Broken Axle

Jimm391730 · Post by **Jimm391730** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:14 pm

Great video, thanks for sharing it!

Jim M.
712W and 710M

todds112 · Post by **todds112** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:36 pm

mjnims · Post by **mjnims** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:52 pm

Ah the dreaded "too much accelerator" on the step problem. We see a bunch of broken axles on steps with the 712's. One has to be very careful about the amount of accelerator used when climbing steps. Don't see the problem in the 710's. I have been fortunate enough not to have experienced this problem yet, although I have spun the outer axle housing.

on the mid axle.

Nice video, always fun to see the Pinzies in action.

Kirby · Post by **Kirby** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:29 pm

Classic Line"Not what we wanted boys!"

thanks for sharing.... that sure looked like it went to sleep easy....

pinzinator · Post by **pinzinator** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:23 pm

When I approach a setting like that 712 did, I always drop it into the lowest gear and attempt to "walk" over rocks with the differentials locked, sometimes asking the passengers to leave first. So far I've never had a driveline problem, no damage or vibration afterward. I guess I just don't want to walk home as the result of being overzealous. And the expense isn't fun, either.

Kirby · Post by **Kirby** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:38 pm

That is exactly what I do... walk the rough stuff.... that stuff he went through I would have been going much slower, but each driver will be different ~ and I am sure I might break something when I do something different than others as well... all part of the fun (as long as no one gets hurt....)

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:27 pm

That piece of video was taken in the early 90's (?) I seem to remember.
The driver of the vehicle has owned Pinzgauers for nearly 30 years (he has 3 at present) and he does use them to the extremes at times, so when he broke that axle he contacted SDP and there responce was that they break "very occasionally"

In the 80's and 90's one rarely heard of axle breakages and the video shows one of only two ever talked about in Australia to date, so it is interesting that of late the breaking of axles on US Pinny's is not that uncommon..... so I'm wondering why?

My initial thoughts are that metal fatigue (30+ years of use) is the most likely cause, given that I'm guessing driver style is similar to other countries.....If anything US owners like Pinzinator appear to look after the drivetrain on trips etc moreso than most, including me.

So who is a metal fatigue expert who can comment :?: :?: :?:

BTW: Here are a few more pics of the rest of that "axle breaking" track.

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:39 pm

Peter could it be that there is close to three thousand here? still sound pretty uncommon

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:49 pm

True Erik, it may be a ratio thing after all you have 3000, we have 22

... BTW, aproximately 18,500 710/712's were manufactured

When SDP was contacted back in the 90's they more or less insisted it was a very rare happening (I seem to remember "very occassionally" was the translation

) so I guess it's a matter as to whether more are breaking today than in the past!

It would be interesting to get some facts and figures and see if metal fatigue or some other factor comes into play!

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:55 pm

If any one wanted to send me there broken axle i could have it tested here at one of are aircraft test plants.

andy · Post by **andy** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:36 pm

Just the idea of having one of 18,500 is pretty neat. Add that to the fact that some poor Pinzs have met their demise, add the fact that there are only 3,000 (mas o menos) in the US and that they aren't being made anymore and it becomes a fairly unique fellowship of similarily interest folks. And thanks to Vince we can enjoy new acquaintences with different insights and information from around the globe. All in all a pretty cool deal.

Andy

David Dunn · Post by **David Dunn** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:00 pm

And with that Andy, who can be surprised by the cost of replacement parts?

Think how Haffy owners are feeling.

Douwe · Post by **Douwe** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:39 pm

I feel obligated to chime in here. I've broken two rear axles in the past few years and disintregated one front wheel drive. The first rear axle breakage was on a small ledge in Moab. I don't think I bumped it too hard, but there it went.

The second breakage was at Chinamens near Buena Vista, CO. The strange thing about this one was that the wheel was not spinning at the time. I was going up an obstacle with good (too good) traction on one of the rear wheels. I slowly let out the clutch with a bit of gas and pop, broke it. This was the axle that I'd replaced only a year before. You can see the position I was in during breakage below. Dennis presented a theory a few years ago that you shouldn't put a shaft that was used on one side of the truck to the other side. This will lead to premature failure due to the change in stress on it. Did this contribute to the failure? I don't know.

The front wheel housing disintregated on me on double whammy in Moab. I had taken a few whacks at it (just little bumps, I didn't bounce the truck much, if at all) and decided to back off it and that's when the front wheel basically fell off. You can see what fell off below and there are more pictures on the rmp site: http://www.rmpinzgauers.org/photogaller ... ab2006.htm. You can check out a valiant effort by the late Brian Gould to tow me out of there.

At this point I've come to realize that stuff can break somewhat unpredictably. These trucks are 35 yrs old with relatively unknown histories. Sometimes you can do crazy stuff and you'll be fine and other times you can have major breakage on an easy obstacle. But all in all they take a lot of abuse without much complaint.

andy · Post by **andy** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:17 am

Dave, good point. I almost bought a Haffy, before I bought the Pinz.

Douwe, that's almost scary, like I don't worry enough about things going Tango Uniform on my Pinz. I don't even want to imagine the jacking up and winching it would take to get my Pinz off of one of the ranches if that ever happened.

Andy

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:33 am

Come on Andy, all Pinny owners have to have one or two Haffy's in there fleet, just to keep the Pinny/s company and round out the SDP component!

Douwe: Wow, that's a nasty breakage.
Alloy casting have always worried me a little bit in that something like that breakage is a possibility after a nasty knock or bump.
Could you use any of the hub gears etc in the rebuild, or were they all damaged?
It would be interesting to really determine if breakages are more prevalent today than in the past, and really nail the fatigue question, but I agree, that a lot has to do with the driving history of the vehicle and that is one of those things that is impossible to research.

I've never been on the receiving end of any major drivetrain damage in my Pinny but I have done something similar to the rear wheel of my Haffy....fortunately Haflingers are a lot smaller and lighter to recover.
I actually broke the rear right outer hub casing and the wheel fell off, on quite a steep hill.
We deliberated how to recover it and actually settled on getting three blokes to stand on the front left bumper (rather precarious) and that lifted up the damaged axle, then we drove it up the hill.

We did get a trailer in to recover it after that as I think we would have got pinged driving it back to Melbourne with 3 blokes hanging on the front and only 3 wheels

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Broken Axle

Yep!