Thread: heat treating stock axles

Originally Posted by harry

phantom,
i locked my disco rear ages ago, and no problems,
until i put big tyres on,
then at no excessive power, it's an auto,
under gentle increasing power on a steep hill, it broke one axle,
after an assistant confirming this, watching , i commenced to drive it further up and also at gentle power application, it broke the second axle
shute, two in five minutes, no rear drive.
definatly not the car's fault..
1 , the car was designed as a constant 4wd with centre diff lock.
2 , i modified it with the addition of a locking rear diff.
3 , i further modified it with a large set of tyres
so it was way past it's design standard,
definatly not mr land rovers fault.
of course we don't hear the same stories from the owners of the other marques, as they mostly bugger theirs from doing the same thing at a million bottles per hour, so they do not understand.

So you are basing everything you have said on your experience with one vehicle???

Your assertion that LR know what they were doing wrt axles has been disproven by the Ashcroft tests showing that 24 spline axles break at the same UTS as 10-spline axles. So LR increased axle diameters by 30% or so (increasing unsprung weight) but didn't increase axle strength.

For the record I have broken 3x 10 spline axles, 1x 24 spline axle and 1 crownwheel and pinion in landies with standard engines and standard size wheels, no diff locks, driving sympathetically.

The most sympatheric driver I know, and past president of the LROCB, has broken at least 3 axles and 1 CW&P (also no lockers and stock standard engine and wheels)

LR axles are undersized and have poor metalurgy. However I agree that heat treating them won't help.

I have been using these in IIa.



Benefits

1. When you get hungry you can use your broken axles for a toasted cheese sandwich. Using your friends TD5 to cook it, because it has lost all its water and overheated.
2.
They are individually wrapped, so they don’t melt and stick together in the sun.

Ben.....

Originally Posted by isuzurover

The most sympatheric driver I know, and past president of the LROCB, has broken at least 3 axles and 1 CW&P (also no lockers and stock standard engine and wheels)

I must be incredibly lucky then, as since having my 90 which is fully locked, and running either 33 or 35inch tyres, and has since it was 2 years old, I have only ever broken 1 rear axle (the long one) They are all still standard, front and rear.

It gets used pretty hard too.

Having now said that, no doubt I will snap one next time out!

ps, As soon as Keith gets the news ones made I will be upgrading.

pps, I also agree that the heat treatment is a waste of time.

ppps, Rover axles are weak, but they arent quite as weak as some people would suggest.

They are having good success in the USA doing the opposite - freezing axles (and any thing else you can think of) - like they do for cryogenetics.

Heat treatment I can understand, cryo goes against my understanding of how it can actually happen.

Originally Posted by Psimpson7

I must be incredibly lucky then, as since having my 90 which is fully locked, and running either 33 or 35inch tyres, and has since it was 2 years old, I have only ever broken 1 rear axle (the long one) They are all still standard, front and rear.

It gets used pretty hard too.

Having now said that, no doubt I will snap one next time out!

ps, As soon as Keith gets the news ones made I will be upgrading.

pps, I also agree that the heat treatment is a waste of time.

ppps, Rover axles are weak, but they arent quite as weak as some people would suggest.

Ahh, but your 90 is significantly lighter than a 110, so the loads on the axles are less.

e.g. 88" SIIAs break axles very rarely if unlocked. 109" break axles much more frequently given the same conditions.

Good point, but remember it only has the RRC/D1 type rear axle, not the Salisbury that the 110's had.

As it sits with a full tank of fuel but no driver it weighs 2050kg's

Originally Posted by Psimpson7

Good point, but remember it only has the RRC/D1 type rear axle, not the Salisbury that the 110's had.

As it sits with a full tank of fuel but no driver it weighs 2050kg's

Thats a lot lighter than a Disco. With an empty tank I'm at 2400kg, the 110's will be heavier.