Does anyone know how to shorten an axle yourself?

[UncleThunderpants]

I got a atlas axle from a mk1 3.0 capri in the back of my mk1 escort (3.5 rover powered) but its a couple of inces wider than a standard escort axle and just don't look right, i think i can get away with loping off an inch from the end of each halfshaft but have no idea how to shorten the casing, any ideas?

[ian.stewart]

Yes thank you, Ill divulge more later, Im just off out,

[HairbearTE]

Make some sort of adjustable jig that correctly locates the bolt holes in the end flange whilst allowing adjustment along the plane of the axles length for narrowing. Chop the flanges off, remove an Inch from each axle tube, weld flanges back on. That's how I would go about it anyway for a small reduction in width. I would advise not to remove the material from the middle of the tubes and then butt weld back together, too much can wrong doing it that way. I admire you for taking such a small amount out of the axle to get the car to sit right, it's the kind of thing I would do myself instead of getting wheels with a different offset, but if you like your life hassle-free then the wheels might be a consideration!

[JP.]

You'll have to drill out the big round welds on the diffcase that holds the tube. If these are drilled out than the tube slides out. Well after 30 years or so it wont slide out by it self as you'll understand

Than you can shorten the tubes and put them back in and weld them back on.
Its true that you can shorten the halfshafts cause there is enough spline. Its something about an inch as I remember. A friend of mine does these conversions overhere in Holland.

[UncleThunderpants]

interesting stuff, they are both excellent ideas, i dont mind hassle its spending money i dont like! i will have a look for those welds tommorrow, i guess that the axle tubes must pull out and then they shoud slide back in and then are plug welded. am interested to see how mr cortina did his!

[ian.stewart]

Funny thing, I am just about to narrow my sons axle on his mk1 escort, but an english, not an atlas, This is Ians patent way of painless narowing axles. but only if you want to take off a nibble,
First pull the shafts,, have a look at the splines,, there should be a witness mark where the splines fit in the axle, the spare bit of spline is the amount you can narrow the axle, less the root ends, its normally about 20mm, sometimes more, this is as far as you could physically push the spline into the diff before it binds,
Remove the bearings from the shafts, the idea is to machine the bearing seats so you can push the bearings further along the shaft, allowing the shaft to slide further into the axle, only by the amount of spare spline, then all you have to do is lop the corrisponding amount off the end of the spline, this way the case does not need to be narrowed, BUT the brakes will need to be set to suit this mod, if you have drums, convert to discs, and if you have allready converted to discs, Oh well, start again,
I hope this makes sense, Ive had a couple or three,
Ian

[CastleMGBV8]

You will of course have to move the spring platforms out by the same amount that you narrow the axle if you use the shortend tubes method.

Kevin.

[ian.stewart]

You will of course have to move the spring platforms out by the same amount that you narrow the axle if you use the shortend tubes method.

Kevin.

that again depends on where you shorten the tubes, I prefer to remove the bearing cups and reweld them after narrowing, that is if you need to remove a bit and not a lot,

[UncleThunderpants]

Thats a very clever idea ian, i will have to look and see how much i could take out, and try and figure a disc conversion, what disc will you run on your sons axle?

[ian.stewart]

Ive not done the escort yet, but my Cortina runs mk3 escort front discs, granada Mk3 calipers and carriers, mk6 escort rs2000 cable you will need to trim about 0.030 off the O/D of the flange so the disc fits over the flange, Rally design sell a fitting kit, but I made my own, and welded it to the axle, The Raldes kit appears to be a bolt on kit, but its a weld on kit, but uses the bolts to hold in situ while the bracket is welded,
Handbrake lever can be changed for a disc brake car or change the ratio of the lever,

[stevieturbo]

I widened my axle...but same idea would work.


Most would say build a jig, passing straight through the axle like one big halfshaft...which is also a perfect fit for any installer bearings/hub flanges...which should be assembled to ensure alignment when welding back together.


damn that seemed like hard work.


SO I just sliced through my tubes with a grinder, had 2 stepped sleeves made up to insert into the tubes to increase the width by about 30mm each side...then welded it back together.
The stepped sleeve inserted maybe 2.5-3" into the axle tube...so it pretty much had to align itself with a decent amount of accuracy.

A few thou over the entire width of the axle wasnt going to concern me that much. So far its worked great..no odd tyre wear etc and no problems.

you can see on this pic the piece I added in, obviously you cant see where it sleeves inside the tubes.
http://gallery30279.fotopic.net/p3624926.html

[minorv8]

I had to narrow a TR7 axle to fit my Minor and I chose to cut the axle tubes. The precise location was in the middle of the saddles for the leaf springs. Removing the bearing seats was not an option. I used a couple of angle irons to locate the tubes for welding. There will be a certain amount of distortion caused by but it is pretty easy to fix. I bolted two 5 feet steel tubes to the axle flanges and measured the distance at either end. If they are equal the flanges are parallel. If not apply heat to correct the measurements. Naturally this must be done in both vertical and horizontal direction. When one end was OK, I cut the other end and repeated the exercise. Lot of measurements but cheap.

[Paul B]

I had to narrow a TR7 axle to fit my Minor and I chose to cut the axle tubes. The precise location was in the middle of the saddles for the leaf springs. Removing the bearing seats was not an option. I used a couple of angle irons to locate the tubes for welding. There will be a certain amount of distortion caused by but it is pretty easy to fix. I bolted two 5 feet steel tubes to the axle flanges and measured the distance at either end. If they are equal the flanges are parallel. If not apply heat to correct the measurements. Naturally this must be done in both vertical and horizontal direction. When one end was OK, I cut the other end and repeated the exercise. Lot of measurements but cheap.

Not a shortening, but straightening:
I slowly and carefully welded four-bar brackets to my Westminster axle, after cutting off the brackets from a previous incarnation, only to find the previous bodger had not been so careful. The axle was bent in two places, right where the grinding evidence was from the old bracket removal.

The Westy axle is a 3/4 floating design, which means the wheels rotate on bearings in the END of the axle, rather than just the axles run through the bearings. You can take the half shafts out, in a few minutes, put the wheels back on, and still roll the car about. Here is how I straightened my axle.

I bolted a wheel to the bearing flange, and stood it on end, then mounted a pointer. Rotating the axle now shows where the bend is, and a little heat applied at the bottom will pull the axle over. I did try a couple of runs of weld, but it didn't pull enough, so I got out the gas axe and heated a small area, about 2" x 1".







Back in the car, after some cleaning up, grinding, and a splash of paint:

[UncleThunderpants]

Thanks guys for all of your advice, i should think that amount of response covers everthing and if i can't get it done now, i never will! thanks again

[fistful]

how much can i narrow volvo 240 axle? What would be the easiest way and is it possible to machine longer splines on propshaft without risk of breaking it ?