I know there's been some discussion in the past, but thought some of you might be interested in seeing these pics. I'm not 100% sure of details, but this apparently broke as the vehicle was turning into a driveway at low speed.
Looks like an aftermarket superbell unit. Scary Still would love to see pics of a henry ford axle broken clean off like the one above, but no one still seems to be able to produce pics!
Looks like it started in the kingpin crossbolt hole and progressed to the main beam. The failure had definitely been "working" for a while.
By the surface pebbling it looks like it might be an original axle that has been around for some time.
In the very first picture, it looks like the front of the axle made contact with something before the failure ( just an opinion based on the pictures) you can see some deep scratches and paint knocked of pretty aggressively,.... I would also like to see the rest of the axle. It's real hard for me to believe it happened just pulling into a driveway. But !,... stranger things have happened. Here's a picture of the Bob Vivian A-V8 after a front hit on 7 mi. in 1953,.. The old Henry forged 32 heavy held up but the king pin sheered top and bottom.
This is exactly why I got rid of the Magnum cast axle I had and replaced it with a forged axle before I have even completed the build.
Ugh, and I HAD to see this huh when I intend to drop my axle. I'd never heard of an I beam flatly breaking like this. Imagine this happening at speed in traffic. Like I said, UGH!
That looks like broken cast to me. When I wrecked the 48 in Texas in the 70's the axle bent back almost to the frame but didn't have any cracks in it. That break may have been started by someone giving the king pin retainer bolt a lick with a bfh to set it in place tight.
I came to that deduction because its a cast axle, forgot about magnum axles, are there any other brand cast dropped axles out there? JEFF
I don't think you'll find many Ford axles broken as they were designed and engineered to do just the opposite.....
Definitely a cast axle. Not only are aftermarket "dropped" axles pure garbage cast in China with junk metals, but they also look like total shit. I've never seen an axle forged at River Rouge broken except for a severely drilled/slotted Model A axle that snapped between the way-too-thin webs, and it didn't look like pot metal at the break like the axle we're talking about does.
The pebbling makes it look like cast iron. If it was fatigue the surface would typically be 2/3 clean and 1/3 rough.
Looks like a bad casting. I have had broken chinese benchtop vises that were cast that broke and thats exactly what they looked like at the break. That looks like it has been fractured for quite a while. From the pics it looks like there was very little metal holding it when it broke, by what little shiny metal there is in the fractured area. Your friend was very lucky that happened at low speed in his driveway. Be nice to know the manufacturer of the axle.
I have heard of this happening before, Ive got a Magnum cast axle for my project, But now have serious reservations about using it, I think I might opt for a forged Chassis Engineering or similar one instead as i just don't want this to happen at 60mph, might scratch the paint when it falls off the road. It definatly isn't any product of Henrys thats for sure, as the genuine article has stood the test of time, just check out the pic of it being twisted in the lathe, try that with the shit we get sold now days.