Why did my axle break?

[jim galli]

In 54 years of using and abusing Model A's I've never experienced a broken axle. So I'm curious what the combined talent here can teach me. Did it break because the rear roller bearing is worn out and it flexed too much? How would someone measure that?

This is a car that gets used. Myself and 2 high school buddies did 1000 miles in this last October. All our gear plus junk we picked up along the way. Some dirt roads. Maybe 5% of the drive. Happily a photographer friend and I had just loaded our 8X10 camera outfits and were heading out for a shoot and the axle failed in the driveway. Pretty good luck, eh? We loaded everthing in the trunk of the '38 coupe and carried on unphased.

Yes, I did search first. Thank you ahead of time for your ideas.