Driveshaft Shop Axle Questions

[Doug345]

Bought some front axles for my R32 GTR in December (broke the outer CV joint launching the car) from The Driveshaft Shop. I was away when they came so I had a friend install them.

Has anybody had problems with the boots from there? I noticed grease all over my front driver side rim the other day and saw that both inner and outer boots had been almost completely torn in two. Is this a common problem with the Driveshaft Shop or was I just unlucky enough to have had something fly up from the road and tear them? I don't recall hearing or feeling anything.

I'm about to take the axle off now and my friend was saying that I needed to remove the 6 bolts that attach it to the diff but I was recently reading that there was no need to do this. Is this still true with the Driveshaft Shop axle? I've seen a few articles on the forum explaining how to take off the axle by prying or by removing the diff cover and was wondering if I could still do this..

[caliber676]

Can't speak for the driveshaft shop themselves but that tends to happen when you put generic (cheap aftermarket ) cv boots on a performance car. As for removal, I like to check and clean the actual joint/balls so if you were to remove them the driver side has to be pulled out of the front diff, there is a surclip that holds it in place, so prying sometimes helps. The passenger side has the six bolts holding it to the flange.

[Doug345]

Thanks

[rickskylinebnr32gtrjp]

I have the DSS front shafts with no issues whatsoever.
Caliber, I doubt DSS uses cheap after market CV boots. I talked to DSS about replacement boots before and they said to contact them when customers need replacements.

[caliber676]

^ i doubt they would either considering they are a performance shop. Just from my experience though the only failures ive had from boots after replacement are from cheap (lordco) boots. I've also heard those stretch to fit ones are hit or miss. I personally dont go with anything other than oem, its the king.

[rickskylinebnr32gtrjp]

Caliber, OEM boots don't fit over 105mm Porsche CV's which is what the DSS shafts use. And when you have so much power that OEM front axles don't stay together during launch, stock front half shafts no longer do the job.

[caliber676]

^never knew they were different, just thought re engineered for higher strength. I would say improper installation then or something in the suspension geometry is contacting them, I can't see multiple boots failing from road debris.

[rickskylinebnr32gtrjp]

Agreed, Caliber.

[Doug345]

Thanks for all the input. Once I got the axles out and took the boots for replacement, it looked to me as if the boots weren't exactly "new". Like maybe they were old stock that had been sitting at DSS for a while...who knows. I couldn't see anything on the car that might be contacting them and since this time around it was me installing them, I made sure to be careful reinstalling the axle. Hopefully everything is good now. Will have to wait and see

[Bruizer]

what the heck kind of power are you putting down? stock are good for 800+ hp and that's what i built for. i wonder if your split boots is somehow linked to why you broke your axles in the first place. is your car lowered a fair bit?

[rickskylinebnr32gtrjp]

Bruizer, somewhere north of that 800 HP figure. I have a fully built RB26 engine, billet crank, 9500rpm redline, 75mm single turbo boosting 32 psi, ported head, 270 degree 10.8mm lift cams, 1000cc injectors (about to upgrade to ID1300cc).
The car is pretty much set up for drag.

[Doug345]

what the heck kind of power are you putting down? stock are good for 800+ hp and that's what i built for. i wonder if your split boots is somehow linked to why you broke your axles in the first place. is your car lowered a fair bit?

That's what I don't understand. The first time around I completely destroyed the CV joint...but that was on the front outer passenger side. The broken boots more recently are on the front driver side. And the car is basically stock power wise. I have Tein adjustables on the car but I'm not running a low ride height. I run 265/40/R18 and have about a 1/2" clearance between top of tire and fender

[Bruizer]

Hmm. yeah that's weird. I remember splitting the same boot 4 times... sold the car haha

As for Ricky, that's nuts.

[Skym]

Drivetrain shock from launching can cause the failure with stock hp and using slick tyres.

Locking up the drivetrain with using hand brake before launching can help to prevent this from happening with rear halfshaft's (might be able to use brakes with front halfshaft's).

Also they found that wheel spinning off the line (more rwd bias via 4wd with GTR) helps as well, as from what I can remember the rwd Group-A cars had halfshaft failures with slick tyres when hard launching at the start of races.

[rickskylinebnr32gtrjp]

It takes a LOT more power to blow the rear half shafts. You see my setup above and I've never blown rears even running 10psi air pressure in 15 inch drag slicks with tubes.
The only time I have actually seen rears blow in person was on a prepped track at Sendai with an 8 second R32 using a welded diff instead of a legit 1.5 or 2 way.