CV Axle Discussion

[JMortensen]

Checked these on my car with the cages in the standard orientation (not flipped) because I don't think anyone particularly wants to go through the greasy hassle of flipping cages if it's not necessary. I had 3/4" of movement on the LH side and 13/16" movement on the RH side with the suspension fully drooped from the position where the CV was when attached at both ends to fully compressed, so that's right in the middle of the range.

 

Again, my car has the MM billet adapters which add about 3/8" of clearance and I put stock length control arms on to measure. I think these would be about 3/8" from bottoming on a car with stock control arms and the welded adapters from Ross. This should work out fine as we've seen from the previous measurements that the shaft needs to get longer as the suspension compresses. Again, switching the driver's shaft to the passenger's side looks REALLY close on my car, even with the cage flipped. YMMV.

 

I don't think the boots are stretched so far that they will split. They really weren't that hard to get on there. I suppose only time will tell though.

 

I think I mentioned it in passing, but these threads are cut, and the material is chromoly. Between the chromoly being stronger and the removal of the snap ring groove at the inside of the splines, I think this is going to be a big step up in strength. This first set is spoken for. I'm going to check again with the machinist on Monday and figure out what the final price will be, then I will set up a vendor thread and will try to do a big order like Coffey does for the R180 side stub axles.

 

Some pics. The stock shaft is the driver's side from my car.

Edited October 15, 2011 by JMortensen

[900ss]

I don't think anyone particularly wants to go through the greasy hassle of flipping cages if it's not necessary. .

 

You gotta be good (or god) if you can remove/refit both cv's without getting dirty

[JMortensen]

Well actually, now that I think about it, you can't change the inner cage (wouldn't matter anyway since the inner CV doesn't plunge), and you have to take both joints off of the shaft. If you wanted to flip the cage while you're in there, it's easy to do, but not necessary.

Edited October 16, 2011 by JMortensen

[JMortensen]

OK, I've got it all figured out. $575 is the regular cost for the pair, $350 is the cost for just the LH shaft. If I can get 10 sets ordered I can sell them for $500 per pair, you can sign up here: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/102798-short-z31t-cv-shafts-group-buy/

[Danno74Z]

Jon,

 

Was this your final measurements for the shafts?

 

"We can use the level measurement because it is pretty close to the middle, and we get a length of 14 3/16" for the driver and 14 13/16" for the passenger side. This is roughly 1" shorter than stock on the pass side and 1 3/16" shorter on the driver's side."

 

Also how many splines are on the shaft?

 

Thanks,

Danno74Z

[JMortensen]

14 3/16 and 14 13/16 are the correct measurements for the entire length of the shafts. 27 spline.

[Danno74Z]

Thanks...Dan

[cheesepocket]

I'll add this to the conversation here and say +1 for the short shaft/short stub end on the driver's side. I just snapped them in this morning, can't wait to go for a ride with the new non-binding CV's. Got a few other details to work out, before that ride.

[NZeder]

I believe wheelman has found a solution. Look at post #40 of this thread. He found that early Pathfinder V6 axles are exactly the same as Z31T axles except shorter. In fact, they are so short that he had to ADD a spacer on one side.

wow I posted about this 2 years earlier...just all my pictures in my post went south and as the post was so old I could not go back and edit the post to update the image links. Here is the thread I posted my findings just with out pictures:( http://forums.hybrid...ssue/page_st_60 See post 61 (the images are there still just the thumbnail images have been lost...)

 

One thing that is different is I found WD21 aka your pathfinder and the Nissan Terrano V6 I got my donor axles from did not have tripod joints on either end. I only found the tripod on the 3x2 end of the Terrano TD27 power vehicles. These 3x2 WD21 axles have a smaller diameter on this one tripod end. I believe Wheelman found a tripod joint inside the 5 star end of the V6 axle, but it was discovered to share the same diameter and spline count as the other end aka both match the diameter and spline of the z31 300zxt shaft.

 

What Wheelman did was put both ends of the z31 300zxt on to this WD21 V6 axle then made a space to effectively lengthen the overall shaft so it would fit correctly. I did not do this I am using shortnose R200 plugins that match my LSD centre, in my case a 5 x star plugin then I swapped the z31 300zxt outer aka 4 bolt joint on the other end of the WD21 axle, this is bolted to the MM adaptors. The end result is the same a shorter CV axle. I do show in the picture in the old post a complete axle setup using the 3x2 not the 5x1 star I am using but they are the same length.

Edited December 3, 2012 by NZeder

[NewZed]

I looked in to using the Pathfinder axles to make a hybrid axle and found that the CV replacement axle manufacturers (CARDONE for example) are now making their own axles, with their own spline count and joint style. In other words, if you buy a "new" Pathfinder or any other axle from a parts store, it will most likely not be like a new or used factory axle, and will have a different spline count on the axle. It's described on the various manufacturer web sites. Wouldn't be surprising either if they all come from the same place.

 

I also looked at a rebuilt axle in OReilly auto to take some measurements and found, like others have noted, that it seemed like a pretty poor job of rebuilding. The plunging joint was binding up as I tried to move it and it felt generally gritty.

 

So anyone looking to do this will be somewhat limited in choices and should take care that they get what they think they're getting.

[Ben]

I've spent a bit of time in the last couple of weeks working on the CV fitting issue on my '73 240Z and have found some anomalies with the specifications of the CV shafts as discussed here.

 

My 'original' pair of Z31T shafts are as described - LHS= short inner/short shaft, RHS= long inner/long shaft. I've flipped the cages (FWIW) and there was no way I could get the RH shaft to fit at full droop without significant strain on the suspension. Which, as has been discussed at length, is unacceptable.

(I've got Poly bushes, but otherwise stock LCA's)

 

Therefore I decided to see if I could get another 'short' shaft and build a hybrid RH assembly (also discussed here). So last week, I managed to get an HR31 shaft.

 

It's a RH shaft (long inner), but has the shorter shaft fitted (~150mm exposed shaft between the boots vs ~170mm for the long one). So at that stage I'm a bit perplexed.

 

Today I picked up a pair of shafts from a 300ZR-II and they are consistent with the HR31 shaft - long inner/short shaft & short inner/long shaft. I've also been watching a set of HR31 shafts in Japan;

 

 

Which look the same as the ones I've just bought - short inner/long shaft & long inner/short shaft.

 

Can anyone shed some light on this? It's completely opposite to what has been talked about here.

 

I'll be using the 'standard' HR31 shaft at this stage (my original 'long' Z31T shaft actually has a crack in the outer CV housing, and the 300ZR shafts need a full recondition). I'm not sure if any other modifications will be required on the RHS to get a good fit, but it will be a while before I can check it out as my LCA is getting re-powdercoated and new Poly bushes are required due to a long-term brake fluid leak 

Edited February 13, 2013 by Ben