Discovery 24 spline axles or cadbury axles

[Young bobtail Rhys]

Does the 300 series have 24 splines? and is it worth upgrading my 10 spline axles to 24 as they are a bit stronger, or are they not strong enough i.e cadbury axles, and still break with fair ease? Obviously the answer is go to ashcroft etc. uprate internals but I am on a very tight budget, so would this be worth while to me? Or big jump, go for sailsburys front and rear with discs, but they are expensive, but will I still break them?

TIA

Rhys

[Guest WALFY]

If you use the search engine you could read all about this subject till the cows come home.

I ran 10 spl axles with twin ARB's for a couple of years, broke a few bit's along the way. CV's, 1/2 shafts . 24 spl will be stonger in standard format but not by much, they will still break if you try hard enough.

Go buy the 24 spl axles if you have a source. Then you can upgrade using Ashcroft bits as and when the budget allows. If I was to do it all over again I would of splashed out on 24spl to start off with.

[Young bobtail Rhys]

I have done the serach on here, as I always do. However, I just wanted to make sure and get a abit of advice on what would be best to do, as I have broken 3 diffs in the space of a year and I am lucky if the bob goes out once every 2 months Oh, and I don't class myself as a hard driver What do we think about the sailsburys front and rear?

[Guest WALFY]

Expensive. Most rear's are drum braked, but you can convert to disks. Not sure how easy it is but all the bits are bolt on I think. You'll lose a bit of ground clearance on the rear. Need special tools to get diff out. Bits are expensive when you come to upgrade.

But as always it's horses for courses.

The bit about searching wasn't a dig. Just stating that there is lots of info on here to read. Just got to realise who to believe and who not to

[Young bobtail Rhys]

Yes I have noticed that the sailsburys don't give as much diff clearance. I mean, at the end of the day, whatever I put on my rangie I will break. I am going to be running 34" ltb's with beadlocks and standard chocolate axles Completely the wrong way of doing things but hey I realise you weren't trying to dig at me, its just your absolutly right on who to believe really as I have heard all sorts about the axles and read all sorts too.

[Guest WALFY]

I don't claim to be an expert. I report what I know to be fact not what my mate's mate mother who married what s is name says. Don't do hearsay

[Warthog]

Here's the thread i started last year. Has alot of info in it.

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopi...=Axle+Internals

I am running 24 spline rear diff with V8 Halfshafts. The front axle is running 24 Spline diff with Early 90/110 hub assemblies to suit the older CV's.

Hope this helps?

[Young bobtail Rhys]

I don't claim to be an expert. I report what I know to be fact not what my mate's mate mother who married what s is name says. Don't do hearsay

Thats all cool then

[Young bobtail Rhys]

Here's the thread i started last year. Has alot of info in it.

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopi...=Axle+Internals

I am running 24 spline rear diff with V8 Halfshafts. The front axle is running 24 Spline diff with Early 90/110 hub assemblies to suit the older CV's.

Hope this helps?

Thank you, will give it a good read through

[Young bobtail Rhys]

Would also like to say that my uncle has a soft dash rangie with the etc and 24 splines (I think) and he drives it like a proper comp safari. On average about 1 or 2 wheels on the ground It seems to be very capable, but he has not broke anything.........yet! So how come? Does the etc give more cushion on the drivetrain etc. Although, he has broke a gearbox!!!!

[will_warne]

OK, the difference in standard form between 10 and 24 spline Rover axles from the top:

Diffs:

No differance - still weak. There are a few (V8 90) rear axles running round with 4-pin diffs. These are 24 spline only and are a very good upgrade. However, a lot of V8 90 axles will have had thier diffs swapped out by now particularly by the racing boys who love them.

Rear Halfshafts:

Generally comparable. There are some 24 spline versions that are quite strong (V8 Disco - I can't remember the part number, though) but generally there's not much in it.

Front Halfshafts:

24 spline is terrible: The halfshafts are horribly small diameter at the CV (32 spline) end. They are far inferior to the older 10 spline axles with either AEU2522 CVs or the old RR ones with the removable stub shafts - these are the shafts with the 23 spline CVs. If you're unlucky there was a few years when they ran 10 spline diff end and 32 spline at the CV as that gives you the worst of both worlds. The only thing the 24/32 spline axles have going for them is that they're newer so have probably had fewer miles / less abuse (the same applies to the rear axles). As far as upgrading goes there's no easy option. You can't buy uprated 24/32 spline shafts (Ashcrofts and Maxi Drive did make these a while back but they both stopped after there were repeated failures - even with some funky materials and clever designs they couldn't engineer around the problems) meaning you need uprated CVs and, although you can buy uprated 10/23 spline GKN shafts they're expensive and I've seen the test rig results . That means you really need 24/23 spline shafts meaning you need a new 24 spline diff centre.

CV joints:

As above you want axles with 23 spline CVs in as this gives the best CV / shaft strength. However, in the majority of cases with a standard halfshaft you will break the halfshaft before the CV. Yes, there are people who've done it but in most of these cases the CV hasn't been in great shape before it let go. Even more reason to go for the 10/23 spline axles

The reason your uncle may not have broken anything yet is that standard halfshafts have a massive plastic deformation region - they literally just keep twisting (can be through over 1000 degree!) and then go pop. So, if you get a new halfshaft you can give it quite a bit of abuse before it lets go but you could equally get a second hand shaft that's nearing the limit of plastic deformation and will let go suddenly doing something fairly mundane. This may be the reason people perceive 24 spline as stronger....

Some will also argue that earlier axles are superior due the the wider bearing spacing. However, I never had issues with excessive bearing wear with narrow hubs; IMHO the important thing is regular servicing and genuine stubs and seals.