AE86 stub axle weakness

[Rex_Kelway]

Rex's rehashing this post from a members ride thread fore it may be of some technical benefit as evidence.

Its been posted many that AE86 stub axles are weak and should be upgraded at a whim.

But...

Rex buys not this AE86 stub weakness.

He's never heard from an actual owner or seen a bent AE86 stub with His own two eyes. Heard plenty of fifth-hand stories about some blokes, mates, dog who heard something about a maybe bent stub axle but they're all un-confirmable stories without evidence.

Rex hit an abrupt 140kph jump at a Rally-sprint with a rooted damper. Car landed, damper offered no resistance, slammed onto the bump stops and went solid. Strut itself bent in compression near the root and stub axle is still straight as a die. the car uses Rex's Nissan brake kit and an approximate 0mm total wheel offset.

Attached is a pic from the above incident, notice in the image the strut to the right has bowed at the tube, not the stub axle..



Sure, other cars have larger stronger axles. But there is nothing weak about the AE86 ones.

[thechuckster]

have heard of people putting a spacer inside the hub between the inner & outer bearings so that when they fail, the hub doesn't flop around wildly.


btw: congrats to Rex for munting the strut. outstanding effort. Did he per chance get video of said landing? Interesting method of gaining camber.

[WDE_BDY]

That is a pretty good effort on mobile wheel alignment.
Personally I went larger on my KE70 (was running the later struts with same stub as AE86, earlier is supposed to be smaller) to add a safety margin especially with the bigger motor in mine. I would also suggest the type of impact experienced was always going to bend the strut tube first, different impacts (clipping a kerb for example) are going to affect the stub differently. What really intrigues me is how well the aftermarket stuff coming out now for the AE86 will hold up, how strong are the stubs on an HSD kit?


Callum

[takai]

I hit a ripple strip at Wakefield park, and bent the nose of the stub axle, right where it tapers down to 19mm.

Billzilla has a couple of struts kicking around with similar damage, and ive seen a few more from far less.
I think its not so much big hits which will bend the base as you have done, but rather repeated medium size hits (like ripple strips/kerbs) with a lateral component of motion away from the bigger inner bearing which loads up the outer bearing and then bends the stub there.

[ae86trueno]

I bent one back in 03 when i slid into a bank, just bent the nose like Takai,
But it also moved the entire cross member and bent the chassis rails,

After 8 years of Rallying with the same set of strut bottoms, i never had a problem since.

Ben.

[Youngy]

you could always weld in some bracing - a gusset.

something like this - http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241502375.jpg

[takai]

Gussetting will help with Kelways problem, not with bending the snout of the stub axle

[oldcorollas]

Chris and Ben, did the stub bend upwards or downwards at the end?

makes sense that it can bend in both locations.
vertical hit has shorter moment arm aroudn the stub, and sliding sideways into something has larger moment arm...

[ae86trueno]

Mine bent upward,

I also had my strut tubes gussetted, but i was also using larger Commodore strut tubes to fit bigger inserts.

Ben.

[takai]

Yeah, mine bent upwards too. Wish i had kept it for times like this.