Nothin like a busted axle to ruin your day.

[Chris142]

My boss sold his 1995 Blazer to a kid that lives down the street from me. An hr ago I get a call from her, crying, screaming etc.

She said the wheel fell off!

I just did brakes on it and I know that I hand torqued the wheels to 90ft lbs so I didn't understand how a wheel would fall off.

Turns out that she was out off roading the thing and broke an axle.

The bad news is that I had to use 4x4 in my Jeep just to go see what really was going on. Theres no way to trailer it or pull it out where it's sitting.

Her dad will be back in town tomorrow hehe.

Somebody is going to have to find another axle shaft, pull the diff cover, the bolt, the pin, push the broken axle out out, install the new one and get it drivable enough to get it out of the canyon.

Then deal with the destroyed brake shoes and brake springs that I just installed last Friday.

Cell phone pics in the dark.

 

[hate2work]

Chris, I hope you don't get blamed for this. Good luck~

 

[tinmanSC]

wow, that's pretty impressive. I assume she thought that you screwed it up? haha.

 

[Tahoe4Life]

The stupid kid needs to learn the bus schedule and not own any more cars/trucks for a few years if that is how she is going to treat a 95 Blazer. If it was my kid she would be walking home from wherever she is at.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Chris, I hope you don't get blamed for this. Good luck~
She knows what happened I'm sure that it made a terribly loud "CRAAAAAAACKKKKKk!" when it broke.

She was off roading the truck and it's just not designed for rocky hill climbing. It's designed for a snowy or sandy road.

I broke alot of car parts when I was 17 myself. Thats how I learned how to fix things.

Shes had the truck 9 days

 

[mrsilv04]

Ouch.

My Aunt used to drive a mass transit bus. She was driving her route when her bus broke its rear axle, and did the same exact thing. On the one side, she could see both duals in her rear view mirror.

She radioed in to the bus garage, stating that she was going to need someone to bring her out a different bus, and that they'd need to dispatch a tow truck for the bus with the broken axle.

So she waited, and what did they send?

They sent one guy out in a pickup truck, with no tools, to see what was wrong with her bus. Of course, it had a broken axle, but they were skeptical that she actually knew what the problem really was.

It goes without saying, that she was furious...

 

[paulo57509]

Probably broke at the "C" clip groove on the end of the axle.

 

[mechtech2]

The brakes may be salvageable.

 

[oilboy123]

Abuse of an axle is a terrible thing...... She does know things will break if abused? Or at least she does now.

 

[unixguru]

This is what you get for trying to push 15-16 year old car to it's limits. Kind of unreasonable to do off-roading in that thing unless you really have to or you know that the truck is in a perfect condition to handle it.

 

[severach]

You are all lucky that the wheels with axles stay on when the axle breaks. I was working under the engine of a RWD 2002 Suburban and happened to notice that on one front wheel the balls of the wheel bearing were exposed. I don't have the tools for that so off we go 55 miles to the mechanic. The 2WD front hub is designed to be similar to the 4WD front hub. Instead of a through axle there's just a mushroom shaped stub stuck into the bearing. When the bearing goes...

At 48 miles the balls couldn't take any more and scattered on the pavement so I slowed down. Within a short time the mushroom stub and inner race no longer constrained by the balls worked its way out and the wheel flew off along with the rotor, caliper, and whatever else it could drag along. Instant faceplant!

Boing, boing, boing!

 

[Rick in PA]

And the good news is... nobody got hurt!

 

[meep]

at least you knew what the risks were.... you knew the vehicle, you knew what was approaching. glad nobody got hurt.

unusual for a young lady to take a 4x4 out into the woods.... it can be a very expensive hobby...

M

 

[eljefino]

I like how he's tailgating that beemer with what are surely terrible brakes.

 

[bigmike]

Chris,

Are you sure the only thing that was going on was off-roading?

 

[KrisZ]

Give the kid a break, it's not like she busted her daddy's vette or something, it's a 95 Blazer for crying out loud. I hope she gets some sort of punishment, like riding a bus for now, but who hasn't done something stupid when they were a teenager?

 

[Vikas]

OK, exactly how does one break an axle by "abusing" it? I don't get it. The picture shows that the truck is on level surface. What kind of stress could be on that axle to cause it to break? She will have to hang the entire weight of truck by that axle and bang it. How would she do that?

Same thing with the guy following the beemer. What do you think he did to cause it?

Sometimes just happens.

- Vikas

 

[PF52]

Originally Posted By: bigmike

Are you sure the only thing that was going on was off-roading?


Its assumed she was on her cell phone at the time.

 

[GMBoy]

I wonder if she had the truck overloaded with a ton of friends in it?? Going to fast, hit the right dip or rock and bam!

 

[Nick R]

The rear axle in the blazer/jimmy just as weak as the infamous Dana 35?