Closed knucle cons

rbo1577186

rbo1577186

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Location
Winston Salem
I've seen a couple of front Dana 70's and Rockwells with the closed knuckle design. These seem to be worth next to nothing. So my question is... What are the drawbacks to these style axles?
 
the draw back that I've always heard is that the closed knuckle collects and holds dust, dirt and mud and ends up tearing up the knuckle. Also suppose to be weaker than a comparable size knuckle..... but that's not from my personal experience. I just took it as good info learning from others that have run them.
 
All rockwells are closed knuckles, so that's a moot point.

The Dana closed stuff had small diameter coarse spline crap in it, it's not necessarily the closed knuckle itself that's undesireable.
 
yeah most the older stuff that you see running closed knuckle used tracta-joints and coarse splines, which isnt near as strong as the ujoint type... plus they were all drum brakes, which is not ness a downside
 
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

The Good...The stock axles were Dana 25 & 44 w/ factory 5.38 gears. Added Lockrights & power steering ... presto...we wheelin'
On one trip I broke the front housing @ kingpin & drove Uwharrie rest of weekend due to closed knuckle design holding the spindle, etc together...most consider them throw away axles...so most parts are free.

The Bad....10 Spline shafts...very weak with much horsepower & big tires...also 2 piece rear..yuck...old/rusty...old school...drum brakes, etc.
But we haven't broke any shafts for a while.

The Ugly...The old "White Knuckler" CJ5 is flat out UGLY...no bones about...but it's a decent runnin' beater...cheap and easy to patch back together...so we just wheel the HELL out of it and park it out by the barn...

We're slooowwwly buildin' a couple more CJ7's with beefier parts...

:beer:
 
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