I guess I was due to do something stupid... Long story short; I ended up flying through a ditch at about 50mph (no not by choice, im not that stupid) and all was well until I hit one of those "pesky ditch pipe that goes under the road asphalt culverts" with the front drivers wheel. My wife who was driving in front of me said I was getting tons of air and she thought I was going to barrell roll. She was a little shook up.

Damage list.
-Axle housing bent back and up so much that the tire is in the body
-broke some welds on the front "weld on" crossmember.
-exploded the top trunion bearing.
-bent the u-bolts

Amazing list
-The stock 4 steering studs were unharmed (and im running hydro assist).
-The fj80 tie rod ends are fine.
-the leaf is fine.
-I think the knucke is ok.

Anywho heres some pics. Im pretty sure there will be better ones as I dig deaper...

Funnily enough the shock actually broke that morning for no reason I actually didnt break it during this, but until my little adventure it wasnt hanging down like that.




It was hard enough to do this at 25 psi!

 

my god that must have been one helluvan impact!! That is rediculous. How are your longfields? I hope your longside axle didnt get jacked up.

 

Wow, that is some some carnage indeed. I'm glad your o.k., seems like it could have been really bad.

 

Im not sure on the longfields I will have to cut the housing apart to remove them. They are jammed in there good.

The truck actually faired better than I thought. due to the impact.

 

you going to have it put back together for the run next month?

 

It all gets us eventually.

To lessen the timeframe before history repeats itself, invest in a floor jack and jackstands...at least put your tire under the axle so it doesn't fall on your noggin.

You are going to have fun getting that axle apart for sure and getting all your toys out of it.

 

I have jack stands under it now. I love my bottle jack but I do need a floor jack people laugh when they find out I dont have a floor jack but I have a plasma cutter. I blame the awesomeness of the toy bottle jack.

I will have fun getting the ram bracket off and cuttin the housing up. But I do have a plasma. But im not sure I like the idea of dripping liquid metal on my longs so I must resist and use the old cut off wheel and sawzall

I hope to be good as new in 2 weeks at most.

 

Nice, it looks like it's time for a Diamond housing!

 

Thanks sucks but had not happen sooner or later. Makes me wonder if I should pick up a spare housing for my '81...Is that lamp in the one of the pictures one you are using for garage lighting??? my wife would have my a$$

Nice build up thread BTW, first time I had looked at it. Keep us posted on damage you find on the inside...

 

Your axle should be fine. Dont look at this as something that might happen to you. Unless you are out jumping your rig bc beleive me this was no every day occurance. This was a serious accident and had I been in something less id be in real trouble. That lamp should not be in there

 

Not much more to report I got the axle housing out and started to cut the bell off. 4 sawzall blades later and 1/2" deep and im not through it yet! I didnt want to plasma it bc Im not sure I want to do that with the longfields in there. Plus my plasma wont cut 1/2"

Oh damage
-broken centering bolt in the drivers leaf pack.

Now if I can just get Marlin to answer his phone I can buy some stuff from him:grinpimp:

 

i still say fix and go do it agian but this time bring a video camera.

 

You can order from me right online.

 

wicked carnage. i did that to a jeep Comanche 4x4. concrete culvert vs. dana 35's...culvert won. i broke the front diff, a coil spring, and both left 'control arms'...and drove it home (from the front of the neighborhood)

good thing you weren't hurt. when the jeep suddenly 'stopped' i ripped the seatbelt & cracked a collarbone.

 

wow that sucks yeah im lucky it wasnt worse. Yikes im thinking if I had a dana 35 under there it would have decinigrated just in protect to such abuse.


UPDATE

Finally got through and the axles are fine. I couldnt get the long side out but LUCKILY it slid right out by hand after unbolting the 3rd and wedging a screwdriver in it.





Updates to damage list
-Lower trunion bearing race cracked.
-bent steering stop on knuckle

Here you can see where the steering stop bent and distorted the knuckle a bit





The sealing surface is still flat, and all the bolts actually line up perfect exept for the one broken hole of course. But im not sure I want to run it. I will see if I can dig up a knuckle.

 

Wow...

Impressive carnage. Maybe it's time for some TG 6-Shooter knuckles/ arms or similar? Betting even though many things didn't break out right that you loaded them pretty severely. Might give piece of mind to replace anything that has received a heavy amount of impact.

Any guesses as to what a IFS would have done in the same situation? Not looking to start another SAS/IFS war... just curious.

 

1st
This accident proves that you dont need six stud knuckles if you maintain proper torque on the studs I put more force againt that knuckle than most and the arms and studs are great.

If I had IFS I would have lost atleast one ball joint, tie tod, cv axle, thats just the begining. It would have been worse.

 

Proper torque?

A co-worker beats his buggy with 4 stud knuckles, full hydro and 44's.

IFS would have been broken earlier or the tire would have come completely off.

OR, if you would have had long travel...

 

Maybe if I had long travel but it went down 4ft and back up in about 10 ft.

Proper torque: most shaved off studs are due to people not maintaining proper tourque on the bolts. 6 studs are helpful but unecessary for all but the biggest tires/bigest right foots and full hydro. BUt even then if you dont keep the bolts tourqued then they will shear.

 

I was trying to be funny.

I put a wrench to my 4 ARP studs every trip. Little piece of mind.

I meant 44" tires, full hydro and 4 studs. Amazing how things work as designed when maintained as designed.

Any new finds?