Maxidrive and Ashcroft

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Moe on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 05:26 am: Edit

I am looking for feedback on the Maxidrive (GBR) and Ashcroft HD axles and ring and pinion gears. Is there any difference in quality? Any feedback on how well these products have worked for you would be great.

Moe

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 05:37 am: Edit

GBR axles are made of superior quality steel and are therefore somewhat tougher to break. They also cost more and also have issues with bolts on the flange working loose which ashcrofts don't have a problem with. I have been happy with the GBR products I have. I also was impressed with the build quality of the ashcrofts I had but sold them as they were the steel wheel kind and someone did not want to loose the alloys on the disco full time. To be honest short of 35s and lockers I doubt you could break even the ashcrofts even if you tried hard for a long time. The only rear maxi drive failure I have ever heard of was on a modified D90 in a very bad situation. Not sure about the R&Ps. This is all referring to rear axles. In the front you are pretty well S.O.L as the cv is not that strong and until Bill or someone else comes out with a stronger one I would suggest leaving well enough alone (ie stock) and be prepared to change axles if you break the cv. While the front axles are not that strong stock niether are the cvs and if you toast a cv odds are you are going to strip the axle too so my theory is leave it all stock and carry spares rather than risk stripping a very expensive front axle when the cv breaks.

Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By ryan on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 05:44 am: Edit

How much do Ashcroft axles cost?

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 05:55 am: Edit

Ron

Stupid question - if you break the CV in the front, how would you strip your axles? I was going to put in GBR front axles but will hold if a broken CV can strip them.

Murray

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By RVR OVR (Tom) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 06:02 am: Edit

Ryan - eastcoastrover.com sells them. You may be able to get them direct form the UK (autoconv.com), but they just told me to see eastcoastrover.

Lucky for me, I got the ones Ron sold.

Tom

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 06:24 am: Edit

When the cv breaks the force tranfers to the axle and the splines litterally are stripped off. Seen quite a few like that.

There is some debate about the best course of action with the front axles. Personally I am holding off, although others may have different opinions and that is cool too. What gain you get with stronger axles I am not sure as the cv is about the same strength as the axle. If you had non-abs axles you can go to the 23spline cv (earlier model, less splines but bigger in size) which is stronger than the 32spline in the discos, D90, and RR after 1989 (D90s you can swap in the earlier cv even though they came with 32splines)

Ron

Anyone else want to talk about the front axle?

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 06:52 am: Edit

Thanks Ron - think I will take your advise and hold off as well.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ho Chung (Ho) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 06:59 am: Edit

i say beefy star and cage is the solution.
and make the weak link to be the inner shaft.
but i dont think that's an easy thing to do.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:03 am: Edit

Murray,

Gee I hope Bill @ GBR does not see this :) oh well he will be getting some more of my business for salisbury parts soon and you should consider buying your rear axles from him and maybe get his HD cvs when they come out and get the front axles then (he sells HD cv cages now but my feeling is that the cage is not the main issue with the cv).

What are you running in the front? TT or ARB or open? If you are running the ARB be carefull as they tend to do a number on the front. Don't use it unless you have to and NEVER turn it on with the wheel spinning. Good news is that the TT or ARB will "usually" be ok in the event of an axel failure detroit that is not the case unfortunately, which is why you really do need the HD axles with them as if an axle breaks it often takes out the detroit too.

Cheers

Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:05 am: Edit

i say beefy star and cage is the solution.
and make the weak link to be the inner shaft.
but i dont think that's an easy thing to do.

I agree Ho. Too bad there is no HD star for ABS LRs yet, and the cage does not seem to be the issue in most cases.

Cheers
Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By carnage on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:10 am: Edit

busted cv

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:12 am: Edit

Yeah Ron , I am in. The CV screws up the axle because of the star expanding. Not some fancy force transfer. its simple. THe shaft slides into the splined star in the CV which is a solid splined circle. THe star in the CV is also what takes all of the force being applied to the wheel its on. It then transfers the force to the 5 balls in there which in turn transfers the force to the outter "Bell" , the bell transfers the force to the flange which is bolted to the hub and spins the wheel. You can see the the star is in the direct line of fire here and is directly connected to the axle by spline. When you are pushing the brake (Poor mans locker) or turning the wheel hard , this star takes a whole shit load of force and the spline connection is trying to force this circle that captures the axle ,out. The spline "Peaks" are pointed and the spline "Valleys" are broad whick acts as a wedge and forces that circle to crack. Once the star has cracked the spline is no longer captured and the axle spins freely in the star. Once this happens in a matter of seconds the spline are chewed off the axle end. :)


Kyle

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:17 am: Edit

Ron,

Don't worry, Bill will be getting my business for the rear axles :) - going with the Detroit in the back. (My gears are originally from GBR as well.) I am going with the TT in the front - and when his HD cvs comes out, will go with that and the HD front axles. Any ETA on the HD cvs?

Murray

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Rob Davison (Pokerob) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 07:18 am: Edit

god damn kyle,, your explination made complete sense for once. good one.

i never knew

rd

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By RVR OVR (Tom) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 09:17 am: Edit

Murray,

You probably don't need to be spending all that bank on front stuff with a TT. Like Ron said, there is nothing all that great for the front, and you can get spares instead. Anyone here of a front end failure caused by a TT?

Tom

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 09:32 am: Edit

Tom,

There have been couple of my friends who have had front end failures with a TT but to say they were caused by the TT, I don't think so. For example BJ toasted both his fronts at seperate times but I think it was as much high mileage/fatigue in the cvs as it was the TT (he had HD cv cages and GBR axles). I mean you really don't get any strong force on one axle with the TT unless you have a wheel in the air and SLAM on the brakes otherwise it is probably easier on the axles than a tire spinning and catching.

It is also not at all uncommon to have cvs break or even axles break in open dif trucks.

On the other hand I KNOW of a couple cvs and axle that died as the direct result of the ARB being engaged or someone doing somethign they should not have with the arb engaged.

Anyway . . . best to know what your getting and getting into before you go for it.

Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ho Chung (Ho) on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 09:37 am: Edit

ron, BJ had a bit too much of that brake modulation?
hehehehe.


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