There are 2 things that could have happened to cause the failure of your axle cv joints.

The first one on the front, if you have a lift and turn the steering wheel so that it is at the max in either direction it causes the cv joints to bind up and break.
There are steering stops that go in to limit the amount of travel the rack and pinion steering can travel.
I have seen this happen without a lift also.
I have seen the rear axle cv joints break when the rear of the machine is high centered. This causes the suspension to drop down and the axles go into bind.

The solution to fix this is to put limit straps so that the rear suspension can not travel downward as far,

If they were stock axels, they do break easily.

 

Ok so steering stops and straps. Probably do straps on front also. Cheap way to save Axles. Going to put the outlaw axles all the way around also. If the front diff goes then the 1k one will be ordered. I hate getting towed. Lol. Thanks for the help.

 

I am not the expert in broke axle department, that is just my experiences.

I was hoping someone else would have comments.

 

When I researched broken axles the posts were which axle was stronger and bigger is not always better. Stress is transfered to next weakest point. When I researched the straps and stops the posts explained that they save CV's. You gave me the advice I needed. Much appreciated sir!!! Thank you.

 

I am going out on a limb here, but I would guess that you had stressed your axles prior to the moment that they broke. An earlier incident set the stage for them to fail when you entered that mud hole.

 

I have to agree. Both my wife's and mine broke axles (or should I say the axles let go) on flat ground. My wife's snapped a back one after playing around on the GP track at Durhamtown Plantation. The guy driving it came off the track, turned left on the access trail and pop. He had to have stressed it on the track.

Mine did a similar thing. I'd gone out and done one of my 30 mile terrorized the desert trails rides - full tilt boogie. The next morning, as I'm backing out of the garage, pop goes the axle. Obviously stressed it during my ride, not in my drive.

Funny how they decide to let go at the oddest time.

Stock axles are definitely the week link in the drive train. Sounds like front diff is the second weak link (I've not discovered this yet - let's hope I continue to not). From there the drive train's proven to be pretty bullet proof.

Look into a good set of aftermarket axles. I've been really, really happy with the Knine setup. My wife's has Summer Brothers axles with Knine sleeves, mine has Knine's 300M setup with the sleeves and my project vehicle (220 hp, XP1000 drive train) will also have Knine's 300M setup with the sleeves.

We've yet to kill a front axle - let's hope it stays that way!


Limit straps - there's really no need for them on a stock suspension component XP. The suspension works well within the design parameters of the cv joints and the suspension's not heavy enough to justify a limit strap to keep from blowing out the shock. If you're having to limit travel to keep axles alive, there's something else wrong - not sure what that would be, though.

 

After checking out his garage profile, I notice he lists a highlifter kit. So I would bet that didnt help his axles at all. But I have no experience with the highlifter stuff myself. But I know on my 800S if the arms droop 1/2-3/4" past stock then the axles start binding.

 

I can't recall seeing a broken axle shaft or plunge joint in all my years, but have seen dozens of broken CV joints. If you look at a clean, grease free CV joint, it is plain to see that there are plenty of weak links in the joint. You slam it hard under load one day, and a series of hairline fractures occur on the fingers that drive the balls. Vibration from aggressive tread tires add to the destruction process. Then they fail on flat level ground and can't figure out what went wrong. The stage was set hours ago for a failure.

 

I have snapped 3 oem rear axles, never a cv joint, always the axle shaft. I'm not fussing, would rather break an axle than a diff anyday of the week. But I also know they break because of where and how I ride. All 3 broke while in 2wd, once on a rocky hill, 2nd ride after buying my rzr used, I know exaclty what happened there, bounced up spinning then down too much traction on that side and pow. 2nd broken shaft, the axle twisted so much it was warped and actually rubbing the shock spring, made it to the trailer went to turn around to load up and it was just more than it could take, pow. 3rd axle was just a few weekends ago, I know what happened here too, 2wd tried to ease up some ruts, not being rough at all, suddenly the front passenger tire got to the end of the rut went up, at the same time the rear passenger tire lost traction, putting more weight on the rear driverside, a very loud bang this time. I actually thought I had broke the trans or something! Here is the moral to the story, 1 axle normally will not stand the load of the entire machine on it! I've seen this on other machines time and time again, seen a few happen in mud holes, some in rocks, heck some on flat ground just trying to turn around. But like you said earlier Steve, more than likely the real reason the axle breaks was done sometime before the actually failure happens.

 

Sorry about not posting the high lifter info. I need to create a signature with all the mods. I agree that I could have damaged them prior. No way of knowing now. I have played with the rzr on a jack and could not find a point that the axles would rub in the cv's but the angle was steep when shock was fully extended. Both front and rear. I looked for some angle between the cv and shaft that an axle manufacturer would recommend not exceeding but could not find one. I would guess mine to be close to 40 degrees. That's the reason for the straps. I may not need them but my engineering brain says I do. The steering stops are just cheap. I see no reason not to do it. They are easy enough to remove if my turning radius is hurt too much. I thank you all for the help. I rechecked the angle and it's probably closer to 30 degrees.