next one go.
U joints are strong and if you snapped them and they were recently installed then my first thought is they lacked grease.
3 things destroy u joints"
1) worn and they get lose
2) high angularity stresses
3) and this is the rarest, inability to handle the torque application.
In over 50 years of off roading I have never cratered a u joint, I have had some that went bad that I replaced but never exploded one. I use OEM 1310's at the axle input/driveshaft side. Its what i call my fuse, its my weakest link and it take all the torque my driveline throws at it.
If you have any pics of your shafts and u joints I would like to see them.
You may have stretched trunnions which can allowing some rocking of the joint, I have seen this as the problem. Often snapped u joints only leads to bigger and stronger, then repeat with bigger and stronger. Becomes a cycle.
I agree with the last post. Grease fittings weaken the U-joint a lot. I’d still look into the RCV’s if I were breaking Dana 60 U-joints. They don’t wheel hop like a U-joint front end does making for smooth wheeling. No, I don’t work for them
The answer is yes and no. From a pure view of a machinist we could say yes, as metal has been removed.
From the view of functionality, the answer is no. In fact they do not. I have seen a lot of broken u joints and cannot recall having seen one that was broken thru the zerk.
The manufacturers claim that the greaseless are stronger. Has nothing to do with the zerk its the fact of the cross drilling to get to each end. Obviously less metal means less strength but I get what you guy's are saying.
Albeit not common, but it does happen. What was it you were doing at the time? Can we get a pic to refer to?
Longfield was a very small company that was bought out by Trail Gear in 2013 after the death of Bobby Long. I have no idea where Trail Gear has them made. They are also made from 300M steel, which is used in the landing gear of planes, BIG planes. Its tuff so and very difficult to machine. Clearly if it can handle the load of a Boenin 747 landing at 200 mph its not likely to break under some 5000 lb load.
I read thru the thread, looks like that breakage is not rare for this almost $300 u joint.
Close inspection of the pics shows a couple of things: The grease tunnel appears to be going into a much larger opening and right below I also see what appears to be a large opening that should not be there.
The the break itself seems to be following a same-same pattern across their u joints.
This tells me, no, it screams there is a internal problem from either casting or machining. I think casting IMO.
I ran Spicer 1310 OEM on Jeeps with D 44 axle and never had a breakage, nor did I ever see a breakage that was not a result of u joints that were already beginning to fail.
The off road market is more based upon faulty engineering than anything else. I mean do we really need $300 buck u j made from 300 M steel. There is a badge of honor that runs strong in the off road arena "I broke my 300 M u j", or "I snapped the axles in a Rockwell axle set". Most breakage on the trail comes from one or both of the following: Abuse and or FAIL of preventive maintenance.
I kept the undercarriage of my off road rigs spotless and after every outing I spent a good deal of time underneath looking for the telltale signs that a component was going to fail.
I used to lead runs out to Moab and we only ran 3+ - 5 rated trails, the most difficult. I watched rig after rig fail out on the trail...many of them professionally (?) built. One client trailered in his new Jeep which had over $50,000 worth of work done on it....426/425 hemi and the list goes on and on. It failed less than 50 yards into Pritchett Canyon. He took it into town, found a shop and $4k later he meets us and the other end of P-Canyon, again he broke but did make it almost 100 yds, so guess it was progress. I stayed in touch with him and a year later his new jeep was still not working and he was over $75k (not including the cost of the Jeep) in to it. Last I heard from him he was going to part it out and sell it.
