my buddy's got a 91 SAS'D W/34'S, stock re, w/ dual cases. Out wheeling one night and he says his hub just fell off! Found all 6 bolts and 2 dowel pins sheared off. I thought there was other things that would have broke first. Ie stock birfs or internals (hub gear possibly) but this just seems a little out there. Any body else ever see something like this? Think catching it on a rock might do it, or possibly just sheared off from torque?

 

GOOD GOD!
Nope, I have never seen anything like that.

 

nope havent seen that before lol maybe something wasn't put together right and it put a ton of stress on it?? weird

 

Might be due to overtorquing all the bolts. Combine that with the shear of an impact and/or too much torque to the wheels and there you go.

Did you check the other side?

 

WHAT ESQ SAID!

Over-torqued nuts. Thats how you sheer wheel studs (and direct impact).

I to have never seen this but overtorquing seems to be the only plausible explanation for this. Thats the only thing that could really weaken them that i can think of... or under torqued?

 

was grease used- then a impact???

 

My bet is he did not use cone washers or never torqued them properly, as in too loose.

Regardless it was probably caused by human error instead of a mechanical failure.

Last sfa I bought had flat washers and no cone washers on the manual hubs.

 

If the cone washers were removed, wouldn't the base of the cone taper act like a knife to the studs?

 

Ive seen it

Seen the six bolts and 2 pins shear off a few times. Be sure you have all your bolts tight before you go out wheelin next time and I mean tight to there specs. Be glad it wasnt the birf or other internals. The bolts and pins are easy to fix

 

Not sure how he installed it but i'm fairly certain he used the cone washers- overtorqe is a possibility w/him but I usually just use a 1/4 inch drive for those little bolts. luckily we got a few axles for parts and just replaced the whole spindle assembly with new used cones.

 

To prevent this:

Properly torque the hub studs
Upgrade the hub studs to ARP
Upgrade to the six dowel mod

 

and some drive flanges well ok maybe not for the DD rigs

 

and some drive flanges well ok maybe not for the DD rigs. get some longs too cause the next thing is the birfs

 

she won't let me get bobby longs at least not yet. but they're coming and she's not gonna know when. Just don't tell her I said that. I've had my share of broken birfs.