OEM CV Axle, are there 2 different types?

[aemravan]

Ok, so bare with me here... I know its yet another CV axle post.. but I have spent the last 3 hours searching and I am beyond confused.

Long story short, while doing a reboot on both axles last month, I noticed that one axle (thought according to everything online should be OEM) looked different with relation to the bearings inside the tulip. My passenger side tripod was machined so that the pucks were able to swivel around on the ball, the drivers side tulip had pucks that were on needle bearings and only slid up and down, and did not pivot. I automatically figured this was an aftermarket axle.

Recently came across a buddy of mine locally selling 2 oem axles with reboot kits for a great price so I picked them up thinking i'll swap out the axle to an OEM one and leave the second for a spare.

Well, rebooting the 2 axles, to my surprise, I come across LITERALLY the same thing. One is a pivoting tulip, one is not.

I am uploading pictures in the next post with descriptions of which is which.

Can someone once and for all tell me which damn axle is OEM? Are both oem just from different years? If both types are just as capable id rather not swap one vs the other.

 

[aemravan]

The axle on the bottom has pivoting bearing on the tripod (we'll call this Type A), the one on top they are only capable of sliding up and down (we'll call this Type B)

a close-up of Type B on top and Type A on bottom

a top-down view of the tripod difference (Type A on the top, Type B on bottom) note that shaft diameter is larger on the Type A vs Type B.

CV boot notch Type A on top (notice the conical shape) Type B on the bottom, just straight shaft with machined groove

Type A tulip on left, Type B on right. Both are not "round" like aftermarket ones, but notice that the cutouts on the Left Type A one are only on the corners of the radius, vs Type B being along the entire radius.

A close up of the Type A tripod on the Type B axle, definitely a large difference. I should also note that the C clip that holds the tripod down from the Toyota boot kit is sized for the Type A axle... not the type B... when I rebooted mine I had to reuse the clip I took off (which leads me to bleieve that the Type B is indeed an aftermarket one??

So what in the world is the verdict? Looking at the parts list diagram online from toyota its not VERY clear but the tripod almost looks like the Type B one.. I should also note that all 4 axles had the toyota-style clamps on all boots. So needless to say i am damn lost as to what I have going on here..

Any and all input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[aemravan]

also, what adds to the confusion is this thread that I came across earlier:
Where'd you get your CV Axle, and for how much? | Toyota 4Runner Forum [4Runners.com]

if you scroll down and look, there is a set of pictures from a guy who bought toyota re manufactured axles and shows both cut-out design types on the tulip. The one that I call as Type B he says is supposedly from a 2012 limited OEM. The ones on his car installed look like my Type A with the cutouts on the corners..


so was there possibly a design change at toyota from the earlier 2003 model? I guess I should have mentioned mine is a 2003 V8 4wd. Is it possible that Toyota went to an easier to manufacture tripod design in the later production years...? But then again, that logic falls apart when you try to install the clip from the boot kit... I am losing my mind.

 

[y=mx+b]

So what in the world is the verdict? Looking at the parts list diagram online from toyota its not VERY clear but the tripod almost looks like the Type B one.. I should also note that all 4 axles had the toyota-style clamps on all boots. So needless to say i am damn lost as to what I have going on here..

Any and all input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

The Type A axle is OEM, the Type B axle is not

The OEM is the bottom, bearings should be able to move to all angles, this is one of the reasons the OEM axles are much better than parts store axles. the top is aftermarket, probably NAPA Maxdrive or Cardone.

Left is OEM, the right is not. See inner joint on Napa Maxdrive here: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NMD...ity+(CV)+Driveshaft+-+Front&keywordInput=axle vs the Toyota OEM axle pics here: CV Reboot Tutorial with Boot Stretch (80+ Pictures) These were pulled from an 07, I saw you mentioned something about axle dates.

About type B supposedly being OEM, where did you get the type B that is claiming it to be OEM? If its from a salvage yard online, they probably just assumed OEM when pulled, this happened to me when trying to buy some low mileage CVs on ebay.

Also have heard that the dealer remanufactured axles are often Cardone and not actually rebuilt Toyota Axles, but your mileage may vary on this one.

The one dead giveaway of an OEM axle is the "Toyoda" on the inner boots.


Another indicator is to look at the boot clamps. I see you mentioned type B having Toyota style clamps, do you have any pictures of them? Toyota uses a different type of clamp for every clamp location on the OEM axles for some reason, so make sure they look identically as removed here: CV Reboot Tutorial with Boot Stretch (80+ Pictures)

Also check number of inner boot ribs. Napa Maxdrive have 3 ribs, but Toyota boots have 4 ribs.

 

[montijo505]

Type A is what I've seen rebooting my OEM axles for sure.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Brutalguyracing]

This pic left side is toyo axle

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[aemravan]

thanks for all the input and clarification guys.

y=mx+b : with regards to the clamps, I was wrong. The Tybe B axle had all the same style clamp. I spoke too soon on it before taking a closer look. Also, even if you wanted to, you couldn't use the OEM clamps on it due to slight differences in the groove sizes. So that alone should have been a dead giveaway.

i'll know going forward. What really threw me off was multiple images i found online of remanufactured axles sold directly from toyota. No wonder there is a $350 price difference.

I re-booted the other OEM axle and swapped out the aftermarket one while doing the UCA's this weekend. Now I have 1 new rebooted aftermarket axle, and 1 aftermarket one that still needs a boot if I will save it for a trail-spare. I'm just going to leave it cleaned up and sitting in a box in case I ever need it.

I bought the 2 used ones from a friend that wouldn't knowingly pass them off as OEM if they weren't. But it is what it is. $200 bucks wasn't a terrible deal considering it had 1 brand new re-boot toyota kit, 1 aftermarket axle, and 1 OEM axle I guess.


It's a shame that the previous owner opted to get an aftermarket axle when his boot ripped and basically gave away a $400 axle as a core... but for the time being I am back to 2 oem axles and hopefully they hold up for a while, though I'm sure the 35's wont help the situation any.