quote:Does any vendor make stronger axles than standard?
Laslo,
I can’t comment on the SACO performance units. I remember corresponding with Mark Greene on them some time ago. It looks like good stuff, uses a cartridge bearing assembly and readily available axle and flange combo (Porsche maybe) but not sure I understand whether those axles would be any less susceptible to your concern.
I’d recommend Mark William’s Enterprises if it is just a good Pantera axle is what you’re looking for. I’ve had them on my car for years and also in another set of uprights. The William’s units are made from 4340 forged axle blanks used in many of their other racing axles. It’s just hard to beat a good forging because the grain structure flows and aligns in the direction of stress in the radius where the axle transitions to the flange. This makes them much more durable with higher fatigue strength. Williams also have much experience in post heat treatment which is also critical. I know several other of the Pantera vendors have offered axles as well. I would caution about any of the billet axles. There are just few materials that will produce a better axle than forged 4340 at least within a practical price range. William’s aren’t typically the most accommodating folks because this stuff is just a novelty for them but if they don’t have a set on the shelf (and they usually don’t), it’s typically 3-6 week lead time. They aren’t the least expensive but the quality is always top notch and you know what you’re getting. Last I checked, they wanted $760 per pair for them.
http://www.markwilliams.com/
You’ll need to download the pdf catalogue and look on page 16.
Williams offers a Pantera CV conversion but it’s just stupid high priced, $4500. If you want to do a CV joint conversion, as far as I know, Williams are the only ones that make the companion flanges that have the 8-spline configuration for a Pantera axle and directly replace the Pantera U-joint flange on the rear upright assembly (as pictured below). They don’t list them in their catalogue but they are very proud of these things and last I checked they wanted circa $1000 per pair for them.
Williams also make the CV stub axles for the ZF side ($590/pair last I heard) but RBT had offered M1 CV flanges that were more economically priced. The Williams units do have a centering feature for the CV whereas the M1 units do not. You can source 930 CVs and axles from many places, sand buggy, etc and I suspect local to you.
I bought CV conversion parts with the William’s companion flanges from Dennis at Pantera Performance. He offered his kit’s for $2500. I bought his last set at a discount and he indicated he wasn’t going to do them anymore because there was just very little interest at the price.
If you just want to run CVs, for sure the most economical route is to buy a pair of flange adapters from IPSCO and source your own CVs and axles. Not sure if they are on his website but I think they were a couple hundred dollars. He’ll make them if you call him. They look like the one pictured below.
http://www.ipsco.org/
Back on the subject of Pantera axles, in my opinion the stock Pantera axles are actually pretty good pieces and the stories about the breakage from use of big wheels is a bit over blown. There certainly have been documented cases of axle sheer but I would contend many of them are actually caused by cars that had stock ball bearings in the upright whose stock axles were damaged by improper fit of the ball bearing race. There’s no doubt this was a common problem from the factory. Improper (loose) shrink fit of the inner race on the axle caused slippage and thus fretting and stress risers in/near the critically stressed location. The bearing failure is accelerated by big tired cars and damaged bearing rapidly abrade the axles on poorly fit units. Before aftermarket axles were available most guys plated or metal sputtered then polished the diameter of the stock axles back a diameter for proper shrink fit of the stock bearing, though most owners of big tired cars have long since gone to tapered roller bearing conversion.
Best,
Kelly