Half Shaft replacement AG tourer 1932

[Stuart Giles]

Hi Stuart
 
I am intrigued that you recover axles. The several remarkably battered ones I have (aftermarket, off wrecks) are very hard. Do you let down the temper or do all with carbide tools, including the screw cut? How do you cut the key?

Hi Bob,
         I machined the shafts just as they came. Of course, it's possible that the factory's original temper may have been "let down" slightly by my having welded up the original keyway and allowing natural cooling before machining.

I use carbide insert tooling for pretty much everything nowadays, but the Austin factory shafts will machine OK with dead sharp HSS tool as long as speeds and feeds are reduced to suit. The Keyway in the shaft below was cut with a HSS Woodruffe cutter without any issues.

In the photo below, the shiny area you can see is where I blended out the factory's Brinell test witness mark with an abrasive disc; this is something I do on all Austin shafts now to get rid of this serious stress raiser. The halfshaft piece below from one of my cars failed straight across the Brinell witness mark.