Pictures of a broken cast I-beam axle

We have been talking about forged versus cast axles for years. Some of you have asked to see some proof that cast axles can break. Here it is.

A few weeks ago I polished a forged axle for the owner of a hot rod shop who is building a car for a customer. He mentioned that another customer of his had been in an accident and broke the cast front axle, and both pieces of it had been in his shop for a few years. When I told him that I wanted it, he offered to send it to me. Today he sent me another forged axle to polish as well as the broken cast axle.

I am not going to mention the name of the company that made this axle. Here's what I was told about it. This axle was on the front of a '31 Ford pickup. The pickup was being driven by its owner, who has admitted to having been drinking shortly before the accident. He pulled off of a main highway onto a dirt driveway, accelerated hard, fishtailed, and plowed into the back of a parked 18-wheeler. The left front wheel of the pickup hit one of the back wheels on the semi trailer. The driver of the pickup had cuts and bruises, and the pickup had a bent left frame rail, and a mangled grille, hood, and drivers door. The axle bent a few degrees and then snapped.

The attached pictures of the axle were taken this afternoon. Before long I will take some better shots of it and add them to my site's page about dropped and polished I-beam axles.

Dave Mann
(602) 233-8400
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Damn. Looks like more then "a few degrees" though.

 

who made that axle???

 

oh wait just saw that you were not going to name names lol

 

It broke inside the spring pearch, wonder if is still a roller with the shock, spring and wishbone/radius rods holding things together. Henry forged them for a reason.

 

Key words here......he was in an ACCIDENT. So the car was wrecked. Lots of damage can occur to a car when involved in crashes.....it didn't JUST break.

 

I met a guy at Pomona long ago who had a full fendered, chopped 30 coupe. It was painted and flamed, a finished car. One front fender had gray primer. He told me his brand name cast axle broke apart.

 

That sure does look pretty rusty for a fresh break...

 

Dave said it was broken a few years ago, pics are new. It doesn't look like it bent too far before breaking clean. I wouldn't want one on my cars.

 

Well if you're going to drive drunk and hit something hard you got trouble even if the axle doesn't break. But in any case this is why I ordered a forged dropped axle last week.....

 

Yeah, Plowing into a parked semi while drunk. Hmmm, doesn't seem to really tell us much about the quality of cast, just that he really F'd up.

 

Seen a few of them like that.

 

From the sounds of it he was drunk, drivin like a dick, hit a 18 wheeler. I wonder why it just broke. Someone ought to smack him in the head with the other side of that axel. That didn't just break

 

nobody can deny a forged one is best, but that cast axle sure must be strong between the kingpin and perch pin.

How many of you would have bet the break would have to be in between the king & perch?

 

Drunk driver crashes into a semi and totals his car, breaks parts. Gee, I don't think that's a very damming case for cast axles...

 

I've got an axle hanging on my wall that broke just like that one, except it's polished and chromed. It was on my roadster. Same type of impact(one wheel hit), and under 20 mph. It's a superbell.

 

Oh SNAP! A picture is worth a thousand words.

It's like the difference between a USA made Armstrong forged C-clamp and a junky off-shore cast iron C-clamp. One bends if you tighten it to the extreme with tons of pressure beyond what it's rated, and the other cracks into pieces.

It looks like it did take a pretty good whollop before it snapped though. I'm glad I have a forged axle though.

 

How many of you would have bet the break would have to be in between the king & perch?[/quote]

This is where it broke, as the guy told me. It was one of those axles that is a tube in the middle. This is just what the guy said, I did not see it.

 

Well, heck...it didn't bend.

This thread is punk...you make it seem like it "just broke".

Maybe you can add pics to all the bent forged axles after some drunk asshole sideswiped a semi?

 

I doesn't matter how he was driving, where he was driving or under what circumstances, the axle broke PERIOD. You can hit a big ole pot hole and create the same knd of forces suffecient to break the axle.

 

You can hit a big ole pot hole and create the same knd of forces suffecient to break the axle. (quote)

This is also what the guy told me. Said he was driving on the freeway when it broke.

 

Then there's the other side of the coin..

Say if it was forged and not casted..how much impact to the driver would it have caused? I/e no "crumple zone".

I's still run a forged axle, but this thread is just titled soooo wrong. Heck, it didn't break just driving along the road, or after hitting a pothole, etc.

The guy slammed a semi.

Hmmmn..how'ed the windsheild hold up? Did it crack or shatter? Did the guy get glass in his eyes?

 

Dave is an educated guy who is just as safety concious as he is about racing, history, and tradition...(correct me if I'm wrong Dave)...that's trying to make a point, and I think some are missing the point here.

This is just proof that in extreme circumstances a cast axle can break. Anything can happen in a race or on the street that may be out of the driver's control and can lead to any number of scenarios ending in a crash.

Use your imagination...would you want your axle breaking in two at 60mph because somebody cut you off and forced you into a roadside curb? Might be the difference between being able to drive away from something like that, and ending up on your roof.

And another big point here is that we don't know how hard you actually have to hit something for that axle to break, or be comprimised by what could appear to be harmless trauma only to break apart some time later when you go through a dip in the highway or take a turn at speed.

Why take the risk or try to make pro-cast arguments?
Seems stupid to me.

 

Nobody is saying that the axle "just broke". I made it clear that the axle broke in an accident.

What I should have made a point of mentioning is that I have seen many bent Ford I-beam axles, some of which were on vehicles that were in collisions that bent them like hockey sticks, but I have never seen or heard of any OEM axle that snapped under any circumstances.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

One post here referfed to cast as being cast-iron. That can't be right? aren't the "cast" axles really cast steel?? So, is it a matter of time before someone starts to import bogus cast-iron axles???

 

Yes.

Some of us think that all cast I-beam axles are bogus. The issue is not the specific alloy or country of origin.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Will my Magnum I - beam be okay ?? haven,t put it into service yet, bought it probably 15 years ago.

 

what companys sell forged axles

 

Superbell axles are made with 65-45-12 ductile iron (65000 psi tensile strength, 45000 psi yield, 12% elongation).

There are many different grades of ductile iron.

Explanation of ductile iron from wikipedia-
"Grey iron was the original "cast iron", and is an iron alloy characterized by its relatively high carbon content (usually 2% to 4%). When molten cast iron solidifies some of the carbon precipitates as graphite, forming tiny, irregular flakes within the crystal structure of the metal. While the graphite enhances the desirable properties of cast iron (improved casting & machining properties and better thermal conductivity), the flakes disrupt the crystal structure and provide a nucleation point for cracks, leading to cast iron's characteristic brittleness. In ductile iron the graphite is in the form of spherical nodules rather than flakes, thus inhibiting the creation of cracks and providing the enhanced ductility that gives the alloy its name. The formation of nodules is achieved by addition of "nodulizers" (for example, magnesium or cerium) into the melt. Yttrium has also been studied as a possible nodulizer."

 

Seems CE aren't making any more.