Broken steering shaft

[claires]

Today Daisy has broken the main shaft in her steering box. Is this a common fault?

Luckily I was just on a very quiet part as I lost all steering immediately which could have been quite scary if had been on a major road. Had just picked up some horse bedding from the feed shop, as I turned round and pulled off I noticed a clonky noise, thought that it didnt sound a good noise and would need checking but then when I carried on and got to the end then I felt the steering go light. At that point I lost all steering.

claire:-}

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Input or output shaft? Don't think I've heard of that happening before unless the shaft has been twisted in an accident.

 

[claires]

Input or output shaft? Don't think I've heard of that happening before unless the shaft has been twisted in an accident.

Output shaft :-}

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Is the truck or steering box new to you? Thinking about it a bit more I'm not sure I've heard of an actual failure before, only fears of failure after accident damage twisted the shaft. Maybe someone else on here has heard of a failure but definitely not a common problem and we've given them some serious abuse!

 

[claires]

No, not new (had her since Dec 07) and nothing that I can think of that would have made it fail. Very strange indeed as she isnt really used off road either - certainly nothing like the off roading we used to do in the landrover. I do park her on the front garden so up and down the kerb daily and she does the odd bit of work at the stables but nothing at all that I would call serious offroading so its very strange.

 

[ram]

could have been in frontal impact before you bought it and the shaft just got straightened out without checking for cracks,

i had a van years ago that had been in a accident before i bought it,(32 years ago so no means of checking) Exactly the same thing happened going around a corner at 10-15 mph(lucky really,day before i was on M1 doing 70-80 MPH,hate to think what would have happened if it gone then.) Any when i checked the shaft was only hanging on by a tread

so you never no, could be blessing in disguise

 

[claires]

yep, very lucky it went when it did and not even 50 yards later on the main road :-}

 

[claires]

Shaft now repaired but in the process the steering wheel was turned more than 3 times round which broke a spring. The spring has been replaced but now the airbag light is on permanently which I assume means the airbags dont work.
claire:-}

 

[BobMurphy]

The spring has been replaced but now the airbag light is on permanently which I assume means the airbags dont work.
claire:-}

I don't know much about the 80-Series, but the '90s' have a "Spiral Cable Assembly" under the steering wheel that connects the horn and airbag to the wiring harness - while allowing the wheel to turn. Three turns will destroy those as well!


Does the horn work?? If it does then the spiral cable may be OK.

When I replaced mine on my '95' I had trouble getting an earth between the wheel and the steering column, I ended-up using a spare connection on the spiral cable for the earth and its been fine since.


I would remove the airbag and put it to one side, then check the wiring harness connections with a multi-meter (DON'T connect the multi-meter to the airbag - just in case!).


You may find its just a dodgy earth.

Bob.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

that spring is as Bob suggested above a spiral cable assembly. If that has been replaced and is all connected correctly then try disconnecting the batteries for 5 minutes as the ECU might be remembering there is a fault from when it was broken rather than indicating an existing fault.

 

[claires]

Thanks - we have replaced the spiral thingy but the airbag light is still on so will try disconnecting. The steering is much lighter with the new steering box as well.
claire:-}

 

[claires]

Ok, update is that the horn is fine, and disconnecting for 5 didnt reset the light. Any idea where I could take her to get the light reset as I am assuming if the light is on I have no airbags?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

try the attached

 

[claires]

Thanks for that - will have a go (well delegate it to OH) at weekend
cheers
claire:-}

 

[frank rabbets]

Out of interest do you have a picture of the broken surfaces. All metal fatigues over time. Eg all 80 shafts will break in the end even if it takes 1000 years. The problem is that a small manufacturing defect can cause relatively quick failure. X ray and other quality control will pick up faults but I think this is only used on more important bits.eg aircraft. A polished brocken surface meens it has been gradually cracking over several years. A torn/rough surface meens sudden failure as in impact where the component is subject to much more stress than designed for. Often there is a polished portion and a rough patch illustrating that metal fatigue has been occuring over a long time followed by sudden failure as the part left cannot cope any longer and breaks. A picture would be very interesting. An initial impact can cause a crack and rough surface. The part may not break initially but when it does you can clearly see 2 separate rough areas.

Frank

 

[grantw]

Good call Frank. It would be great to see pics

 

[claires]

Will do some pics but part of the surface is rusted so old and the other part is new and shiny. There was a front end impact - we were told minor and it didnt show on HPI - before we had her so possibly it cracked then or it could be a defective shaft but will get some pics to upload for you over the weekend.

 

[frank rabbets]

Pics of the cross section would be ideal. Cleaning the said area would not destroy the evidence.

Thanks Frank

 

[claires]

here are pics which show that it has been on the point of breaking for a long time - probably even before we got her, and has just finally given up the ghost.
claire:-}

 

[frank rabbets]

That's an old partial sudden break followed by a total recent failure in my opinion. Not metal fatigue. The rusty part is where the initial partial break occured and the shiny part the recent failure. Both are stress failures.

Thanks very much for the pics
Frank