There was a HP bump in the 88-89 Starions so the factory fitted stronger axles. Part of that was an increase in diameter and spline count.

I remember going to a you pull it yard and tearing a manual shift V6 montero to measure the splines and realizing the I could use the larger V6 axles if I used the later Starion rear diff. That probably would have been around 2001 or so.

Also, the V6 with the manual transmission used the largest CV's (on Gen 1's). If I remember right, the V6 auto's used the same size CV as the 4 cly but had different splines to the diff.

The extension shaft had a different bolt pattern on the auto V6. Its been 15 or so years since the group of us worked this out, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

A search under my name, Bigblue, Viclee and a few others might help.

Old Link

Axle info