broke axle housing

[4h20]

anyone ever seen this before? broke axle housing on drivers side, dana 50 ttb

[Jeff was here]

Yeah I've seen it before.

[jetjock15]

ive broken my axle stubs, never seen the housing broke:

[Jeff was here]

Yeah there is a huge amount of pressure building up when the housing breaks. Where did u break it/ doing what?

[4h20]

ive broken my axle stub as well. for what its worth i wasnt jumping it- i am building a cabin up a steep dirty bumpy road and had alot of really heavy loads. i dont understand how the housing actually broke. i assume it had started with a small crack that i didnt even know about until this point its so bad the ujoint hits the housing when in 4x.

i have yet to talk to anyone where this has happened

[Gearhead2012]

Ive seen the tug o war guys spin the center section up, it breaks the plug welds loose...all the factory rubber bushings allow for a lot of give, a heim joint 4 link doesnt give at all. Youre probably right, likely started as a stress fracture possibly from bad wheel bearing vibrations or something...just a guess.

[4h20]

also found the cross member that holds the suspension up is cracked halfway through. i welded ip up best i could hope it holds. has so far....

[schlutzer]

A friend of mine with a '95 single cab had this happen just like yours.

His happened when he was towing on a back road that you aren't getting down in any stock truck ( its a private road). So I would assume similar stresses put on the vehicle as yours. He said his failed when the passenger side tire jammed up in a rut, then somehow broke the drivers side housing. He's not gentle with his truck though.

He also found a cracked/rotted crossmember for the TTB, maybe adding to the stress?

His fix was homemade crossmember to stiffen the front frame, and D60 swap.