Narrowed D60 front axle and Sterling 10.25 rear axle builds

[gwaii]

one clarification-i'm referring to taking 1/2'' off the short side.just noticed i didn't say that in my reply.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Both my short side shafts looked like they had at least 1/2" not engaged....

I will have to double check some stuff here then...

If need be, do you think I could machine a bit of material off the shafts so they would slide in all the way? I've already cut both tubes down the extra 1/2"....

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

There is a shot of the shaft

 

[gwaii]

Both my short side shafts looked like they had at least 1/2" not engaged....

I will have to double check some stuff here then...

If need be, do you think I could machine a bit of material off the shafts so they would slide in all the way? I've already cut both tubes down the extra 1/2"....

the amount you have to work with there is more than i've seen before...looks like you'll be good.
i was thinking about machining a bit off the shaft,i don't think it would make much of a difference strengthwise.one other thing to keep in mind is that the axle will change length a little as it heats up,so some clearance will be needed for that.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

the amount you have to work with there is more than i've seen before...looks like you'll be good.
i was thinking about machining a bit off the shaft,i don't think it would make much of a difference strengthwise.one other thing to keep in mind is that the axle will change length a little as it heats up,so some clearance will be needed for that.

I think I will machine them down to just below the root depth of the splines just to be safe so It doesn't cause any binding issues as I will be running a Detroit locker in it.

I had a look, my other shaft doesn't have as much free spline showing....better safe than sorry I guess.

 

[gwaii]

sounds like a plan.

here's why i was concerned;

this is a quick selection of some of the shafts i have hanging around...they range from less than 1/8'' to about 3/8'' maximum.i've never seen one with the 1/2'' you have on that one.
and yes,any pressure from the axle on a detroit will not be a good thing.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I`m tempted to check out a couple of 10.50 shafts we have at work, see what the lengths are on them as the hubs are shorter on them so I would think that the shafts would have to be shorter. That is unless the 10.50 is much wider than the 10.25...

 

[wahlstrom1]

Good plan.... you never know what you may run across!

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Doesn`t hurt, I know we have a couple junk housings out back with good shafts in them...

 

[gwaii]

I`m tempted to check out a couple of 10.50 shafts we have at work, see what the lengths are on them as the hubs are shorter on them so I would think that the shafts would have to be shorter. That is unless the 10.50 is much wider than the 10.25...

i like this idea...let us know what you find.

as for the 10.25 shafts,i've noticed the engagement length is the same on all of them.the difference is in the length of the actual spline on the axle end.i'm sure if a guy had a big enough selection to pick through,he could find some with even more free spline on them.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

i've noticed the engagement length is the same on all of them.the difference is in the length of the actual spline on the axle end.i'm sure if a guy had a big enough selection to pick through,he could find some with even more free spline on them.

This is the ticket I think, some were splined a lot more than others it seems.

I'll check into the 10.50 shafts tomorrow!

 

[whitetrashfab]

The build looks good! I just went through a dana 60 swap on my explorer, similar to what your doing. Nothing fancy, just narowed them and put em under with the same duff arms and leaf springs I had for my dana 44. I ended up swaping to 5.38's, 4.10's suck even with a doubler... and I have already twisted a 35 spline shaft on the long side with a stock 4.0L so throw those 30 spline outers away... Your alot better at taking pic's and documenting your build then I was but here's the link to some pic's of what I have done.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304600

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Thanks!

I'm trying to make sure I document this as much as I can.

 

[-Nathan-]

any chance the taper is there as a mechanism to feed oil to the wheel bearings?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

any chance the taper is there as a mechanism to feed oil to the wheel bearings?

Could be, but it is kinda pointless.

As a side note, 10.50 shafts are the exact same lengths as 10.25 shafts.

So much for that Idea, But I did grab the shortside shaft for a spare anyways.