Thread: Salisbury diff housing failures

Originally Posted by djam1

I had a brief look at mine last night why couldn't you drill a hole in both side shock mounts at the bottom.
Then put a large eg. 30mm rod that has threads on the ends with a turnbuckle in the middle.
Put nuts on the 2 extreme ends run it under the Salisbury Centre (I think there is an area where you wouldn't loose much ground clearance)
With the turnbuckle under the long side tighten it up until you have the housing under slight tension.
I am sure someone will come along and say why this cant be done.

I don't see why not, our 1909 4.7 litre SCAT has exactly that under the huge read diff housing (cast steel). Before the restoration the brace was missing and the housing was cracked as the car had been modified into a truck and used for hauling apples around an orchard in Baulkum Hills. Dad repaired the housing, adding huge steel plates internally and re-attaching the webs bracing the axle tubes. Then added the rod underneath as a brace (originally it had one).

Cheers
Will

Steve a bit of fishtailing, but luckily not travelling fast at the time, due to the corrugations.No savage washouts or the like involved.Will try and get a better pic of the break when the vehicle gets home.

Just out of curiosity, how did you call for help, and who did the recovery? Every dry season there's always a little collection of recovered vehicles in town. Quite sobering.

I know that road eats cars for a hobby, but in your case you weren't going that fast. I doubt the damage started on the Gibb, but was probably much earlier on.

No trace of oil underneath or smell of hypoy.Incident occured about 4km South of Galvans Gorge,where we had stopped for a swim.We were luckily travelling with another vehicle[HiLux]Recovery was done by Derby Stock Supplies.Stuart very helpful,arranged transport to Perth,left the next morning backloaded on a road train.Hopefully will pick it up tomorrow.

That's the truck that's in town here all the time. Yes, Stock Supplies are a pretty good mob. Be sure to post a big close-up photo of the break and you'll be sure to have lots of comments here . . . some even helpful!

That's a shame your trip had to end like that, but as you say, at least you weren't going that fast and you survived.

Photos of the break,managed to get a replacement housing from Wally Aussie so hopefully back on the road soon.

I have seen a few failures like this on rally cars ( early escorts) many caused by the pits jacking on diff for a quick wheel change.

the forces on the tube to housing are huge when housing is jacked...or in the case of LR rides over something using the diff housing as a slider.

I don't see the connection with locking diffs or not as that should not increase the forces in the plane required for this failure....


on a side note when watching the Fall Guy as a child you always knew when he was going to jump his truck as the axle braces became obvious...

You can see the starting point of the failure at the bottom of the tube in the picture with the diff housing visible.