6 replies to this topic

[rexy]

So I pulled the axles out of the LJ to check the spline count before I chased up a ratio change centre and found this:

 

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Not good!

 

 

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Terrible!

 

Only a few more hard launches left in it.

 

Has anybody recently used someone in Melbourne to do a centre and supply high strength axles?

 

Car is about 440hp, T350, 4K converter and runs drag radials.

[yel327]

I’ve had that happen before with shortened HQ axles to LH length. No heat treatment hence spline bend. What I mean is they look like shortened axles.
You could probably order axles from anywhere in Australia that uses quality US made axles.

[RallyRed]

Have sourced a few billet fine spline axles and centres over the last few years, but not in Melbourne.

 

Last axles we got were from Altra9 in QLD......high end engineering place. ( specs done over the phone and email, post)

Been in the track car for 18m, no dramas.

[LJ RB30]

Yep I had the same problem with axles from John Taverna years ago.
No heat treatment after shortening & splines recut.
Can’t help with axles in Melbourne as I’m in Perth.
I’ve got 31spline billett’s now from final drive over here.

[RallyRed]

p.s. Andy Williams from AW Automatics runs a super quick Group nc Historic Touring car XU1. 

He does stuff with gearboxes and diffs/axles , I think. 

Ferntree Gully.

[hawk]

I used Diff king in dandenong for my diff recently. Not too bad.

My gearbox guy who sells diff and gearbox conversions also uses them for a lot of stuff.

The guys at AW automatics built my old 4 speed, I don't think they do axles sadly although may be able to point you in the right directions.

[rexy]

So I ended up getting new billet axes and a complete new centre. 

 

Centre is new nodular iron case, big pinion support, 3.5 gears and truetrac.  Of course assembly is never as rapid as disassembly and the passenger side axle fought me hard. After going away for a while I came back and resorted to the bastards tool, well sort of. The wooden end of the hammer was enough to get engagement and from there on things went back together without incident.

 

The hammer in question is quite ancient.

 

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A leftover from my grandfathers time with NSW railways.

 

This would be the easiest centre change I have ever done now that I have a hoist and a transmission jack. Sooo over lying on the floor.

 

The driving experience is quite different to the old LSD. The car feels a lot looser for want of a better description. The action is seamless with respect to torque biasing. Even though run in is allegedly not required, I did do a few gentle drives at varying speeds and loads before giving it the berries. Hard to feel much difference in acceleration from the old 3.7s.

 

Happy times.

 

Or it would be if I didnt have to fix the fuel pump that failed. At least it had the decency to fail as I was about to put it in the shed.

Sigh!