Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Metallurgists, I need your advice.....

Is it possible to build up the diameter of an axle shaft with weld, then machine and have new splines cut and shaft re-hardened?

Will the shaft stay straight?
What will happen to the strength of the shaft?
What welding process/filler would be best?

I want the splined section of an axle to extend further along the shaft, and the stock shaft is necked down after the splines. I have no idea what the shaft material is.

Any advice? (other than don't be a tight arse and get a new shaft made....)

Cheers
Daryl

i would say your best bet would be tungstion(sp)


if you had it built up 2 mm more than needed have your splines cut then machine it down


if you are only extending the splines further on the shaft i cant realy see to much problem with breakage if you get a good weld...make sure you use oxy so you get good penetration tho

That was enlightening WTF

hey you asked

you will need lots of heat tho...

forget about it wont work, will you wont be able to machine it succesfully,just remember an axle will twist up to 3 times before it decides to break so this is goin to reduce its life rather quickly, weld doesnt give and wont heat treat.

Bazooked is right I fear
Mad, tungsten is a metal usually used as an alloy in cutting tools, and is extremely hard and extremely brittle?? and therefore unmachinable by joe average machine shop?? And oxy welding, though cheap and simple, is not a suitable way to join steel with steel in a structural situation. Mig,Tig, inner shield, and even stick at least use either shielding gases or fluxes to prevent excessive oxidisation.
Bottom line though, forget it unless maybe you go to a performance place that does diffs and ask them

Zenith Engineering in Milton Brisbane does this give them a call,
they priced re-splining 10 spline axles with a stronger alloy and cutting new splines to fit a hilux center IIRC.

Tom

Just go and get complete new axles made.

dave wrote:Just go and get complete new axles made.

As Dave said it ended up being more cost effective than the re-spline that I had the quote on.

Tom

Even if you could weld them up and get someone to respline (very doubtful on both) thay will not heat treat unless metal is same as axles.
Axles are made from many different materials.
Heat treating even if possible for a one off will probably warp the exle and not be easy to straighten

Bazzle

There are engineering shops that build up shafts, keyways etc such as Avweld in melbourne, its a costly thing to do tho, different metal/heat treating etc.
You could ring around and get a price from them, but might work out cheaper to get a new axle.
And I struggle to believe that a built up and resplined shaft could be as strong as one made from a new billet.

Can be done no worries just mega $$.

plenty of special allloy electrodes that can do this. but I belive it will be far more expensive than new axle.

MIchael.

Yes it can be done, as others have said. But it is usually only economical as a method of spline repair, not to substantially increase diameter of a shaft and then re-spline. And almost always a part made/repaired in this manner will be weaker than one made from one-piece.

Zenith engineering do a lot of this work, including for LR fairey overdrives where the teeth have stripped off the input gear. For this application they respline with a better (coarser) spline than factory, and for this application the respline lasts longer than the genuiine item. I recall they charged about $500 to do this respline (but that was a while ago).

Looks like Tasweld in towoomba do this sort of work as well.

http://www.tasweld.com.au/shafts.php3

I agree with Ben, that strength will be reduced.

Thanks guys.

Spoke to Zenith. $66/hr, estimated 7+ hours total to weld and respline. So minimum $500. Sounds like they have the process sorted, but predictably wouldn't make any guarentees as to outcome.

Lookng into having a new one made out of hytuff.

Cheers
Daryl

dead right bush and isuzu, its a fact with any type of welding repair that even when the actual repair can be made stronger than original, it focuses the weak point where the original and repair meet.
Imagine for example an axle, that will, under strong torque twist a little bit too reduce shock loads over its length. When it is repaired and stronger (same goes with bending/flexing items) the weaker section takes all the shock and inevitably against or very close to the repair

Do any of U blokes really know wat u r talking about ?

Col James wrote:Do any of U blokes really know wat u r talking about ?

If you have something productive to share, spit it out.
Baiting is best left to the kids in the playground.

Cheers
Daryl

derangedrover wrote:

Col James wrote:Do any of U blokes really know wat u r talking about ?

If you have something productive to share, spit it out.
Baiting is best left to the kids in the playground.

Cheers
Daryl

I like these blokes... They have nothing under their profile.
Just a Kid playing around. Prob drives a peddle car.

Bazzle

When I was building my portals, as a tempory measure to make an inner long front axle shaft I welded a piece of Toyota 30 spline shaft to a piece of RangeRover 23 spline shaft,(preheated with oxy, stainless electrode). and it has held up extremely well to this day, although I have had two new shafts made I wont replace the welded one until / unless it breaks. On the other hand I have seen a few new induction hardened shafts that have been lightly scratched by lathe tools prematurely break clean through the scratch marks as if they were cut with a hacksaw, so who knows what will and will not work ? I don't.
Bill.