My dad's 1994 Isuzu Trooper came with a 5 speed stick and auto hubs. As is not uncommon, the clips came off of the end of the axles and the splines have been worn down at the ends. I gave him a pair of Aisin hubs from an older Trooper to install, as I thought they fit 88-99 (or later). He called me and stated that the hubs fit over the axle splines just fine, but there is no way to secure the axle from pulling out of the hubs. I noted that they sell 26mm C-clips to go over the axle shaft for this type of conversion - the only problem is that he says there is not a groove on the axle for this clip! I am working with him remotely (he is an hour away) and I am not sure what to tell him. Am I missing something? Does anyone have a good article to look at for a switch from auto to manual hubs? I have found several that show how to go from drive flanges to manual hubs, but not auto to manual. Thank you in advance for the assistance! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Shouldn't be a problem...the groove is I think a different one than the auto hubs used, it is in the splined part of the shaft. Unless weird aftermarket axles, or the groove area is worn off.

Make sure enough of the shaft is sticking out to reveal the groove, if the suspension is at full droop the shaft can retract some without the snap ring on there.

He re-checked the axles and the splined area - but did not find any notch in the splines. I have not seen the axles, but he says that they are smaller at the very end - which is the location of the original clips for the auto hubs. If he puts the old clips on, they have a 1/4" gap between the back side of the clip and the part that slides over the splines in the hub (not sure what it is called). Additionally, the original clip is small enough to pull right through and would not keep the axle from coming out. Apparently the auto hubs had some sort of spacer or something that kept it from pulling through. He would need a much larger c-clip and ~1/4" shim for the new hubs! The axle splines are ground off a bit - about 3/16" on one side and 3/8" on the other. He will be working on it again tomorrow. He has always done his own automotive work and this just seems like is should be a no-brainer!

I haven't done it myself, but some guys say to thread a bolt in the end and pull the CV out and it will sometimes reveal the groove if it has retracted.

If the splines are ground, then the groove is gone. It is right out there on the end of the splines. If he is missing that much off the splines, he gets to replace axles too. Yeah!!

Good Luck,

Yep the groove is less than 1/4" from the end of the splines...closer to 1/8" really. If that area is ground, time for a new axle.

On that note, I highly recommend a salvage CV. They are generally stronger than aftermarket CVs, and best of all you can just replace them from the inner joint outward instead of dropping the entire front axle assembly (a big job) to replace the whole CV axle from the diff outward.

What about the distance from where the c-clip would be, to the face of the part that engages the axle (the piece with the teeth that spins)? It is nearly 1/4"! Is it missing a large spacer/shim or something? I pulled these hubs from a recycle yard years ago, and I do not remember a shim ~1/4" thick. The only shims I have from the original vehicle are very thin. ~1/4" is a huge amount of play! I have the shop manual for my 1988 and it shows this gap at 0 - 0.01".

Another question - One of the reasons that I gave him the Aisin hubs was because I thought they were supposed to work on axles with splines that have been ground off by the auto hubs. I thought they engage so much deeper on the axle that this negated the damage. Is this not correct? Am I missing something? He is bringing it up tomorrow and I will finally be able to see things first hand.

You've got it backwards. The manual hubs chew up the end of the axle when the c-clip pops out. The auto hubs just break.

There is no spacer. There are some shims, but the only thing holding the axle into the manual hubs is a 26mm snap ring over the splined diameter of the axle. I would hedege the bet the axles you pulled were damaged to start with. When they grind for a while, it is not very ovbious as the wear is very smooth and the resulting metal dust looks like grease.

Good Luck,
Michael

I have some decent pictures of the hub and snap rings in my picture section listed below. They're on about page 3 of the Trooper 2.6 section.

Granted, the Trooper is an '89, and the hubs are Superwinch, but they should be fairly similar. I'll try to paste one of them in here.


LINK

Thanks for that, I was trying to find a pic of a undamaged axle end but gave up...

Yes the location of the snap ring in the picture is the same as for Aisin manual hubs.