Another Broken Axle / CV Joint

[SS Bronco]

Interesting thread, I just came back from an off-road weekend in Northern MIchigan this afternoon.

Similar experience. I backed out of some mud and snow in 4WD - seriously, absolutely nothing extensive here. Then click, click, click’. Had my buddy trailer me back home 2hrs as I had a cyclical clank on the driver side, 30 mins into the weekend. Big bummer.

I’m guessing CV Axle is def busted. I’ve also added 34.5 tires and a 2” spring lift - 3,330 miles. I’m sure I’ll lose the warranty argument.

Sorry to hear about the issues…you’re not alone.

I am assuming you have the M190, it is was a big jump in tire size over stock 31 inch tires. Similar if you added 39” tires to a SAS. Putting a lot of stress on components

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[kodiakisland]

Late to the party, but of course a spacer lift sucks.
Anyway, was this the first time you used 4wd after the lift? Most likely you, or whoever you paid, pulled the CV out while installing and that’s what caused the failure.

I’ve put my CVs at some extreme angles in some gnarley stuff without breaking them. Yours had something wrong to begin with and my money is on installation error of the spacers. I’ll bet you or whoever did it removed the axle hub and spindle instead of the rear of the LCA.

Edit to add just noticed this was a year old thread someone just resurrected
OP hasn’t been seen in a year.

 

[Baja Bronco]

Well, that was an entertaining read!

 

[dgorsett]

It should be noted that any given lift: puck, perch, coilover with or without ucas changes the cv angles the same amount at rest. Dynamics differ. A differential dop is needed to avoid that.

 

[Pseudoko]

I don’t know why nobody just took a picture of the stock geometry of a Sasquatch but here’s a pic from a badsquatch with no lift. Cv axle is almost parallel with the floor… small angle but not much… 10 degree tops? But thinking it’s closer to 6. Can put an angle reader on it in a bit.

Edit: just measured 3.2 degrees is the angle.

 

[da_jokker]

I don’t know why nobody just took a picture of the stock geometry of a Sasquatch but here’s a pic from a badsquatch with no lift. Cv axle is almost parallel with the floor… small angle but not much… 10 degree tops? But thinking it’s closer to 6. Can put an angle reader on it in a bit.

Edit: just measured 3.2 degrees is the angle.

I'm sagging an inch because of the rock rails and front winch bumper, bit this is my WT...

 

[Pseudoko]

I'm sagging an inch because of the rock rails and front winch bumper, bit this is my WT...

well now there’s a reference point for a WT and Badsquatch for everyone to refer to. hopefully this information helps everyone.

 

[dgorsett]

Kinda getting off the broken axle thread but interesting to see the Badsquatch/Wildtrak with winch bumper pics. That winch really pushed it down. I put a RC hidden winch on my nonSasquatch BB and it settled it about 1/4" (looked like the Wildtrak photo). I added Bilstein 5100's set at 1.5" (made it look like the Bassquatch photo). Side question: Since most agree that you need an alignment after a lift, do you also need one when adding heavy front end accessories? If so what are the results? Before and after alignment data with lift and or accessories would be informative.

Full disclosure: I have not yet (a few hundred miles) aligned my 1.5" front 1.75" rear Bilsein lift. It drives/handles better than ever and my 'hillbilly alignment' (combination square with a carpenters level for camber) is good.

 

[ohp138]

This is the very reason I chose the Ford Performance 2" lift designed (by Ford) for the Bronco. Yes, it's more costly and doesn't provide the same level of options, but it's warrantied and designed by Ford.

 

[Jdc]

I'm not an expert on this topic but there's a lot of chatter about the cv angles but tire size has also been mentioned, specifically the tires being too large for the axle. In the OP's first message he mentions how he "gassed it and spun out of the hole" and it just makes me think the shock load once the tire regained traction probably busted the axle.

hought, perfect time to try 4W options. I wanted to crawl out of hole, so did not use much pedal. I could not get out of the hole under any 4w modes. Gas'ed it and spun out.

 

[Tech Tim]

I'm not an expert on this topic but there's a lot of chatter about the cv angles but tire size has also been mentioned, specifically the tires being too large for the axle. In the OP's first message he mentions how he "gassed it and spun out of the hole" and it just makes me think the shock load once the tire regained traction probably busted the axle.

There seem to be a lot of people wheeling pretty hard and not breaking CVs, so more than likely it's an angle issue.

I'm running 35s and wheel pretty hard and am surprised I haven't snapped a CV yet.

 

[Jdc]

There seem to be a lot of people wheeling pretty hard and not breaking CVs, so more than likely it's an angle issue.

I'm running 35s and wheel pretty hard and am surprised I haven't snapped a CV yet.

Are you on the 190s or 210s?

 

[flip]

Looking at some of the failed axle pics on the forum there seems to be a lot that have the splines peeled off. This could indicate a poor heat treat or out of spec (loose) stub to socket interference. The other possible cause of failure is when a puck lift was done, the CV joint pulled apart and didn't either get reclocked correctly or when reinstalled, the c-clip on the splined stub didn't seat back into the socket groove and the thing just beat itself to death.

Hard to do postmortems on these by pics but there's several ways they could go south some that are probably warrantable, some not.

 

[Tech Tim]

Are you on the 190s or 210s?

Base model, non-Squatch, only got the M190.

Will be stepping to the M210 once Dana releases their Front Drive Assemblies.

 

[ohp138]

So, based on the commentary of this thread and assuming "any" lift compromises the axle of the Base, Big Bend, Black Diamond, and Outer Banks (all non-squatch), then someone please explain the Ford Performance lift for me. Why would Ford engineer a lift specifically for the those models if they know it will compromise the CV/Axles of those particular models.

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