Quote:
Originally Posted by Derek UK
Higher quality and much stronger axles are available as direct replacements that go a long way to reduce any breakages that might occur. Rallying would benefit most from fitting those. Redrilling the flanges back to the early PCD would, I think, severely compromise their strength in that area. I think they usually break where the spline meets the plain shaft? I've never actually seen one. Point taken about slightly easier servicing but that is more useful for competition where those with ocd might take everything apart after each event or at least with some regularity. Now days brakes are lucky to get checked every 10k miles. Normally if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
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Once again I stated the original axle shafts and brakes are ok for regular use - the weakness and breakage occurs for the most part when road racing on pavement.
I'm aware of the new replacement axles that are available, I don't believe that the alloy used in them will solve to problem in racing. The issue is the design which is prone to breakage under hard use. Not only on Volvo axles but those used by other manufacturers of the same type. Ford axles with the same construction suffer from the same breakage.
Re-drilling the flanges doesn't weaken them enough to cause a problem, as it is fairly common to drill extra holes in the flanges to lighten them for racing. I've never heard of or have seen any of these axles breaking at the splines or at the hub or flange. Dana the manufacturer changed the design to 28 smaller splines which leaves the the root diameter larger in that area larger than that on the early coarse-splined axles. However any axle is subject to breakage in this area when used for drag racing.