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What replacement axles are you running on your X3's?

18K views 60 replies 23 participants last post by  zambo 
#1 ·
I'm about to purchase front a-arms, and already have the shock tower brace installed. But haven't installed my gusset kit yet. While I have it literally all apart, I was thinking I should replace the axles (nothing is wrong with the stock ones) just wanted something more beefy than stock, I was leaning toward the Rhino 2.0 ones (best price) or the RCV ones (most expensive). And I wanted to reach out and see what other peoples experiences were with replacement axles...

Thanks in advanced,
-Jason
 
#8 ·
Here's my trouble with the stock ones, the smoked one had 1800 miles and the other had 15min on it after replacing the smoked one. Same riding location and style same day. I put the 3rd cv axle on that day to and it also about popped after 10-15min. I caught it and took it easy before it let go for the rest of the weekend so the trip wasn't ruined. They get to hot melt/pop the boots, why in the hell don't they run a moly grease in these? The grease looks just like the the stuff used in tripod cv joints.


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#9 ·
What kind of riding do you do? I have 8000 miles on my car including two NORRA races, many Baja 500 and 1000 pre-runs, etc and have never broken an axle or CV. Maybe there is a setup issue? Have you made any changes to the geometry? Big power motor? Were all the failures on the same corner? Hate to see you try and fix the problem by just buying an expensive axle only to break that too.
 
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#10 ·
Only thing I can figure is to much CV angle, it's a 72" machine with 16" of clearance from the bottom of the rear skid. The riding condition was a little harsh though also, it was a old lake bed that I roosted in a road race track that had lots of turns and high speed straits. Most of the turns were under power were you drift through them so probably high loading on the outer side around the turn, the dirt was damp clay like mixture so pretty good traction.
It just has a dynojet tune with a hollowed cat.
 
#48 ·
I ripped 3 inner CV boots in a similar way. 13 miles of high speed windy gravel road. Those were Rhino 2.0 axles. The only OEM axle survived. With some difficulty SATV did make it right and sent me boot kits.

OP. I personally think OEM axles are perfectly fine. I’ve run them and Rhino 2.0’s (broken both) and honestly think either are good but any axles I buy going forward are going to be OEM.
 
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#11 ·
What is the internal difference that would give one brand an advantage over any other?

Anyone know the specific details of the internals between the different applicable manufactures of X3 axles.

From reading it is usually the ball cage that is primarily the weak link? Is that accurate? Maybe a thicker cage is helpful? Better material properties?

Not a lot of axles typically fail from pure wear, is that correct?
But rather overloading with a torque spike? Both from creating larger internal tolerances from distortion on a non destructive hit allowing internal rocking leading to internal “hammering”, and pure overload failure one and done scenarios?

Assuming one manufacture is better than another, are they different enough to make it noticeably advantageous to select one over another based on what I think is an axles normal mode of failure?

I have read many times OEM for X3, is there any other info out there to dispute that?
Hopefully more than anecdotal?
 
#21 ·
If this is for me other than the CV angle and small tune the machine is stock, stock tires ect, flat track, no jumping, ect. I ride the dunes to with paddles with no issues except the CV's heat and pushed grease since day one of buying the thing. I have rebooted, cleaned, and regreased with OEM on each side because of being worried about loosing to much grease prior to this. How many other people run 16" of travel on the rear of a 72"? I'm thinking a lot, also if it was a bad bearing or dragging brakes I would have found it the 3 times I had it apart that day.
 
#17 ·
We had a guy in our group use an alternative to S.T. to set up his suspension. The car was setup basically topped out. He burned through three axles in one weekend.

Had his suspension setup by S.T. and no more axle issues.

By the way I didn't use S T and have had great results.

My point is running the car topped out can burn through axles. Just my 2 cents.


Tim
 
#18 ·
OEM axles are really good. I have just over 5900 miles on my stock axles.

Only time I have seen axles snap is in the rocks and too much skinny pedal or after a rollover.


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#32 ·
Why is that? They look super beefy. Have you heard negative things?
 
#28 ·
Sometimes if you are pushing grease out there is pressure inside the boot. Prior to clamping the CV boots stick a scribe or screwdriver between the axle and boot to let out any pressure built up during installation of the boot. It happens, and that usually fixes the issue unless you have a hole in your boot.
 
#36 ·
I have never had a problem with the stock axles other than the occasional boot leaking. I figured I'd "upgrade" to the Rhino 2.0 axles and within 100 miles I had pushed both front wheel bearings out of the front knuckles. Its not a strength issue...they didn't plunge well enough and acted like a lever. If it had just been one side I would have chalked it up to bad luck, bad prep, or some other weird thing, but the fact that the same thing happened on both sides so quickly after switching to these axles was a big red flag. I went back to stock and haven't had a single problem.

If you're not afraid of taking the CVs apart I would suggest cleaning out all the stock grease, using a conditioning wheel on a bench grinder to polish the cage free of any sharp edges or burrs, then packing them with BelRay CV grease (the stuff that comes in the caulking gun tube is easiest to work with), and finally using a good quality band clamp to reattach the boot.

Try it on one side then go for a nice hard ride, jump out and use a temp gun to compare heat from the one you prepped to the stocker and see if it made a difference.
 
#37 ·
My friend bowed his factory shafts and replaced with 2.0’s. He broke the front right 2.0 and really had not beat on it. IIRC superatv claimed a bad batch of heat treating had happened. He has not broken one since that but drives pretty easy on parts
 
#44 ·
Well, I have not had any luck with anything OEM on my machine, so I am not impressed with OEM. I had to replace the stock boot twice, then the most recent example: broken axle at 1,200 miles. Yup, 1,200 miles. And when I say broken axle, I mean THE AXLE! Completely sheared it in two! The end of the shaft was still in the tranny, along with half of the boot. This photo doesn't show it well, but that's what happened. And of course, this happened 10 minutes into the first ride of the day! I am trying the Rhino 2.0 and have swapped both rear axles for them and am keeping the other OEM for a spare. I will update when the next one breaks, but I have to believe that the Rhino's will last more than 1,200 miles! If not, RCV is likely next.
Tire Wheel Motor vehicle Automotive tire Bicycle tire
 
#54 ·
I wen't back to the same place again a few weekends ago and was able to heat the rears up to a point of popping just like before, they swelled up like balloons from the heat. I could only get about 10-15m before the boots were 290-300F, they pushed a bunch of grease and made a mess. Bet if I road another 5m I would have had the same result as last year. I didn't lower the car so just rode for a bit, checked with a temp gun and let it cool of for a while then went at it again with the same results. I put 1500 miles on it since last year without any issues, rode the dunes pretty hard the weekend before to. I'm sure some of you guys still think there's something wrong with the car, I still think wot from corner to corner on a tacky road coarse is just to hard on them with the suspension set up higher. Never did get a chance to put different grease in them either, I had a spare I was going to do but just ran out of time before going on this trip.
 
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