I just had a wheel bearing replaced, and while the mechanic was under the car he noticed that my driver's side axle was too long, which is causing the inner CV joint to bind. I got both front axles from O'Reilly's and I guess they gave me axles for the wrong differential, seems like mine is one of the rare locking differentials.

Is this correct information - would a driver's-side LSD axle in a non-LSD manual tranny be too long? Also, it seems like the passenger-side axle is fine, just the driver's side is bad. Will the passenger side LSD axle in a non-LSD tranny be fine?

 

ummmmm.....did u get ur car form canada ir swap an I30 tranny in it

 

No, why do you ask?

 

Only some canadian max's and i30t's have limited slip differentials, so either your mechanic is wrong or a previous owner did the swap.

 

My mechanic is saying that I DO NOT have a limited slip differential. O'Reilly's apparently gave me the LSD axle, which they said is the most common and assumed that I had a LSD. I didn't know the LSD was Canadian only.

I did buy the car used ... is there a way to check for the LSD, i.e. turn the wheels when the car is on jackstands?

I'm planning to go to O'Reilly's tonight and have them exchange the supposed-LSD axle they gave me for a non-LSD version. From what you guys are saying, this should be correct?

 

exactly......or maybe its an axle for LSD in the NON-LSD tranny

 

LSD and non LSD axles are the exact same length - I've measured them. I don't know what would happen if you tried to put an LSD axle in a non LSD trans though, the splines are different on the very end (there is a smaller set of splines, which meshes into the viscous coupling in the very middle of the differential, which is absent in a NON LSD trans), but the larger set which would be actually meshing into the differential might have something different about it that would cause it to stick out further. I will go look later I have both types of axle out in the garage.

 

That's exactly what I think it is, sorry if the first post wasn't clear on that. I think the tranny is NON-LSD (and that's supported if no US max's came with them), and that O'Reilly's gave me the LSD axle by mistake.

I just wonder why would O'Reilly's tell me that the LSD verson is the most common?

 

maybe people put LSDs in their car and order axles form them alot when they do it

 

If you don't mind please let us know what you find, I'm very interested now. It makes sense that they would be the same length, but perhaps the different splines on the LSD end are preventing the axle from fully fitting into the non-LSD tranny (even if the outer splines do mesh)? If so that would prevent enough lenth of the axle from entering the tranny, and I could see this causing the inner CV to bind.

 

It's possible. Or it could be O'Reilly's just had their heads up their asses on this one, who knows?

 

Here are the pics, the top axle is the LSD axle, the bottom axle is NON LSD/open diff. The outer splines (splines furthest to the right in the pic) are the same diameter. As you can see the inner CV has a different setup. The overall length of the axles are the same. I don't know what actually "stops" the axle from going "in" too far into the transmission, which surface it is that stops it. I can TRY tomorrow when I'm down at the shop to remember to take both axles with me to the shop. I've got a disassembled open diff trans down there. Being as it's out of the car, if I can quickly reassemble the diff section and bolt the case together, I may be able to test fit both axles into the open diff trans, and see if I can figure out which part of the axle actually acts as the "stop" and see if perhaps the LSD axle is able to slide further into the trans than it should, meaning the inner CV might "stretch" out which could cause binding. This all depends on how busy I am down there tomorrow though, and whether or not the owner will let me mess around off the clock after I'm supposed to leave, etc.

 

I pulled the axle tonight, and it's actually the correct non-LSD axle.

I think the mechanic just saw that the inner boot was "scrunched" up (as seen in the top left boot in the first picture that nealoc187 posted) and thought that it was binding.

Thanks for posting the pics, that really did help verify which axle I was looking at.

 

All this due to another mechanic being .

 

i suggest switching mechanics

 

slap that mechanic . . .jeez