axle shortening

[badger]

Any one had any experiance with having a axlel housing shortened and an axle resplined?
who does it and how much does it cost?

and will the shortened axle still be as strong as it was before it was shortened and resplined?

[350hplux]

i,ve done a few of these and had no probs so long as the housing is done in a jig and the axle is shortened on the hat end . resplining is not very effective. i don,t know who does it up there and usually the people who do think they are rocket scientists and charge an arm and a leg. cheers darin

[WICKED]

What axle?
How much shorter?
What spline count?
Where have you looked and What prices?

[badger]

vitara axle
26 spline
and about 4 inches/ 100mm shorter on one side

[joeblow]

no sierra axles that come close to what you want? early vits and sierra's have almost the same axle thickness and bearing journals. don't forget to look at coily stuff too.

[badger]

i dont realy know joe.
i was going to just build a hybrid from a wt diff but my zook is a nt so id have to buy a vitara and a wt diff to make it, i figured it may work out just a cheap to just shorten the vitara diff n get the bigger bearings and brakes.

i want to cut it down to basically be the same width or similar to a wt diff. any sugestions of an axel that may suit?

or could i use the nt outer tubes on a vit pumpkin and tubes with calmini axels?

any ideas would be great

ps still hunting for ideas on cost and who shortens axles

[Gwagensteve]

Flip the whole vitara axle upside down, cut down the short vitara side, flip the pumpkin cover up the other way and swap the breather and drain.

The long vitara side will be stock. The short side would be custom - a cut down short side vitara unless you figure out how to get a vitara wheelbearing onto a sierra axle or sleeve the vitara bearing seat in the axle to suit a sierra bearing or somehting. Diff offset is pretty much spot on set up this way.

Can't really help with costs as I'm building the above configuration as a full floater so both axles are custom.

Vitara bearings are much much larger than sierra - sierra are 72mm OD, Vitara are 80 OD - that's a big increase in strength.

I wouldn't use NT tubes - they're much smaller and lighter and getting the whole thing aligned would be a nightmare once you've done two cuts.

Steve.

[joeblow]

i'll pm you some pics and details badger. just some machining of tube components but no custom axles.

[badger]

Driveline Services
6 Combarton St, Brendale.
1300693433 www.driveline.com.au

i just got hold of these guys they quoted me $150 to shorten an axel providing there is enough meat there to cut the spline into

[badger]

ps that would be great thanks joe

[badger]

how did you go with those pics joe?

[joeblow]

found some in my 'archives', will try get em off tonight.

[badger]

I have been told on some of the us forums i can use wt axles with vitara bearings and just size the axle tubes to suit is this correct?

did you ever send those pics joe?

cheers

[ian1974]

i have had a few 9 inch axles cut down.. in my case 4 inchs was the min you could cut off as you have to cut back to where all the new meat is. also done a few housings..jigs are the key