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Big tires destroying cv's? Custom HD axles?


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Talked to RCV about custom races and cages. Each piece would be $105 and the minimum order is 8. That's $420 to rebuild one axle...

I think I'm going to try Cardone axles repacked with redline grease and see where that gets me.

 

That sounds about right, it would probably be considerably less if you ordered 20-50 at a time.

You should definitely try OEM axles from a yard, go to car-part.com, most junkyards will ship to your house.

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That chart is great, thanks for sharing.

I'm surprised you could find something like that.  There's usually no reason for even the manufacturer to have that kind of information.  If someone wants an axle for a Camry, they make a copy of that.  It's very rare someone would say "I need an axle this length with these splines" and not know what it fits.  Also, keep in mind just because two CVs have the same number of spline teeth, those splines aren't necessarily the same, in fact they're probably not.  Also they are going to be different spline lengths, snapring styles, bearing and seal diameters, etc.  Not to rain on your parade, but it almost seems like engineers go out of their way to make things different than what already exists.

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 Not to rain on your parade, but it almost seems like engineers go out of their way to make things different than what already exists.

 

They do that to avoid patent and copyright issues from different manufacturers.

 

Parts companies in many cases legally must make each Auto companies parts different from each other to avoid patent issues.

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Pretty sure NTN was, and still is the main axle manufacturer for most all Japanese automakers. I worked at a couple of Subaru/Nissan dealerships, and many of the the Nissan axle components I saw looked identical to Subaru. I realize that parts made by different manufacturers are purposely made different. But when one small manufacturer is supplying components to many automakers, most of the individual parts are the same. Mainly, in the case of axles, the cages, balls, and inner races, which spline to the halfshafts. So, it would make sense that a different length shaft out of another Japanese car would have the same splines as a Subaru of similar size. The outer CV cups will likely be different, as they have to mate to transmissions and hubs of different manufacturers. 

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Pretty sure NTN was, and still is the main axle manufacturer for most all Japanese automakers. I worked at a couple of Subaru/Nissan dealerships, and many of the the Nissan axle components I saw looked identical to Subaru. I realize that parts made by different manufacturers are purposely made different. But when one small manufacturer is supplying components to many automakers, most of the individual parts are the same. Mainly, in the case of axles, the cages, balls, and inner races, which spline to the halfshafts. So, it would make sense that a different length shaft out of another Japanese car would have the same splines as a Subaru of similar size. The outer CV cups will likely be different, as they have to mate to transmissions and hubs of different manufacturers. 

 

Parts from same company can be similar, and even share some internals and spine counts and all that.

 

But legally they can't sell something designed to the specs for subaru, to Toyota or Nissan.  It would be a violation of subaru's design patent.  The guts of the CV may be the same, but the axle length, hub design, trans design etc. must be different.

 

So some parts can be made to fit with others, because of the similarity's and spline counts etc....  But you won't find the exact same axle used between 2 companies (unless they have shared ownership like toyota/scion)

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  • 1 year later...

Interested to know if anyone has had any luck finding decent replacement axles? Finally got my subaru buggy out and the axle sheared on the shakedown.

Is there anything bulletproof we can get that isn't custom?

Edit: these were the SB8001HD axles, both failed in the same way within 3 months, not the CV's the axle material is the problem. Both snapped.

CVFailure-Wide.jpg

Edited by rotamonkey
Long term review
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16 hours ago, rotamonkey said:

Interested to know if anyone has had any luck finding decent replacement axles? Finally got my subaru buggy out and the axle sheared on the shakedown.

Is there anything bulletproof we can get that isn't custom?

For me the axle teeth were shredded on the inner CV,

CVFailure-Wide.jpg

that's an aftermarket axle, what brand is it?  It’s not uncommon for new aftermarket axles to blow up even on average daily drivers.

Have you tried OEM used axles ?

 

 

 

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aftermarket ones doesn't even work on stock cars , i buy used OEM's from scrapyards for cheap in pairs and have no prob. so big NO for aftermarket . wanna do it cheap ? go with used OEM's , buy  a lot of them. they will hold ok still. 

Edited by scalman
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19 hours ago, rotamonkey said:

Interested to know if anyone has had any luck finding decent replacement axles? Finally got my subaru buggy out and the axle sheared on the shakedown.

Is there anything bulletproof we can get that isn't custom?

For me the axle teeth were shredded on the inner CV,

CVFailure-Wide.jpg

did you run a "turbo" axle 25 spline,  on a non turbo trans? (23 spline)   

Or are you talking about the splines inside the CV cup that engage the cage?

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Thanks for the heads up. I will give the OEMs a go before I start looking for smaller wheels and tires. Spline counts were fine the axle itself must just be useless material, bad heat treating or something, snapped like a toothpick from flat on loose dirt. Failed where the inner axle (not the trans side) meets the CV. 

Edited by rotamonkey
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1 hour ago, rotamonkey said:

Thanks for the heads up. I will give the OEMs a go before I start looking for smaller wheels and tires. Spline counts were fine the axle itself must just be useless material, bad heat treating or something, snapped like a toothpick from flat on loose dirt. Failed where the inner axle (not the trans side) meets the CV. 

wash-rinse-repeat, that’s what they do. lost track of Subaru aftermarket axle failures. two new ones blew to pieces less than 100 miles out of the box on stock daily drivers. waste of time when there are perfectly good OEMs everywhere for cheap.

Note earlier poster - asks about axles blowing up, tries more aftermarket axles, and blows up more axles. That’s about par for the course. 

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weakest link is gonna break.

new Subaru axles are very pricey but, maybe a good idea for your usage.

a local tuner often uses FEQ heavy-duty axles from World Pac (??? dunno if you can get those)

no question about the above advice, many of us regrease and reboot used OEM (green inner cups - made by NTN)

Edited by 1 Lucky Texan
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Only running 30" tires, it is a small buggy. I was hoping that there would be some 300m / cro-mo replacements or something like that but as you say, better for the CV to snap than anything else. Time for a trip to the wreckers. Ill check the Cardone axles out as well. Thanks a ton.

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We've had good luck with these:

https://autoshafts.com/i-23374251-cv-axle-shaft.html

Bigger joints and shafts than most Subaru axles, haven't found anything like that for the rear yet.  Oreilly's rear seem decent.

Next best thing for the front axles are from the old front wheel drive Legacy, I think about '94, also larger joints and shafts than normal Subaru front axles.

 

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On 1/20/2019 at 7:33 PM, rotamonkey said:

 Ill check the Cardone axles out as well. Thanks a ton.

An outback owner had one of those strip out this week and practically strand him on a stock daily driver at 40k or 60k. He said the other had already failed. He complains Cardone won’t warranty them while well informed Subaru people shrug shoulders. google Subaru cardone axles, I don’t need to look to know you’ll find failures.  

That’s the problem with axles - he could have raved for the last three years, a few make it long enough for some reported success when a high percentage are still problematic, or will be. 

I used to go to a yard with a bunch of Subarus or call and ask if they can cut a deal for a few at one time. $15-$30 each. Www.car-part.com

a good question is wether any particular EJ axles are better than others - length or cup size, etc.

you can use any 1990-2004 Legacy, Impreza, outback, Forster, SVX axle. 

all 2004 and earlier legacy/outback axles are interchangeable.  Pre-2000 axles won’t have the ABS tone ring on them but that’s not needed for a buggy and doesn’t impact fitment, it’s only for the ABS. But the 2000+ outer boots are much higher quality than pre 2000 boots when it comes to OEM. 

Edited by idosubaru
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After some running around Ive grabbed some OEM second hand for now. Problem is to get the female connection at the transaxle side you are looking at CVs that are from cars near 20 years old and there aren't so many still around in the wreckers here. Subaru cant supply any part numbers without a VIN so Ive been struggling to get anything direct. Does anyone have a breakdown of part numbers by any chance.

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13 minutes ago, rotamonkey said:

After some running around Ive grabbed some OEM second hand for now. Problem is to get the female connection at the transaxle side you are looking at CVs that are from cars near 20 years old and there aren't so many still around in the wreckers here. Subaru cant supply any part numbers without a VIN so Ive been struggling to get anything direct. Does anyone have a breakdown of part numbers by any chance.

If you go to subarupartwholesale.com you don't need a VIN.

If you need a VIN, the easiest way is just to look up that car on ebay motors and find one for sale, I think they all list the VIN.

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Thanks,

Opposed Forces definitely did the job, for those interested it looks like the P/N's for the female trans side axles are:

28321FE041/ 042

28321FE061

28321FE092

Looks like there are a ton of variations but the later numbers seem to be later model variants, roughly $400 AU Each brand new.

Edit: unfortunately there seems to be a few lengths of Subaru axle shaft, some with an inch or less difference without other visual changes. Be careful with part numbers... be sure to check your exact application.

Edited by rotamonkey
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