TRAKMOTIVE VW86031 Axle, anyone use one yet?

[Lemming]

Looks like Trakmotive is making axles for the early 986 base cars. Has anyone tried these axles? Porsche parts for the 2.5 and 2.7 manual cars are now over $1,000 per side.

Yes, I know, rebuild the original. I've done that many times but when the outer cv is toast, that's an issue as I do not believe that they can be replaced.

[Lemming]

I decided to go ahead and try the half shafts since I had an outer CV joint going bad. I ordered the part from Rock Auto and was surprised that it came with bolts for the inner CV and well as extra grease. Since I don't trust parts suppliers, I did remove the boots and inspect the joints. Both needed more grease in my opinion, so I added and replaced the boots. Installation was no issue, but I did notice that there was not as much lateral slop (side to side motion) as I'm used to with my 20+ year old rebuilds. I now have two track days on the driver side shaft and all is well.

I then ordered the passenger side shaft from Rockauto. This time the shaft showed up with no hardware, nor extra grease. Once again I removed the boots to check for grease, this time there was plenty in place, so that shaft has been installed.

I have a number of DE's and and 2 races coming up over the next few months, we'll see how well they hold up.