Axles twisting

[Rory McNeil]

When I pulled the axles out of my bracket car for a gear change the other day, I noticed a slight twist at the splines of both axles. These are 35 spline Strange Engineering axles, in a Dana 60 rear end.The amount of twist is fairly small, less than 1 spline, but I was wondering how much these axles can twist before breaking? I have broken several stock axles in various vehicles over the years, but I would imagine that a race axle would be more "elastic" than a factory axle. I remember reading in a magazine years ago about running an axle until they twisted 1/2 a turn, but I`ve never seen any axle go anywhere near that far without snapping first.

[Tom Goldman]

Strange race axles 33 spline and up are warrented against spline breakage for 5 years,altho not against twisting. After breaking a 7 year old axle ,and nearly taking out the Tree,I started replacing my axles every 4-5 years. .........They usually show a small amount of twist ,1/2- 1 spline after that much time. .....Strange did replace my spool that was damaged by the broken axle for free, they are warrented for life. ......I look at parts like axles ,u joints and drive shafts as consumable parts, that should not be expected to last forever. [altho I'd like them to!] and replace them every couple of years.........Tom