Brody
April 17th, 2010, 07:46 AM
Many of the people here on this forum are running Longfield axles in either their Jeeps or their Toyotas. Many of them have posted that they have sold, given away or stopped carrying their stock axles for emergency spares due to the legendary strength and reliabilty of the Longfiled axles because 'they never break'. Well, don't toss your old axles away just yet...or sell them...or even stop carrying them as spares.
I have been running the same set of Longfield axles front and rear in my heap for the last 6 years. They have seen a lot of hard trails, easy trails, and highway use. Both front and rear axles on my heap are locked up, I have big tires, and actually use and drive my truck. It is by no means a trailer queen. I also due periodic maintenance on it, including diff fluid changes, re packing wheel bearings, replacing seals, etc, etc. In fact I probably do a front end R&R about twice a year, no matter the mileage. I had just recently gone through the front end, replacing the front axle seals with Marlin's double seals, repacking the the Birfields, repacking the wheel bearings, and repacking the knuckles. This was about 6 weeks ago.
The other day, I took my neighbor for a little jaunt on the dirt piles by my house where they are doing some building. As I was backing down from one of them, I noticed a clicking sound coming from the driver's side axle. There was also a little resistance when I turned to that side. The resistance bothered me more than the clicking as I figured that maybe I hadn't put enough grease in the knuckle or Birfield...and isn't really unusual as anyone who has Birfields know...
So when work got shut down yesterday, I decided that I would simply yank the front apart and re grease and repack everything: Birfields, knuckles, wheel bearings, knuckle bearings, etc. When I was doing this, I would also upgrade my hub studs to a 12.9 metric, replacing the factory ones I seem to blow apart on a semi regular basis. When I took apart the driver's side, the outer end of the Birfield simply fell out. I pulled the inner axle out and proceeded to scoop out handfuls of grease filled with broken Birfield parts and pieces. The end of the inner axle was also a mess as the splines were now garbage.
I dug out the spare from where it had been living all these years in my truck, unwrapped it from the oil soaked towel and plastic I had it stored in, cleaned off the oil, repacked the long side, and reinstalled it. When I was doing this, I decided that I had better check out the passenger side, too. Why? Common sense...Well, the passenger side was also having some issues, but I haven't found out what they are yet as I haven't cleaned it off enough to see it well. All I can say is that it seems to have a very limited and stiff movement where it should be freely rotating. Anyway...it, too, was jacked, but the inner axle was fine. I then did the same thing as I had done to the driver's side: cleaning it off, repacking the Birfield, wheel and knuckle bearings, and knuckles.
Next was a call to Bobby Longfield as these were lifetime replacement axles. When the phone was answered and I explained what had happened, I asked what I needed to do. Without one question being asked about how I managed to break my axles, what size tires I was running, or any of the numerous other garbage other manufacturer's asked when you are trying to warranty something and they are trying to skate on it, they simply said to package them up, send a check for $25 to cover shipping and handling, and that they would send my new axles as soon as they received my damaged ones.
That, my friends, is customer service! I knew that Bobby Longfield had a super reputation and had only briefly dealt with them on another customer's axle warranty, but this was my first experience of trying to warranty my own junk.
Bobby Longfield's customer service should stand as a 'must read' for manufacturer's. Whose axles am I going to recommend the next time someone asks? You got it....Longfields.
All the same, especially for those of you who think that any single part on your rig is unbreakable, including axles, you may want to take a moment to think again. Anything can and will break given the right set of circumstances, including the Longfields.
Carnage pictures to follow on this thread when I clean all the grease off prior to shipping them out.
I have been running the same set of Longfield axles front and rear in my heap for the last 6 years. They have seen a lot of hard trails, easy trails, and highway use. Both front and rear axles on my heap are locked up, I have big tires, and actually use and drive my truck. It is by no means a trailer queen. I also due periodic maintenance on it, including diff fluid changes, re packing wheel bearings, replacing seals, etc, etc. In fact I probably do a front end R&R about twice a year, no matter the mileage. I had just recently gone through the front end, replacing the front axle seals with Marlin's double seals, repacking the the Birfields, repacking the wheel bearings, and repacking the knuckles. This was about 6 weeks ago.
The other day, I took my neighbor for a little jaunt on the dirt piles by my house where they are doing some building. As I was backing down from one of them, I noticed a clicking sound coming from the driver's side axle. There was also a little resistance when I turned to that side. The resistance bothered me more than the clicking as I figured that maybe I hadn't put enough grease in the knuckle or Birfield...and isn't really unusual as anyone who has Birfields know...
So when work got shut down yesterday, I decided that I would simply yank the front apart and re grease and repack everything: Birfields, knuckles, wheel bearings, knuckle bearings, etc. When I was doing this, I would also upgrade my hub studs to a 12.9 metric, replacing the factory ones I seem to blow apart on a semi regular basis. When I took apart the driver's side, the outer end of the Birfield simply fell out. I pulled the inner axle out and proceeded to scoop out handfuls of grease filled with broken Birfield parts and pieces. The end of the inner axle was also a mess as the splines were now garbage.
I dug out the spare from where it had been living all these years in my truck, unwrapped it from the oil soaked towel and plastic I had it stored in, cleaned off the oil, repacked the long side, and reinstalled it. When I was doing this, I decided that I had better check out the passenger side, too. Why? Common sense...Well, the passenger side was also having some issues, but I haven't found out what they are yet as I haven't cleaned it off enough to see it well. All I can say is that it seems to have a very limited and stiff movement where it should be freely rotating. Anyway...it, too, was jacked, but the inner axle was fine. I then did the same thing as I had done to the driver's side: cleaning it off, repacking the Birfield, wheel and knuckle bearings, and knuckles.
Next was a call to Bobby Longfield as these were lifetime replacement axles. When the phone was answered and I explained what had happened, I asked what I needed to do. Without one question being asked about how I managed to break my axles, what size tires I was running, or any of the numerous other garbage other manufacturer's asked when you are trying to warranty something and they are trying to skate on it, they simply said to package them up, send a check for $25 to cover shipping and handling, and that they would send my new axles as soon as they received my damaged ones.
That, my friends, is customer service! I knew that Bobby Longfield had a super reputation and had only briefly dealt with them on another customer's axle warranty, but this was my first experience of trying to warranty my own junk.
Bobby Longfield's customer service should stand as a 'must read' for manufacturer's. Whose axles am I going to recommend the next time someone asks? You got it....Longfields.
All the same, especially for those of you who think that any single part on your rig is unbreakable, including axles, you may want to take a moment to think again. Anything can and will break given the right set of circumstances, including the Longfields.
Carnage pictures to follow on this thread when I clean all the grease off prior to shipping them out.