Interesting find re: Front EJ driveshafts

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:36 pm

Taken from the BC/BF Gen1 Liberty FSM

Why is the right hand side shaft 10mm longer and 2.8mm larger in diameter at one end, compared to the left side?

Also, why is the 2.0 turbo and 2.2L shafts 27mm shorter than the 1.8 and 2.0L non turbo?

The track should be the same, as should the width of the gearbox. Why the difference?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:32 am

Maybe the DOJ and CVJ are longer?

Post by **TOONGA** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:51 am

Nice find the older boxes probably have a mild offset that may have never been noticed outside of the factory. From which FSM did this appear? Australia... America... year?

TOONGA

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:31 pm

The FSM specifies both "Australia" and "Except Australia" models in the specifications section

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:51 pm

I knew early FWD Liberty's had thicker front shafts than AWD but thought that was the only difference.

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:37 pm

The lower spec models ran skinnier tyres and had the track width increased by 10mm so that the outside edge of the tyres remained in the same position.

Std tyres were 185, tyres for the 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 (non-turbo) were 165 or 175. so that accounts for the 10mm difference on the 175 tyres.

On the 165 tyres (1.6l models) they changed the offset of the rim to +50 from +55 to gain an extra 5mm of width - I guess they decided to live with these models being 10mm narrower.

Why they didn't leave the drive shafts the same and do it all with a different offset rims I have no idea.

All this info was taken from the same service manual as the original post.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:06 pm

So is the track width difference in the lower control arms, or the actual hub?

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:51 pm

hummmm, Always thought both side were the same. would it cause wear issues mix-matching?

Also, It would be cool to have something similar but on the spline count from the EA82 and EJ series, i.e 23-25 splines, allowing mix joints cv's to be made up so gearbox and hubs conversions would be simpler:)

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:12 pm

Gannon wrote:So is the track width difference in the lower control arms, or the actual hub?

I would guess neither. The drive shaft being longer would push the hub out and I assume the ball joints and rubber strut top mounts would take up the difference ? maybe the camber bolt helps as well ?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:15 am

But the lower control arms hold the hub in place, not the shaft.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:25 am

Gannon its been a long time since I've been in a Liberty/Legacy WSM but it may pay to check out the Pov Pac models some countries got with four stud hubs and smaller than we got brakes .
Some of their wheel and hub offsets could have been different and the very basic ones , say with optional roof , I think may have had 13" wheels .

A .

mud_king91 · Post by **mud_king91** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:42 am

it,d be slight difference in lower control arm and slight camber bolt adjustment