ok i am gettng the driver cv shaft to swap into the pass side in 2 weeks.  do i need the inner and outer shafts?  i looked under there and seems like i would, but i have never had the front dif area apart much other than doing hubs, breaks and lift.  the yard called and they have my outer shaft and want to know about the inner by tomorrow  sorry for short notice, any help would be great.  thanks all.

Im not sure but I think you need the inner too.  i think it has to be cut and resplined to make it work.  Your project gets me thinking though I have been wondering for a while about moving the diff over to the drivers side a bit and using the longer shaft on the passenger side to gain myself some length in both sides.  Has anyone done this?

Im not sure but I think you need the inner too.  i think it has to be cut and resplined to make it work.  Your project gets me thinking though I have been wondering for a while about moving the diff over to the drivers side a bit and using the longer shaft on the passenger side to gain myself some length in both sides.  Has anyone done this?

Yeah, Mikey has... He's probably got a few photos too.

-Eric

Im interested in knowing how he delt with the drivers side mount.  I cant decide if I should notch the frame or remake the mount.

This is what Calmini basically has done with it's Anvil. The differential is located outboard off center enough that the front ds is not parallel with the centerline of the vehicle.

BEWARE: you can not swap a driver's side axle with the 2 cv's directly over to the passenger side. They are not compatible.

Meaning the driver's side has a flange on an intermediate shaft which comes out of the diff along the housing. It's secured to the housing via flange, seal and bearing. The passenger side goes directly into the diff housing, but is secured via a snap ring on the end of the shaft in the housing.
What I believe Mike has done in customizing his front axle was to use a Ford 8" (not a 9") rear axle housing, cut short enough to use axle flanges on the ends, custom mounted into the frame, customizing the ends of the shafts to mate to flange style cv's. These cv's are not Suzuki's so cutting and welding is required.

My plan is to put in just the shaft not the CVs.  Ill reuse the existing CVs on the passenger side.  The shaft itself seems to be longer but I havn't measured it yet.

BEWARE: you can not swap a driver's side axle with the 2 cv's directly over to the passenger side. They are not compatible.

Meaning the driver's side has a flange on an intermediate shaft which comes out of the diff along the housing. It's secured to the housing via flange, seal and bearing. The passenger side goes directly into the diff housing, but is secured via a snap ring on the end of the shaft in the housing.

This is what we've done so that two flanged cv shafts could be used thus only one spare was required. Eventhough we don't have an article directly referring to that, there is a couple of articles that beat around the bush a bit. There are some pictures that definitely show what (I think) we're talking about...

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_090103/feature_sidekickdrivetrainimprovements.htm

and

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_120102/feature_hagan_frontendmod.htm

HTH, -Eric

On the stock set up there is no 'shaft' in the diff on the passenger (right) side. The shaft is part of the CV itself. The cup that you can see (that does not have the 3 bolt flange) has a long shaft as part of the CV that slides all the way into the carrier. To be able to use a inner shaft you will need to do something similiar to Calmini's set up with a custom stub shaft with bearings, seal etc. You can see jow they did it in the following link.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_110103/feature_zigsbeef.htm

HTH,
Zig

Im saying just swap the circled part and reuse the CV ends that are there. Then you don't need a stub shaft.

Ill post on this subject in a couple hours... I gotta run some arrands. Ive got a lot of info on this.

Mike

BEWARE: you can not swap a driver's side axle with the 2 cv's directly over to the passenger side. They are not compatible.

If you swap the inner cup they are. :-/ They are very close in length. I dont remember which side it is but one of them is something like 1/3 inch longer. Not enough to be a problem. If your running short on shafts you could swap the inner cup if need be.

Mike

What I believe Mike has done in customizing his front axle was to use a Ford 8" (not a 9") rear axle housing, cut short enough to use axle flanges on the ends, custom mounted into the frame, customizing the ends of the shafts to mate to flange style cv's. These cv's are not Suzuki's so cutting and welding is required.

Actually what Ive got is better than that. Im using a prototype Calmini anvil. The long side was elliminated and it is center mounted. Basicly it is just a suzuki 3rd member with 2 axle stubs hangin out. Then I built 2 passenger side Maxima shafts. (longer and larger)

To center mount the diff I had to raise the motor 3 inches and also cut and drop the center cross member 1 1/2 inches.... along with the front. Then I flipped the tierod ends to the top of the knuckle to correct steering geometery. ( I was aware that I would flip the tie rods thats why I chose 1 1/2 inches.) This causes the fulcrum of the lower control arm to change requireing a 1 3/4 inch coil spring spacer to retain center clearance. This required a strut drop of 1 1/2 inches. (see a chain reaction ) The final product was a 5 inch lift in the front.... so I leveled the back with a 1 1/2 inch spacer.... but that was too much angle on the rear arms and the rig would weird things on steep hill climbs. So I cut the frame where the upper v bar attaches and dropped it 2 inches. This made the upper link level on my rig. It still didnt feel right so cut the lower control arm bracket off the frame and moved it forward to the next hole in the frame. Then I made a pair of longer control arms out of 3/16 thick 1 3/4 dom tubing and had it bent with a high clearance like the Calimini 3 inch.

???I think I got sidetracked I need to go back and re read this topic.

Mike

ok i am gettng the driver cv shaft to swap into the pass side in 2 weeks.  do i need the inner and outer shafts?  i looked under there and seems like i would, but i have never had the front dif area apart much other than doing hubs, breaks and lift.  the yard called and they have my outer shaft and want to know about the inner by tomorrow  sorry for short notice, any help would be great.  thanks all.

You will need the inner as a donor if your planning on doing what it says in this artical.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_120102/feature_hagan_frontendmod.htm

BTW just a heads up, it wont fit without widening the lower arms as mentioned in that artical also.

Mike

Actually what Ive got is better than that. Im using a prototype Calmini anvil. The long side was elliminated and it is center mounted. Basicly  Then I built 2 passenger side Maxima shafts. (longer and larger)

To center mount the diff I had to raise the motor 3 inches and also cut and drop the center cross member 1 1/2 inches.... along with the front.  

I thought you were Ford 9" up front, was that an old post or is this a different Tracker?

Can you give any details on the 2- stubs custom cut and splined units I assume ..."it is just a suzuki 3rd member with 2 axle stubs hangin out."

3" motor lift + 1.5" drop = 4.5"   Hey I've just about got that kind of clearance now    ...  

I fabbed my upper rear 3rd link drop bracket today (a bandaid to get theCherokee coils in until I figure out the rear / I should get the similar funky Up-hill experience).  My +2" Explorer front coils should be in tomorrow. WooHoo!

My plan is to put in just the shaft not the CVs.  Ill reuse the existing CVs on the passenger side.  The shaft itself seems to be longer but I havn't measured it yet.

Thanks for the clearing up. When I read such things I include the entire axle from stub to stub/flange. I keep forgetting that shaft actually floats in the cv cup.

To add, I guess my memory is not as good as I had thought. Referencing Mike's front axle setup, I thought I recalled him working with a 8" Ford rear axle, cutting the tubes, reinstalling the cut down and resplined axles, reconfiguring the axle ends to work with the flanges of the cv cups so that he would only have to carry a sinlge type spare.