Hampton Brumby

I have tracked down a rattle in the back of my 89 brumby/brat to the rear double offset joints. The slackness is not in the joint itself which you test by twisting the axle shaft, but in the splines which the joint sits on the stub axle and diff. The diff joint has a small amount of movement, but the axle joints move back and forwards rotating on the retaining pins by as much as an 1/8" inch making a sharp metallic knock, indicating wear in the splines of the joint or stub axle. The noise comes whenever I hit a bump and if I take out the half-shaft the noise goes away. My question is if I replace the axle shafts with new ones, should I also replace the wheel bearing stub axle? Has anybody had similar problems and do the splines on the diff wear as well. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi I'd like to know if anyone else has had the problem of the torsion bar crossmember cracking where the rear ground clearance adjustment bolt is located. I was getting a lot of noise from the rear of my '89 Brumby but the handling was still great. I finally tracked it down to the adjustment bolt. The adjustment bolt had punched through the metal so I can now see the bottom of the bolt. It looks like the metal was double plated under the bolt but metal fatigue has given way. Is this a common problem with age? I have done 240,00kms (150.000 miles), shifted house a couple of times, occasionally use a trailer and mainly use it on country roads but not much dirt and rarely 4WD off road. I intend to get a second-hand crossmember and weld a plate on the outside under the bolt to strengthen it and then swap it over. It was only after seeing the damage that I realised the rear ride height had been slowly dropping. Maybe that is why it handles so good.