Just grenaded my 9" rear axle.

Not sure what happened but there's a nice crack in the case and it's locked up.

Happened as I was backing my small trailer into my driveway.

More details to come.

 

OUCH! Well, at least it was in your driveway.

 

The best place for it to happen I guess. I'm thankful it wasn't out in the middle of nowhere where I often am....

 

Sorry for your loss.

I didn't know they could do that? Always need something else to worry about, though. Thanks!

 

Upon secondary inspection, it is not totally locked up, but will roll half a turn in either direction before stopping solid. Something inside definitely came apart.

 

WOW broke a 9 " that's something to be proud of .

 

Here's the crack, it's pushed out.
Maybe a bolt came out? Maybe the ring gear failed?

It doesn't make any noise or anything in the half round I can turn it. So I think the pinion is fine.

 

Too bad it wasn't in an awesome display of power. I didn't even have my foot on the gas!

I just built this unit and put it in 8 months ago!

 

You mean kinda like how the azz end of your rig waved goodbye to me yesterday after work? I assume this means you haven't had a chance to get that latest governor in your AOD.

 

Yeah something like that... Hahaha

 

Boys and girls, can anyone tell me what this is?



That's right! That is a ring gear bolt! It lives with all the other ring gear bolts inside the gear case.



However, this family of bolts decided to be mischievous and cause all sorts of trouble...






Sooooo, this case is ruined. I have another loose axle I can rob the case from, or maybe i will buy a new case.
The gears look to be ok, although with the ring gear loose I wonder if it was flopping around and warped?

I don't understand why or how they came out. When I assembled all this back in December I Torqued them properly and used loctite on them.

 

no loctite on them?

 

Yes they were loctite coated and properly torqued. I did everything by the book on this.

I can't figure out why they came out...

 

They look a little peened on the tops of the threads. Should be a nice sharp peak. Did you tumble clean them? Since they are all coming out there seems to be an imbalance in the system. If they were already peened like that when you built it then you did not have face to face contact on the threads. It would have been edge (peen tangent) to face which is much less friction than a face to face to face. Long story short: it will torque correctly but does not have the same holding force. A little bit of vibration would be enough to eventually back them out.

 

No they were brand-new upon installation. All threads perfect and everything how they should be.