[gsferrari]

I suspect two incidents led to this. At Alibaug I took a pretty massive amount of air. The landing was heavy and I was pretty sure something had changed because not 2 days later my fan belt got cut and my ac belt was pretty chewed up. The engine had moved on it's mounts. I had immediately called Arka and he told me that if the impact was that heavy then there was a very good chance the axle might have taken a beating and could become bent. I didn't notice any change in the handling so I let it go.

The second massive jump was at Mahape and this was a biggie and I could FEEL the impact of the landing. Even before going into Mahape it looked like the camber was off big-time and even my tire-walla had commented about it when he installed the Trepadors. After the leap at Mahape it became obvious that there was damage and I knew in my heart that it was more than just the broken kingpins.

Sadly this was confirmed to me today...anyway what I have in mind is to bend the axle back and set the alignment by laser, get a rear carrier with the lockright lockers and install it up front as well. Fit FWH and I should have locked diffs in the front and rear. What else can I do with a bent banjo?

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

anyway what I have in mind is to bend the axle back

GS, how will you do this, I mean how do you plan to get this done?

Spike

[gsferrari]

Spike - I plan to take it to a lathe and see how far out of whack it actually is. They will then apply heat and bend it back to it's original position. If it cannot be salvaged then no big deal...the part is quite cheap and I will just buy another one with a rear carrier and do the mod I have in mind anyway

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Oh OK, ^^ that will be interesting!

Spike

[livyodream]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Golly! Went and checked my Gypsy out today and the axle housing is bent like a banana! Getting the whole assembly replaced. Also getting the steering wheel from a K10 alto fitted...MUCH better than the stock Gypsy wheel.

Do you mean the below piece is bent? and is the bend visible ?



BTW, this is the gypsy's front axle, and it was bent and straightened it later ..

[gsferrari]

Hi Akaash - yes that is the piece that was bent. The one in your picture also looks a bit bent. Was this before or after it was straightened?

How did you get it straightened? Any process?

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

@livyodream, the above pic is of a bent or straight axle assembly? It looks bent in the pic.

Spike

[headers]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

anyway what I have in mind is to bend the axle back and set the alignment by laser, get a rear carrier with the lockright lockers and install it up front as well. Fit FWH and I should have locked diffs in the front and rear. What else can I do with a bent banjo?

How will locked diff front and rear help you, if your axle is bent GS? Also it would be interesting to see how the bent axle is set right.

[gsferrari]

Vikram - the mod will be AFTER I straighten it...or buy another banjo and rear carrier just for kicks. I want to try out the vehicle after getting diff-locks front and rear to see what kind of difference it makes. Unfortunately LSD is out of stock.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

...So essentially my worst fears have come true and I am essentially replacing an entire axle housing! I expected it was bent because of the weird camber measurements I was getting when I tried to get the Trepadors aligned. Camber was inequal on L and R side and the technician said that something was out of whack as the camber was significantly higher than normal for a Gypsy.
...

This is one area where IFS trumps the solid axles. If the solid axle housing bends, it is almost impossible to repair that. Good that you are getting everything replaced and have decided not to get airborne again.

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

This is one area where IFS trumps the solid axles. If the solid axle housing bends, it is almost impossible to repair that. Good that you are getting everything replaced and have decided not to get air borne again.

The not-getting airborne part will require a completely different approach to offroading. I really need to work on this moving forward because it involves divorcing my "Gorilla behind the wheel" technique

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

The not-getting airborne part will require a completely different approach to offroading. I really need to work on this moving forward because it involves divorcing my "Gorilla behind the wheel" technique

The way you are prepping up your Gypsy, you should get the divorce much sooner. In the jump at Mahape, you did land very heavily on your left wheel. That was looking quite bad in the video too. Did you land one one wheel during the earlier jump also? Had you landed on both the wheels, the two sets of leaf springs may have absorbed the hit much better. The good thing is that we are also learning at your expense.

The lesson learnt is that jumping looks very cool and is a nice subject for great action photography but not so great for the vehicle involved. I remember someone saying that the old ad showing the Tata Safari jumping crumpled up one or two sets of suspension kits.

[livyodream]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Hi Akaash - yes that is the piece that was bent. The one in your picture also looks a bit bent. Was this before or after it was straightened?

How did you get it straightened? Any process?

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

@livyodream, the above pic is of a bent or straight axle assembly? It looks bent in the pic.

Spike

This was the pic of my gypsys axle after TPC '10. And ya this pic is of bent axle. It was straightened by the garage guys (got it done from somewhere), not sure how. I had no problem and have jumped enough (lack of experience) in 3 OTR's without service .

[siddartha]

Diff tubes getting bent on the gypsy is quite a common thing esp in the rally gypsies... guess a couple of really hard landings is enough to get it bent.

@livyodream - as far as i can remember, i didnt have any hard landings at TPC10 with you vehicle, the front LH shock absober was very weak, the leaf springs also needed to be recambered. The whole front LH side suspension was almost fully "SITTING", front approach angle also reduced. i was not getting any action/travel and it was bottoming out i.e hitting the bump stops even for the smallest undulations. so in your case the reason for the bent diff tube is not the hard landings but a case of front suspension setup not being ok.

[livyodream]

Originally Posted by siddartha

so in your case the reason for the bent diff tube is not the hard landings but a case of front suspension setup not being ok.

Oh ya, When i saw the gypsy after TPC, my accents suspension travel was far more compared to gypsy .

BTW Siddu, I was telling these guys that straightening of axles in gypsy are possible and reliable too. I had two hard landings in annual OTR this time, and I did not have any issue with reliability. And ya this was the 3rd OTR after tube straightening.

Swastik viji would know how this is done as he was the one who helped me last time..