Well the front axle was supposed to be a quick swap to the 8 lug chevy outers but that hasn't really gone according to plan. The U-joints were really loose in the front axle shafts. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered some chromoly for the front from Chase at East Coast Gear. I had the custom splined shafts in under a week from the phone call. Very impressive! However the stubs that I ordered were drop shipped from 10-factory and were supposed to be 30 spline. What I recieved were 35 spline stubs. Well I know I need them... so they will stay now as well. Now to buy new Drive flanges.
This brought up an issue I had when I first built the 609 for the front. The seals in the front were only big enough for the splines to get through. The larger Dia seal area of the axle shaft wouldn't fit. My solution at the time was to take the axle shafts to a local machine shop and turn down the seal surface. I was told at the time it was due to the factory shaft being a larger diameter than the 4340 shafts that spidertrax used. So I figured the new shafts would fit right in. Wrong. Same issue and the inner ten factory shafts are much larger diameter than the factory shafts by the way. My solution this time was a bit more expensive but will solve it for good I hope.
Not very impressive for most here but I was really excited to actually be able to do some of my own machine work. I had been watching craiglslist for an older 110/220v lathe but hadn't seen anything in my price range. So I picked up the Harbor Freight Mini Lathe. It should be fine for making all the little stuff I need. Like spacers and such.
I machined the lip off of the second rear seal and then opened up the ID on the front seals for the shaft to fit through.