I pulled mine apart last week as part of my campaign to disassemble
everything I have into the greatest number of pieces just before racing
starts again. They looked perfect. I zyglo'ed the base of the splines and
the stress riser near the hub--nothing.
Actually, I've been seduced by evil influences to stick a Trans-x diff
into Peyote. I'm putting the quaife into the cheater and the locker next
to the welded diff I have in my spares. I'm also going to instrument the
cover with a temperature gauge and a telltale. I doubt I'll remember to
look at it while I'm driving--I have a tough enough time with the gauges
I've got.
-----Original Message-----
From: jaboruch [mailto:jaboruch@adelphia.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 8:38 PM
To: Friends of Triumph
Subject: Southwick Axle Failure
Friends, I took my rear axle out to do some maintenance and found the left
axle shaft twisted at the splines. While I have had this happen with the
stock axles, I had hoped that these new axles would have solved that. You
may want to take yours apart and check them out this winter. I plan on
calling Southwick and Moser Engineering (who I believe made the axle
shafts) to see if there is anything that they can do to prevent this from
happening again - perhaps a better steel alloy or heat treating?. Maybe
it is the wider and stickier tires (Hoosier R3S03, 225-45-15's) that I use
in the SCCA that has contributed to this, but it is still a problem for
me. Also to complicate the issue, this is the side that I got hit on last
year. I got hit in the left tire and it was enough to tear the axle
housing off of the frame where the 4-link attaches, but it was not enough
to damage the wheel. I think that I pulled the axle shaft to inspect it,
but I did not keep a record of it (not very good at recordkeeping anyway),
so now I am not 100% sure. Additionally, I use a Detroit Locker so things
are locked up in the corners. The locker is, however, not harsh and does
not bang in and out.
I will keep you posted if I figure anything out. Joe(B)
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