MTFCA Forum

My axle busted last weekend. What am I looking at replacing? Axle, fender; ruckstell backing plate? Anything else I should expect? What is my estimated cost?? Thanks!

UGH!

condolences, Jason

How did your wheel fare? Nice looking touring car, I'm sure you'll get past this speed bump. Best of luck.
Gerrit

The wheel is intact! The ruckstell axle took the brunt of it. Drove over a railroad crossing and the wheel just popped off.

Jason, The good news in this, is that when the axel broke at the rail road crossing, it was good news that you car cleared the rail road crossing when it stopped. You will have to take your Ruckstell completely apart to remove the broken axel. You should get two new axels and you may find other Ruckstell parts that should be replaced once the Ruckstell is apart. Get a copy of the Ruckstell rebuild guide and study it before starting your axel replacement.

Best go buy a couple lottery tickets - you were very lucky your weren't at "speed" !

Jason,
Estimating the cost of parts is easy, everything you need is in the Langs catalog. Your broken axle shaft looks like a clean break outside the rear end, all the internals except the axle shaft are probably good, so a relatively easy and inexpensive repair. New axle shaft, inner and outer seals, bearing sleeve, brake plate, brake parts, gaskets, lube...under $300 I should think. Find good used original parts and half that number. The fender and running board are available from Langs too. Labor is another matter. Get some club members to help and it is a couple of Saturdays and a few free lunches for the guys and you are back in business. My club rebuilt an axle for a member recently and it was a good hands-on learning experience for some and with at least one member with prior rear axle experience, and the right tools, it goes fast. 3-4 people is the right number to make quick work of it and not get in each others way. The minimum for special tools would be a rear axle sleeve puller, and a U-joint aligning hook, both available from Langs. The only job you will need a machine shop to do is to press off the old differential gear on the broken axle and press it on the new axle, this in my opinion cannot be done by a shade tree mechanic. If at all possible, reuse or get replacement original Hayatt bearings if bearings are needed, and the most expensive highest quality hardened bearing sleeves Langs has.

Most of the cars I've worked on (a dozen or so in our club) have required new axles for one reason or another. Frequently it's because of damage caused by not keeping the axle nut tight. They do need to be checked, especially withing 50-100 miles after a wheel installation.

After replacing my axles I went the further step of installing floating safety hubs in lieu of the outer hyatt bearings. The safety hubs transfer much of the load from the axle to the axle tube. The design itself prevents the wheel from falling off in the unlikely event the axle breaks. The hubs have sealed bearings and don't allow grease to migrate out over the wheel or brakes.

Good luck!