I finally got my car out on the dunes this weekend. Broke my left axle once, got it repaired, and boom, it broke again. these are the Extreme U-joint axles. THESE HAVE TO GO BYE-BYE!!! So what are the best CV's out there and axles for the 930 size? Are there better ones than others? Like Titanium, or alloy"s or something like that? I break another axle and i am going to go berserk!

Just curious, how did they break?

Sorry for youre bad luck ... but have you been under a rock for the last year ?

got any pics of the setup? To break them that quick, I would guess they are not limited properly, or the u-joints are not indexed properly. I know of an axle that wasn't indexed properly and broke within 10 min, same with a rail that the straps were allowed to get loose and the u-joints were folding over on themselves for a few days before the u-joint broke....



Before people start having a field day with this, this would be one of the few cases where the axle broke and there is not a problem somewhere else that is either because of the axle, or blamed on the axle, so I think this case may be a setup problem..

As far as I know, 300M axles are the only way to go.

Got any pics of the break?


This is going to get good. Try to stay focused guys and help him out!

i would agree, to break that quick has to be a set up problem

what kind of power you throwing down ?

this would be helpfull info

I don't know what lenghth axles you need but I have a saet of 23.75" 300M axles I just pulled out of my car this week. Went with midboards that require longer axles. But like everyone has said as quick as they broke sounds like a setup issue.

The break was on the back of the upper ujoint flange, where it connects to the axle tube. Very piss poor weld the first time around. However, they fixed it by rewelding, adding four shear bolts, and a couple plug welds. Dont know how that broke? But it was in the same spot.

As far as setup, I do not know his angles. However, at ride height, it looks to be around the same as my car and they are set at about 20*. He has a ton more droop, and I donot know if he checked them for length. I do know they come on the car when he bought it.

Newstar V-6, with turbo. Set at 9lbs.

I hope you dont mind me stepping in Todd.

Are you sure the weld yokes were indexed properly when it was reinstalled? I had a customer pull his axles apart to re grease them, and had a professional shop do the work. They didn't index the yokes properly and it basically ripped off the slip shaft just below where it was welded. If they are not indexed, there is a horrible vibration that will trash the axle.....

My .02,,,worth half of that,,,


I have the Extreme's as well. I once put them on only 1 or 2 splines off center (indexed) and did notice some vibration on the first run. Looked and saw that and did a quick fix.

Are they still on the car? Maybe you can match 'em up or look at the other side and get some idea.

Like I said, my .01.

Don't mind at all Jed (JSCC). By the way, a HUGE thank you to you and your family and all the guys in camp. What a weekend! The ride you took me and Amy on really helped get her excited to get the car going.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of the breaks. The second break could have been due to improper clocking. When we took the broken half of the shaft to repair it, we didnt think to take the other half to check alignment. It was about 10 degrees off. As for the first one, I dont know whats happening. The axles came with the car. The car previously had a 2D with a LS1. It now has a 2D with a Newstar turbo@ 9lbs boost. The 2D is mounted EXACTLY the same as the previous trans and in EXACTLY the same position so I dont know how it could be set-up. The limiting straps are the same as before as well and are non adjustable and were not in no way loose. The car is still at St. Anthony's so I cant go take pictures either. When I measure for the new axles I will confirm the distances between trans and hub on both sides. If they differ, Then we will know there was a set-up problem for sure and will be corrected for the new axles.

Yah I knew the U-joint axles had become unpopular but the previous owner indicated zero issues with the axles and a few on here have had excellent luck with them. I had spent plenty of money as it is and decided to go ahead and use these axles. Now I dont trust them and the one is now pretty much beyond repair.

So like my questions in the original post says, whats the BEST out there? Where is THE place to get them? Looking in Sand Sport magazine I saw one place had more than one kind of 930 CV so there has to be better, stronger ones out there than others and i dont want another trip ruined from friggen axles! I will order 3 complete axles when i get then just to have a spare.

Not sure. In the 400's I know that much. Going to a dyno for map tuneing as soon as I get the axles in and on.

quick question? when you did your engine swap/rebuild did you put the axles on the same side they where on previous to the first break. keep in mind even these axles have metal memory and could or will fail if run in the wrong direction. it is even worse whith cv'd axles. on my old car this was learned the hard way.

If you didn't clock the axles when welding up the first ones than there is pretty much no chace they were welded on correct, and then you prob. just bolted them up without indexing them and i'm positive that's the reason for the second break.

As for the first break, if he had no problems and you did right after you took it out, the only thing that has changed is you put in a new tranny. If the output flanges are off by much at all it will put the axles at a different angle. You really need to jack the rail up so the tires are not touching and check the angle on the axles, or better yet, visually look at the u-joints and make sure the ears are not close or touching the ears of the other weld yoke...

Just call Kar-Tek, They will fix U up dude.

Does it look like this?

Yoshi, You can see the set-up on my build thread. I have a good pcture from the back but I was a bit off to the right when I took the picture but close enough to give you an idea.

Howlett- I dont know what side what was on. When I picked the car up the axles were taken off and bungeed to the car.

Bent- No not really. Where the weld is on the ujoint yoke is where the weld came undone. Like JSCC said on the second break, we had put in 4 pins and did plug welds. Much stronger but the tube tore and is toast now.

This is one of the few failers that have been talked about with the extreme axels (its a diffrent story with another brand). I have had a set on my car since I bought it last summer. I have torn up many rocky fire roads in AZ and did 6 Glamis trips for 3-5 days this past year. The only issue I have is that the break away bolts come lose after 8 hours of driving. The privous owner didn't have the issue until the axles were powdercoated.

get some german lobro 930 cv's, call gear one or Kartek and get some 300m axles, then get some 300m cages and I have also had good luck with running one size smaller balls in the cvs so you don't have to race prep them. If you don't want to spend the money on the 300m cages at least get cromolly ones. do not use the stock cage. finding the correct axle length you need to order along with what type of grease to use will require you to start another thread.....LOL

I blew up, and lightened up the pic the other day, but unfortunately I can't see the inside weld yoke. I need to see the inside and the outside to tell if they are clocked correctly....

Let's not and say we did. Bottom line is he needs cv's and axles.

bottom line huh........


axles worked fine before he modified the rear end of the rail, now the axles break as soon as he takes it out, sounds like setup to me.........

If he goes out and buys new cv's and axles, and doesn't clock them right, or doesn't adjust the limit straps so they don't go past their limits, they will no work right either, and can break just like the u-joint axles..

I agree, it definately sounds like a setup issue. But, it sounds like you want to convince him that the driveline axles will still work. We've been there and done that. I personally have Jess' axles on my rail and with a full seaon on them I have no complaints. But with Sako's 400 plus hp, I'd recommend getting some CV's and axles.

Just making sure he's fixing the correct problem. He's gonna have to spend money on a new axle setup, new limit straps, and he's gonna cost himself a bit of travel whc means the shocks will need to be setup different. That just seams like a lot of time and money to throw at something when the problem may have been improper limits the first time, and obvious improper alignment the second time.

Been doing some searching on here and have learned quite a bit. I dont understand how you clock CV's though? They should be 100% the same all the way around or they wouldnt be balanced so mounting position should be a mute point. As far as travel and set-up I will have that figured out and corrected before I even order the axles. When I order the axles, I am ordering them fully assembled, ready to instal. I know the cars setup is close so after some minor adjustments, will be right on. Believe it or not, the travel on the rear arms is already limited by the straps over 4"s. The angles dont look any more steep than 90% of the LT rails I have seen but I will measure them properly to double check they are within range for the CV's. I am very maticulous, just got careless in the heat of the moment after the first break. This car will be right!

I also know I need to make some adjustments on the front geometry for better steering and I am taking the car to a dyno tuning session to get fine tuned. Like I said, this car WILL be right.

Do a search in here for cv clocking.

As far as your rear angle, to give you an idea of how much travel you'll have switching to cv's, 930's start clicking around 24 degrees, so you'll set them for less...

Todd, you can look on OutFront's website. They got a pretty good instructional up on C.V's in general.

I bet you loose quite a bit of that droop you have. Remember I told you I still have over 6" of unused travel because of my C.V's.

I think Hallett hit it on the head. I bet they were not put back on the correct sides, and the memory is wrong. I did this once on my cv's, and they did not make it a trip, the axles exploded!

You sound like me, I have been running my Extreme axles for 3 seasons now, and the only single issue I have is the shear bolts come loose after a few hours of duning. Mine are not coated yet. I would buy them again.

I have been running my Extreme axles for1 season now, havehad an issue I have is the shear bolts comeing loose after a few hours of duning. Mine are coated yet. I would buy them again. So far so god

Clocking the CV's has nothing to do with balance. It has to do with matching up a small opening with a large opening for angles. If you don't clock them for that, then you'll get uneven openings lining up. If you get 2 small openings lined up that will give you less angle allowance than you should have.

Just for examples (these are just made up #'s)

2 small openings lined up will only give you 20*
2 large openings will give you 28*

So while the CV is rotating you'll have 3 spots where you can only have 22* and 3 spots where you can have 28*. To be safe your car better not ever need more than the 22* or you'll break something.

If you match a small opening up with a large opening....You'll get 24* all the way around. No spots will be greater than the other.

Make sense or did I confuse you more?

With that being said, if you set your max angle at 22 degrees you shouldn't have to worry about clocking. Correct?

I'm not sure what the real angle #'s are...That's why I said "Just for examples (these are just made up #'s)". If the angle is less than what 2 small openings allow, I don't see an issue. Remember though, the angle isn't just up and down. The offset from the wheel to the tranny affects it too.

Right, you add the two numbers to get the total.

Good heads up Jed on Outfront's site. very good info. Just kinda wierd when you do a Google search for thier site and it brings up all these gay and lesbo sites. No wonder you found thier site!

I think I am going to go with the 930 Super CV Joints from this place:

http://www.gear-one.com/Htmls/drivetrain.html

I am going to talk to them about those greaseable boot flanges and the boot retainers. Be a bit of a investment but should be more of a hands off setup.

yoshi i am pretty sure he just turboed the motor when he put this setup together , i did not see it posted maybe he addressed it , but i talked with him a couple of months ago and if i remeber right he was getting the trans and turbo setup going . tim

Hahaha, yep, you know me

Tim is right. I put the turbo setup and the the 2-D in the car when I rebuilt it. When Sick Dayz had the car before me it had a 2-d and a LS1. these axles were on that set-up of his originally.

I think I have solved the BIG mystery now that I am here with the car. The distance between the hub and the trans on the side that is broken is 3/4" shorter than the opposite side.

Forgot to add. My max angle with the limiting straps I have now is 27.5 deg. and at ride height it is 22 deg. looks like Buck will be getting a call for 2 new ones. He sent me a P.M. and said if I was to purchase a set of his HD Axles he will 100% Gaurentee they will not break. Good enough for me and I wont loose my travel.

And you will still have one spare.

What kind of coin are they Todd?

Site says $1500 for a pair. Hoping we can work on that!!

It aint the axles that will break.

The 2D he has is the unit with the cast side cases which have broken on higher hp vehicles, the units with billet cases have never broke to my knowledge...

Yep. With that kind of hp, I'd stay away from the u-joints.

who sells the billet side cases i have never seen any ? not to imo unless extreme uses a different process to harden the slip wouldnt they act just like jess axles. i was under the impression the only difference was the butter bolt flange.

I agree that the HD axles will probably never break. Ask him if he will guarantee your trailing arm flanges and transaxle side cases.

How can you tell which side cases you have? I run the extreme axles with a 2-D too. Here's a pic of my set-up.

to my knowledge, the 2D case has cast side cases stock, which is a weaker amterial and why they have broken on some rails with plunging axles. As far as the trailing arm tabs ripping off, they are always a thinner material, if you have good tabs then you will be fine...Yoshi