Rear axle and wheel lost on highway today

[surfnuke9]

Driving home, noticed some noise, thought it was rough road.
Suddenly, the engine revved and no power.
Pulling to side of the road wgen the drivers rear axle, brake drum and wheel came off and went rolling down the road, bounced off a guardrail and ended up ib the woods about 300 yards away.

Now to figure out what to do to fix it.

Truck is sitting on jack stands in the driveway.

It is a 5500 lb capacity Dana 60.

FSM isnt much help here. There is what looks like a hub or spindle attached to the axle tube that has a threaded end. That doesnt appear damaged which strikes me as odd.

Any pointers on where I can find better tech info/pictures of this axle?

[nfury8]

Wow that must have been one heck of a ride!!

I believe the drum is held on to the axle with the nut on the axle.
Unfortunately I can't find any decent pictures.

I did find this diagram from the parts book, but it doesn't show the drum.

[surfnuke9]

yeah, it was. brakes dont work too well when one of the drums is not there anymore.

That is the problem I am running into. nothing really shows the drum or wheel hub.

will post pics later today.

[backwoods]

WOW. Good thing you or no one else was hurt in the incident....

[Russ]

The pic above should give you a good idea of what you need to do. If the threads on the end of the axle don't appear to have been damaged I'd say you are lucky. I hope the brake backing plate didn't hit and become damaged. It isn't a big job at all to replace the drum and hub. Apparently the lock for the axle nuts failed and the nuts just screwed themselves off. You are probably more lucky in that the nuts, locks, and bearings are likely still in the hub. You will need to remove the axle from the hub to find that out, but I don't believe that they can fall out if the inner seal is still there. Usually you will blow out the wheel cylinder if you apply the brakes with the drum removed so repairing the brake might be your biggest job.
You won't find much detailed info on removing/replacing the rear hub. I have a 69 FSM, a Motors Truck Repair manual, and a 73-75 Dodge motor home chassis FSM, and there's no detailed pic or information about the hub in any of them. The only instructions are to replace the hub, tighten the inner bearing until there is slight drag, and back off 1/6th of a turn. Then replace the lock and tighten the outer nut, being careful not to turn the inner nut when tightening the outer nut.
I think I would also pull the right rear hub and check the nut lock on that side as a safety precaution. There's two styles (maybe more) of locks and I've found that some people don't exactly understand how the pin style lock works.
If you have any more questions when you re-assemble it post them but definitely be sure you have the locks for the nuts installed properly to avoid a replay of this situation.
I'm glad no on-coming cars hit the wheel as it was flying along. That definitely would have made it worse.

[wally426ci]

WOW!

Glad you are ok!!

[FredM]

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... 9078nnBdZY

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/alb ... D?start=24

some reading for you

[surfnuke9]

russ,

all attaching hardware was inside the hub.

washers failed as you suspected.

the threaded end of the axle tube is shaped like an egg now. threads are good.

axle splines are trashed though. I plan on going through the whole thing or getting a replacement rear.

thanks for the links Fred. A great help.

[surfnuke9]

Where I managed to stop.

Axle got a bit hot....

Bearing looks like it spun a bit..

The cause....the inner tab failed and the nuts spun off just like Russ guessed. Its kind of hard to see, but this washer is not round. Just like the threaded end of the axle tube.

[elacruze]

Here's a link to read or download the Spicer Dana 60 axle maintenance manual. Should have everything you need, specs, parts, and different styles of locks etc.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9572189/dana- ... -rear-axle

[surfnuke9]

Talk about being slow..... BART has been out of commission since April.

I got a matching set of from a 1993 W350, Dana 70 rear with 12X3" brakes, Dana 60 front with 3.54 gears for a total of $1175 shipped from Maine (I thought that was a pretty great price).

Dana 70 is in the truck, took a couple of leafs out of my 9 leaf rear pack also.

Dana 60 is FINALLY rebuilt and ready to go in.

The only things not replaced on the 60 were the inner axle seals and carrier bearings. Holy smokes those rotors are big. 13"

Rotor. Notice my favorite tool.....

[Hewy]

I missed reading this back in April. Never a good thing when incidents happen away from home base.
Reminds me of a Kenny Rogers song, " You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel "

[wally426ci]

Glad you are making progress!!!