1955 Morris Minor Traveller - Broken Axle Shaft?

[@TomRymes]

UPDATE: we pulled both half-shafts and found them to be completely intact. We then pulled the diff out of the axle and it was spectacularly broken with damage to every single component. My working theory is that it may have been run dry at some point, and the bearing gave out, causing a piece of metal to bind in the crown and pinion.

[@cedriclynch]

It is very easy to remove the drive shafts after you remove the rear wheels. If one is broken you will probably have to remove the differential from the axle in order to get the broken piece out of the spline in the differential sun wheel. This is also quite an easy job: half shafts out, drain axle oil, disconnect propshaft from rear flange, undo the bolts that hold the final drive and differential in the axle casing, and pull the assembly out.

[@TomRymes]

Thanks for the detail. That’s what we expected to do, but it turns out that we exploded the diff in a spectacular manner. Must have been the impressive brawn of the 803cc engine.

[@bigboy9693]

You aways need to carry two things when you drive a classic English cat, 2 carrots and a wire coat hanger, you can whittle new axles out of the carrots and in an emergency, you can make a new crankshaft out of the wire coast hanger.