Superbell broken axle

Mercury Kid, call your state attorney generals office, or the state office of consumer protection and find out from them about the Merchantability Laws in your state. Here in Maine there are laws to protect the consumer against being given the runaround like you are getting. Specifically the seller can not relinquish responsibility for defective products it sells. Most sellers will try , but if you are aware of the laws and let them know they will comply. Check it out. Good luck, John

 

Show us a picture of the entire axle and after that we can continue the discussion!!!!

/Pär

 

Just getting my head around this thread, seems the conjecture is between cast or forged. I believe the issue should reflect on quality. I manufacture a range of cast axles in high tensile and stainless steel. When these axles were designed with tensile strength, yield strength & percentage of elongation characteristics all factored into the engineering brief. To prove these axles ,we benchmarked against all popular commercially available suppliers, the results of the testing will remain commercial in confidence but some results were surprising! I would never build a cast axle with what is called Annealed ductile Iron, the metallurgist & foundry men that I engaged to give guidance were of the opinion that this material is used due to its manufacturing characteristics. As far as China goes.... You get what you pay for! Wayne

 

I beat on the SuperBell drilled I-beam axle in my Model A Pickup............I finally bent the axle in two directions, vertically and horizontally to the back.....it did not break...but each scenario is different.....Littleman

 

Why do folks still buy this crap? Virtually EVERYTHING in the Speedway catalog is made in CHINA. That holds true for many companies in the aftermarket today.

More of us need to refuse to accept this Chinese sh*t for our cars...

 

I'm not sure where Superbell axles are made, but a certain other brand of axle which has had recent failures is made far closer to (your) home.

 

It takes a special kind of stupid to put a cast iron axle under anything but a yard tractor. I can't even believe I'm seeing this. If this type of knowledge has left the craft, we're doing the right thing by saving the old. Unreal...

 

Does anyone here know for sure if any of the aftermarket axles are cast steel or cast iron?

I find it hard to believe a cast iron axle could work?


anybody?

 

Here ya go for those of you asking for pics of a broken superbell...

 

cfnutcase was that axle chromed? If so was it stressed relieved to avoid hydrogen embrittlement due to the chroming process?

Muzz

 

Cfnutcase : Whats the story behind the axle in your post #69

Must be another example of a broken Superbell,not the one in post#20

I'm measuring my Superbell this morning to see if CE has a forged replacement for it (46", 4" drop)
My car is lightweight (2122# loaded,872# frt end weight) but Im not gonna take a chance

 

I would still like to see the entire axle as Speedway sells both Magnum and Super Bell. I have had a Magnum fail under a 34 pu I built but only after it hit a concrete wall!

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Taking a cast axle and then chroming it is compounding a potentially hazardous situation.

Ever wonder why Ford never made cast axles back in the day? It's because Henry knew 90 years ago what most guys are just figuring out today. Forged is the only way to go.

 

I would NEVER drill a cast axle regardless of where & by whom it was made, I have drilled plenty of Chassis Engineering axles as they are Forged , that is the only way to go in my opinion.

 

The axle that cfnutcase showed broke right in the middle of one of the holes that was drilled in it so that has to be a contributing factor along with the issues of chroming and it being cast.

The one that is the topic of the thread looks like it may have been a flawed casting from the beginning. That one makes me wonder a bit though as how many guys actually get a car to the point that they can drive it around without painting the axle?

 

Sure makes me wonder about my setup !!
Might have to give Sid a call.

 

Im going to chime in here and cut this bashing off for a min... If you truly do have a SuperBell Axle and you bought it from Speedway then that might have been the first problem.. Speedway has some good parts but I do believe they sell some knock offs and look alike brands that claim to be the real deal and the manufacturer has every right to deny you have their "True" product. They also dont know how it was installed and if the person installing it took advice from a "speedway tech" or something. Lots of legality involved here..

I personally know the owner and his son of Pete and Jakes/Superbell and they are the two most stand up people that any person could ever deal with. They take personal pride in selling a high quality product and willl stand behind it. Anyone who knows them and the Biz will back me up.. Had this axle been bought from them and questions asked about setup if there was any such as overstressing, wrong caster camber overweight etc etc.. I know if this axle failed after these were addressed you would get a new axle shipped next day air to your house. Pete and Jakes previous and current owners are alot of the reasons why we can still hot rod today and their products are made 1hr from my house in the "USA" for those of you who stated china crap..

Depending on how you handled yourself on the phone I would suggest talking to Pete and Jakes again and just explain the problem and I have a hard time believing they would not work with you. Superbell is about the best axle made out there and you need to get it from the source and trust me you will be glad you did.

 

To make a statement that Speedway only sells Chinese crap is misinformed and inaccurate. There are a lot of us who have been buying from them for years and who are very satisfied customers. I personally have been buying from them for at least 25, maybe 30 years, and have had no issues that they didn't try to resolve to my total satisfaction.

As for Superbells not being strong, I think Littlemans post and pictures defy that assumption ! I also have run them with zero issues and I do not baby my cars and drive them a lot. That one Superbell that was pictured as broken looks like it was in a wreck to me.

To the original poster, I called Speedway to give them a heads up on this and Eric at X 2947 said to call him and he would work with you to get this resolved.

Don

 

Looking at this picture in the top right section of the I-beam there looks to be some discoloration. Blackened from heat? Welding?

Not going to make any assumptions. Just asking.




Still a forged axle fan.

 

Man, I dont know. Broken axle or broken condom? Both can be REAL scary!

 

I would like to see the Superbell logo on that broken axle too. Some shots of it on the car might clear some stuff up.

 

The Mercury Kid needs to prove that axle is a Super Bell show us the whole axle!

 

I was going and post the same issue looks that it must of had a flaw like a small hair line crack originally from the rust shown and the small break on the edges.

Frenchy

 

i just sold a car with what might have been a superbell axle, i say might because i was not told it was a superbell and i didn't ask for a superbell, it did have the logo on it but i would say it was not crisp, kinda blurry really, makes me think it was a knockoff, it also had one of the spring perch holes drilled off center and had a letter stamped next to it like it was a defect, the car is being used as a display and not driven, i did look the axle over pretty close and didn't see any cracks.

 

MERCURY KID has posted once in this thread...the initial post. I just checked for other posts and threads in general and all I could find are classified ads.

Agenda?

I don't know, seems fishy to me. Superbell FOR YEARS has made a GREAT product. Lots of broken axle threads seem to be popping up lately (when, for decades, the aftermarket has delivered a great, safe product). Something's going on. Either SB's (or other aftermarket) product is taking a dive in quality for some reason or BRAND X or AXLE DROPPER X has an ulterior motive.

It's easy to jump in the FORGED or NOTHIN' camp, but some of us like the looks of an aftermarket axle.

My BS meter is registering in the "doubtful" range. NOT that some aftermarket axles have broken, but how, and how many....

 

Yes, they pulled those Corvair Pitman arms from their site;
but several months later they showed up in their
"Garage Sale Shop" with NO RETURNS in bold.

They are still using the same pic, of the cast arm.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Corvair-Pitman-Arm,37582.html

 

No, the one they carry today is a totally different arm, it is longer and a different shape.

Don

 

Do you really think "axle dropper X" has an ulterior motive? Better check for bugs and spys too.

 

I don't care who made that axle......No Cast axle will ever be under my ride. All you back yard metallurgist talking cast this or ductile that need to shut the fuck up about how "if it's done properly" or 'it's ductile cast iron. plenty strong" " or "they used to be good" That shit ain't safe! One failure is one to many. I will take a forged Ford axle anyday.....just like God and Henry Ford intended

 

Spys and bugs? That's funny. Maybe not. More likely just a smear campaign.

But who knows, like I said, maybe the quality has taken a dump(?), these aftermarket companies can defend themselves if they want.