three wheels on my wagon

broke the front axle

offside halfshaft is snapped, axle was full of muddy water, kingpin and wheel bearings are shot, the freewheeling hub bolts are sheared off in the hub covers

Ordered the bearings and seals off Martin

Anyone got a half shaft or the hub covers?

I've got the half shaft and hubs coming from Rob at O.R.A. on Monday

Ow are u getting on?

Since my bath at tick hill my hubs died and now the king pin bearings have died!
Busy weekend for me.

When the garage took the half shaft out and out poured muddy water.
The short half shaft (drivers side) had snapped and both hubs were shot
one of the wheel bearings was knackered together with all the kingpin bearings
Now got all the bits half shaft and 2 hubs from Rob at ORA (CamSuzuki had none) and two sets of king pin bearings and a wheel bearing from Martin
Oh and a wading kit for the axle breathers - (better late than never)
£250 so far
The garage are going to strip the axle and clean all the inside out and rebuild it with all the new / second hand bits
Hopefully it will be done by next Friday so we can go to tong - problem is it will only fit on the lift they use for MOTs so has to be fitted in between MOT bookings
Good job its not my daily driver!

Crickey, what did you do to break the shaft?

You have a reasonably large and aggressive set of tyres and a rocklobster don't you? Remind me what you run?

I bet you were having fun till the shaft went though!

I wonder if KAM diffs have sorted their hardened front shafts and cvs yet?

You'll have to learn to fix it yourself and you'll save a fortune but as Martin has found, become a pest to local garages with a press!

I'm lucky to have a step father in law with a press I can use whenever for wheel bearings and bushes.

Kirkynut

yep 31" Insa Turbo Special Tracks and an ARB front locker
was stuggling to get up a hill we had shot up 10 mins earlier - engauged the ARB and shot off sideways - wife was screaming as we were half way up a steep hill :S got to the top eventually - would still eat small steep climbs but struggled with longer ones without using the ARB to get three wheel drive

looked on Kam's web site t'other day when looking for parts and they only qoute rear hardened - my son found a picture on Chris's facebook (who had the car before us) of about 8 broken half shafts! but then he drove a lot more aggressively than we do

I can do simpler repairs but axles are beyond me :blush:

Have you fitted your rear disk brakes yet?

You should have more faith in yourself. We all had to start somewhere with the mechanical side of things.

I taught myself by re-building a nova gte into a non rotten shell. The wiring loom and every component transfered across or replaced, every nut and bolt. Then sold it soon after I had created a new car in essence!

Martin's guides are accurate and useful, give kingpin bearings ago to start with as most other jobs on the front axle are similar.

I've not done the rear disc conversion yet due to lack of time. I didn't want to start and not finish for Tong! It'll only take a day or less but there have been other demands on my time. All the parts are sat on my work bench.

It's a job for January now. But then it'll snow and I'll need to use it to get to work! Sod's law and all that!

I keep meaning to call KAM diffs as they planned to have them done by now.
I wonder how much they'll be.

A front locker with those tyres will snap a shaft or do a cv every now and then!

You must like your off-roading hardcore!

Looking forward to seeing you and your truck at Tong!

Kirkynut

It does make me smile to get up something that a green oval can't

U did stuff crawling at tick hill that I saw a disco take at speed and snap a half shaft twice on that day!

Yes, I love being able to do things that a green oval can't but without lockers and without really aggressive tyres it is rare that we can.

We get viewed as the underdog all the time by our Greenoval loving club members and they don;t expect us to do well, so when we are able to follow them it is nice.

I could do with more aggressive tyres but fear damage to the CV's/shafts and have held back a little. My Mrs can have a heavy right foot sometimes and I can get a little red mist and insist on trying something when it's unlikely we'll be able to do it. The Rocklobster puts more torque through these bits too.

There is the argument that you won;t spin the wheels up with more aggressive tyres but then we'll just go on to do harder stuff and want lockers, so I'm wondering where to draw the line at the minute.

Kirkynut

Update

Front axle is back together apart from the manual hubs - two bolts sheared off
Need to clean out the rear drums and fit the breathers for the axles
so should be ready for Tong