Axle cheat sheet

[nitrofarm]

Well I finally did i,t after two years of driving an Aspire with a Festy gear box.I installed an Aspire gear box in my Aspire. Weird I know but MPG was the ultimate goal.Here is the mount I made up...Because of the smaller dia of the Polyurethane I'm able to mount right on top of the cross member.The 4 hole is the Aspire in case your not familiar with them. Next up is the Rio gear box. Couldnt resist posting a pic of my car when its clean (or cleaner than the normal dirty)

[nitrofarm]

Do you still need measurement of XR2 midshaft? I have a set in the garage. I can get midshaft length and total length if needed. just lmk

Thanks Gomez, Matt hooked me up with a set. I will get off my Butt and measure it

[Gomez]

Do you still need measurement of XR2 midshaft? I have a set in the garage. I can get midshaft length and total length if needed. just lmk

[nitrofarm]

The lower axle is an aspire axle, middle one is a festy axle. The fact that fully compressed they measure the same proves what I've been saying for awhile, the axle shafts are the same length. Only difference is the inner CV. I'm NOt trying to act like a know it all or anything like that but I'll bet you dollars to donuts you can go buy 10 Festiva axles and 10 aspire axles and they will all be mixed and matched. Aspires have a wider track width.


Also it was just a typo in my last post in this thread, you obviously know what I meant now..

Hey Matt you are very helpful when it comes too info,never thought of you as a "Know it All". Anyway you are correct about the mix and match. Thats how I stumbled onto the NAPA unit. A true Aspire axle is 1/8 longer when fullycompressed. But the beauty about the NAPA piece is its sa short as the Festy but has @ 1.5" more travel. I've only seen this axle available from Napa btw

[zoom zoom]

The lower axle is an aspire axle, middle one is a festy axle. The fact that fully compressed they measure the same proves what I've been saying for awhile, the axle shafts are the same length. Only difference is the inner CV. I'm NOt trying to act like a know it all or anything like that but I'll bet you dollars to donuts you can go buy 10 Festiva axles and 10 aspire axles and they will all be mixed and matched. Aspires have a wider track width.


Also it was just a typo in my last post in this thread, you obviously know what I meant now..

[nitrofarm]

Ok heres what I have found-the Napa piece is exactly the same length as a Festy from Advance ! So you get a much better axle with more plunge.(its hard to snap pics and push and hold the camera at a good angle,so have faith they are the same) Here are the pics to show how I measure to determine this fact. Installed the axle nut on backwards and spin it on till its flush with end of axle. Steel ruler on bench up against concrete wall.Lay axle on table parallel with ruler and nut up against wall.Push HUB end IN as hard as you can till axle bottoms out. Check your dimension (this will be the factory spec). On a side note if you get a measurement that's off by @ 1/16-1/8" It may because you have a used axle and the end is "Mushroomed" from someone beating on the hub end. Also I included some brackets I made to "Center" my tranny. I'm running a poly mount in the front now.
First two pics are the Aspire


NEXT the FESTY


Here is An Aspire RH on top of the NAPA & Advance axle's. Note how the NAPA RH doesnt have the same engineering as its LH brother !

NEXT my "Adjustable" mount bracket

[scitzz]

sub'd

[nitrofarm]

Just thought I'd share this axle pic.(the axle in the rear)Its a LH Aspire from NAPA pn 95-7194. The thing that caught my eye is that it measures 24".It measures right in between the Aspire & Festy axles specs. Basically its just an 1/8" longer than a Festy and 1/8" shorter than an Aspire. But the really nice part is the inner joint,it gives you @ 3/4" inch MORE movemant. So if you arent running a butt load of neg camber,this axle should work pretty good in a Festy. I have a Festy axle below it so you can see the comparo of the two.
Also the axle shaft is beefier in the center portion(but this doesn't affect the spline fitment) If you have lifted Festy this axle would be a very good choice-:thumbs_up:

[bobbyspider]

i guess ill be the experement.so since the aspire im getting is atx ill need to get different hubs because the spline is different?

[zoom zoom]

I haven't been able to do the machine work to the xr2 axel yet. A hole needs drilled 3/4" from the current hole since the BP is longer. The Rio axels are in this transmission and in the hubs right now..like I said I removed the springs and turned the axel and it didn't bind but I haven't driven the car yet, so its still a 'do it at your own risk' thing like everything else. After seeing what happens when the wrong length axel is used firsthand I don't want to be responsible for someone wrecking their car.

I can also tell you that a Festiva auto, aspire auto, and aspire manual axel is the same length from the outside hub end to the tripot bearing. The inner CV cup is almost an inch longer for festivas, and the spline counts are different mtx/atx.

[bobbyspider]

Dunno guess he just wanted to test the theory but his swap is still in progress so it hasn't seen the streets yet.

[nitrofarm]

^ yes. he has the rio one installed but hasnt drivin it yet but from hes tests he said it doesnt bind under turning or suspension flex

Why didnt he go with the XR2?

[jawbraeka]

I have a hard time processing info,spread sheets help me.So I made this,hope maybe it can help someone else. I made a couple observations:
Using a 02 Rio knuckle on a Festy,appears to require lengthening the Tie Rod @ 1" total.Using a Rio knuckle on a Aspire is almost identical as far as width goes.
Rio's track width compared to Aspire's are 1/16" wider.But use axles that are 1/8" shorter.So are they changing track width via rim backspace? How is track width measured? From outside edge of rim,or center line of rim?
F series tranny in Aspire, you can use na Capri axles with only 1/16" difference in axle overall axle width.

Anyone know the track width for the na Capri?

the image has dissapeared.

[bobbyspider]

^ yes. he has the rio one installed but hasnt drivin it yet but from hes tests he said it doesnt bind under turning or suspension flex

[nitrofarm]

Oh I should add that ZOOM ZOOM graciously measured the overall length of the XR2 vs Rio setup.His results are posted above ^^^^Thanks Zoom!