Axle differences
 

I am trying to replace the axles on my NA. The axles that I picked up from a Miata specialist Won't line up with the halfshafts on the diff side. the axles seem identical other than the fact that the bolt holes don't line up and the shaft that goes to the hub has a different gusset on it.
Can anyone tell me What axles I specifically need? In the second picture the axle on the right is what I pulled off the car and is much flatter on the mounting flange.
I tried searching but can't find any pictures of the different axles. I know the car has an LSD(supposedly Tomei) if that helps. I'm guessing it's got a 1.8 drivetrain upgrade but I'm not sure how to tell.
Thanks in advance!
http://bayimg.com/LAonhAadp


http://bayimg.com/MAOnfaaDp

what year/model do you have and why are you changing the axles?

I have a 93, I'm changing the axles because the boot is cracked and the axles are making popping noises. The axles for the 93 that the specialist gave me don't fit. Which leads me to believe that I have a 1.8 drivetrain upgrade. I just bought the car and it was already boosted and I'm guessing it had the rear end swapped.

Check http://www.solomiata.com/Drivetrain.html for good info on differences between the drive train configurations.

A picture of the differential itself would help, but my guess (from your pictures) would be that you do indeed have a '94 or later diff, and '94-'96 axles.

Within the '90-'93 range, all CV axles were interchangeable apart from the ABS sensor rings. The differentials themselves used different stub axles depending on whether they used an open diff or a viscous LSD, however they all mated to the same CV axles.

If I'm not mistaken, it appears that the new axle which you have received is physically longer than the one you pulled off the car, and this would also suggest that the car already has a 1.8-style diff in it. The 1.8 diffs are physically wider than the 1.6 diffs, and so the 1.8 axles are shorter to compensate for this.

Sorry to dig up this zombie but I have a question and can't for the life of me find an answer to and it does kind of go along with what's discussed here.

I had to replace my 92 VLSD for a 94 torsen and I was in a big hurry to get back to the track (club fun day and I had plenty of tires to punish).
My car has ABS but the 94 axles didn't have tone rings.

Can I swap out the outer CV axles and or the whole CV joints ?

You should be able to knock the rings off the old axles and onto the new ones.

That's even easier and much cleaner.
Thank you, I'll give it a whirl.

Well, I tried moving the tone rings from axle to axle and found out that it's a no go in my case.
I replaced my VLSD and ABS acles with a Torsen out of my 94 with the 2 piece axles (no ABS).

Pulled the outside CV joints off both axles and started measuring.
While the axle tubes are of a different length (the 1.6 axle tubes are longer due to the smaller pumpkin), the splines ate identical as in the tube diameter.
The cage and balls from the CV's are also identical as are the boots.
The differences started on the outside of the stub axles, where the tone ring resides.
The ABS stub axles have an extra shoulder machined into them for the tone ring, the non ABS stub axles had that area rounded off. It might be possible to machine the shoulder into the axle but I don't have the equipment so I just did a straight swap.

Anyway, took some pictures for future reference.

The 1.6 and 1.8 axles
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397082910

From left to right.
1.6 stub axle with tone ring, 1.6 with tone ring removed, 1.8 non ABS
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397082910
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397082910


Since it looks like all the CVjoints are the same, I'll be on the lookout for some axles out of an automatic. Non molested spares of OEM quality are always good to have sitting on the shelf.

I always thought the outer CV couldn't be disassembled and reassembled without special equipment. Were you able to accomplish this with ordinary tools? Tutorial?

Advanced Autoparts now sells brand new, not re-manned, 99+ ABS axles for $80 a side. They will fit any car with a 94+ diff. I have one sitting in a box the with the axle nut and socket for the axle nut in the kit of spares for when I blow out an axle at the launch.

Fo-realz?

The axles which came with my 1.8 torsen are bit crusty and for 160 bucks, why not!

-Zach

No shit, I paid treasure coast $90/axle for used ones because I hadn't discovered these yet. No one knows about them yet really. But I want everyone to know so everyone buys them so they ramp production way up.

Good to know- I've never had an ABS car, and this is something I've been curious about. Interestingly, the late NAs (the ones with one-piece axles)) used the same axles for both ABS and non-ABS cars. I'd always assumed that this tradition carried on with the NB- never realized that they went back to segregating them.

Wow, thanks for that, just in time. My Torsen came without axles.

Just ordered them bitches.

$135.98 shipped to my door with this month's discount code.

Yeah, I'm surprised that leaving the machining off saves enough money to be worth stocking two sets of parts in the inventory system, but apparently so. It's true for most of the ABS-related parts -- the ABS and non-ABS uprights are the same casting, but not machined for the sensors on the non-ABS ones. The A-arms are the same stamped/welded pieces, but there are extra brackets on the ABS ones. The non-ABS front hubs do all appear to have been machined to accept the ABS rings, though.

--Ian

I know that the msm diff only takes msm axles. I have not yet checked other torsen axles for nbs to see if it would fit. I have the stub still of my broken msm diff for comparison.

Yes, the MSM diff uses larger axles than the rest of the 94-05 miatas.

Leafy, even the other torsens? Well I figured that explained why it was semi difficult to find one.