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MG MGA - Rear Axle Welding

Does anybody know what kind of failure would require a rear axle to be welded on the center section "pumpkin" about 4" above the fill hole straight down to about 1/2" above the fill hole? I've got 2 MGA axles with this kind of repair and they came from different parts of the country.
Ricky
RAM May

Wish I had a photo, but I suspect from your description that both had spider gear shafts come loose and contact the rear of the housing. The original gear carrier was probably destroyed as well, but the housings were saved by welding up the tear. What usually happened was that the spider gears would sieze on the shaft and the shaft would twist through the retaining pin and come loose in the housing.
Bill Young

Here's a picture of the axle, the weld was covered by epoxy I guess to mask it and or to keep it from leaking. Looks like a bubble gum weld job. The funny thing is when I looked at a spare I had it has just about the same kind of patch on it although much better quality of weld. I'm just lucky enough to have 2 semi patched axles and it made me ask the question if it's a common thing or not?
Ricky

RAM May

I am wondering if this is simply a matter of rusting through. I have repaired an axle that has suffered from rusting through on the tin plate around the diff. I did not weld it but simply used brazing rod which worked really well.
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

As Robert said it might be from rust, but it really looks like a loose cross pin. I've seen that damage before on other housings both the Banjo style as well as the Salisbury type housing with the sheet metal rear cover like the later MGBs. It really leaves a mess. The scenario usually happens like this: going through a corner quickly, lifts the inside rear wheel and it starts to spin. The rpms go up, of course all this motion going through the differential gears and they seize on the cross pin twisting it and shearing the retainer pin. Of course the diff housing is turning about 2000 rpm and the pin is slung out by centrifugal force into the ring gear which carries it around to the housing. The thinner rear section is cracked or gouged, the front casting is usually cracked or shattered as well as the diff carrier assembly. Not a pretty sight.
Bill Young

Well I think Bill hit it, upon closer inspection the cross pin was welded in place like he didn't want that to ever happen again. The fix we're using is to cut the rear round section out of a donor housing and weld it in this one. If you are wondering why not just use the donor housing it's because of it being a Deluxe with dunlop knockoffs hence different width axle housing. Just one more little difference in Twin Cams and Deluxes vs other MGAs.
R May

Ricky
WW rear axle housings were always shorter than those for disc wheels. Are you saying that "Dunlop" knockoff equipped axles are a different width (length) than "reqular" knockoff rear axles (making 3 different sizes)?
Thanks,
GTF
G T Foster

Twin Can and "Deluxe" rear axle housing is nearly identical to the standard wire wheel housing, except the end plates have a little different rotational angle for mounting the Dunlop calipers. They could be interchanged in a pinch.
Barney Gaylord

I guess I've found the one thing I didn't know:-) Thanks for the replies I'll need to do further investigation. Barney how much work is required to make the mounting plate change, is it a bolt or weld job?
Ricky
R May

This thread was discussed between 06/01/2009 and 08/01/2009

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