what car came with 5-bolt axles for s13?

[jfryjfry]

I need to get a spare set of axles pretty quick and wondered what, if anything, I can tell the guy at autozone to order that would work for my car. I have a 180sx that has 5-bolt axles. Not sure if there is any other info that would be necessary to figure it out. help?

another option would be what axle can I buy that, if necessary, I could swap out the cv joint if I blow mine up.

I have heard about some axles having a tripod joint, but I don't know what the tripod axles look like. My axles look like every other cv axle I've seen, so I don't know if that is enough to figure out which kind they are.

thanks

[maxtherabbit]

pre 96 j30 I think?

ETA

this is a tripod joint like the 2x3 bolt s13 axle uses: note the 3 grooves in the outside of the housing


this is a birfield (what nissan uses for the 5 bolt and 1x6 bolt half shafts):

[jfryjfry]

Thanks for the suggestion and info. I figured nrr was my best bet and have looked into it a bit more, and am curious:

I am finding no references to axle length save one thread here. The s14's are wider in the rear (~20 mm). The arms are wider so the axles should be wider too. It seems, based on some threads online, that the j30 axles might be too wide for the s13.

I'll keep looking but if anyone can shed light, please do

[Bubba]

IIRC it's only a 10mm difference total. I used J30 axles in my S13 rear end for a long time with no issues. The axle was in a somewhat compressed state the entire time I guess but it never felt off or seemed to cause any issues.
I've never heard of a compressed axle causing any issues, only ever had problems with over extended axles.

[maxtherabbit]

the j30 axles work on the s13 subframe without bottoming out, cv joints work perfectly as long as they don't bottom out completely - there's no sweet spot for length or anything

if you are nervous about over compressing them, (or any axle) unbolt the shock and move the upright through the range of suspension travel by hand to check for axle bind

[jfryjfry]

awesome, thanks guys. Headed to the standard parts stores today to try and procure a spare set.

I am using my car (reluctantly) on a tv game show and, being a little vague so as to not violate the nda, have to do a bunch of standing burnouts and drift circles. I started to hear a weird clunk coming from what sounded like the left rear when I was turning to the right. I would have just written it off as the lsd making the tire hop, but it was on the outside and usually that happens to the inside tire. I did just change the rear end oil and just used mobil 1 85-140 LS with no friction modifier Usually I have run a non LS oil and added the modifier. So maybe it's a little more grabby....
But clunks and whatnot always scare me on a 25 year old car that has had a strenuous 7 years of probably average of every 6-8 weeks getting wrung out for many hours. The last time I heard weird noises, I pulled the diff, looked at it, had a rear end shop look at it, and it was given a passing grade. 2 track days later, it broke the ring gear. maybe coincidence, but I'm trying to have spares of everything that could be questionable back there.

[djsilver]

If axle lengths are at issue and you have the right lengths now, you can buy the early J30 or Z32NA half shafts and swap the new birfield joints to your old axle shafts. The axles with tripod joints all have the same splines and the J30/Z32NA half shafts with CV joints share spline sizes. They get bigger going to the Q45 and Z32TT half shafts. The same goes for them as well. Everyone is looking for one left side Q45 and one left side Z32TT to fit. The right side units are cheap, but if you already have a set of axle shafts the right length you can by the "too long" ones, harvest the CV joints and rebuild your "correct length" ones.