Td5 110 Salisbury Half shafts and drive flange

[DogVanMan]

Time to replace the halfshafts and drive member flanges on my 2000my 110 Td5 hardtop due to  excessive wear. I'm inclined to go for good quality OE shafts and flanges. Vehicle is mainly on road, but some off road on greenlanes and expedition tracks (I.e. It's no challenge truck, but it's not entirely on road either) , virtually no towing but will soon be receiving the Porny treatment with an big intercooler and remap, so more torque than standard. Mileage is 110k

Question is, is it worth my while going for upgraded components? I almost certainly can't afford Ashcroft (Or similar) shafts and flanges etc but is it worth getting good quality standard OE shafts and some upgraded flanges? Do flanges wear quicker than shafts or am I wasting money? If they are worth having (flanges, that is), where's the best place to get them?

Any opinions/recommendations please?

Thanks!

[Eeyore]

I'd go for the OE shafts and flanges. The flanges inherently wear more quickly than the shaft and are easy to replace. I've had a problem where an 'aftermarket' shaft wore at the same rate as the aftermarket flange - that was expenisve to replace as the shafts had to be replaced too! I do find I am replacing the flanges more often since having the fueling tweeked on my 300tdi, but not at an annoying rate (I get about 18 months from a pair of rear flanges).

Ulimately, Ashcofts are the only shafts and flanges better than the OE (without going custom), but you'll pay for 'em (but probably never have to touch 'em). However, for the cost, OE flanges and shafts are very hard to beat in a Salisbury.

Be thankfull you haven't got a 02 back axle - dude, them shafts are shockingly expensive!

Hope some of that helps.

[DogVanMan]

Thanks Eeyore.. I was kinda thinking along the lines of good quality OE stuff. Ashcrofts would be nice but at over £400 for the bits, I think I'll pass!

I thought the drive flanges wore our quicker than the shaft splines, which is why I was thinking of heavy duty flanges and standard shafts (I don't think I'm going to snap a Salisbury shaft doing what I do, it was more a case of getting more life out of them before they wear again). I think I might well stick with OE, treating the flanges as sacrificial - They are cheap enough and a piece of cake to change of course.

I did have my eye on some H/D flanges on ebay which are about the same cost as good OE ones or a bit less but I wonder if it's too good to be true.. I wonder if anyone has any experience of them? Ashcroft's are £90 pair, these are less than £40 (There are a couple of places selling them)

G

[Eeyore]

I've seen a few of the cheaper ones suffer the same fate as the standard ones (wearing of the splines). Some of them however have very badly shaped splines too, which don't do the shafts any favours.

Some of the bargain ones are probably very good, but it all becomes a bit of a lottery then.

[DogVanMan]

Yes, I'll stick to OE ones, at least I know what I'm getting. (Badly matching spline shape in tougher material with a standard shaft doesn't sound a happy marriage!)

Thanks for the benefit of your experience Eeyore, it all makes sense.

G

[fantuzzi]

from my ownexperience,use oe shafts and aftermarket drive members,rumour has it the bearmach members are the same grade as the ashcroft ones!!!!!!!

[extreme90]

why not run the ashcroft or paddocks drive members
there alot tuffer than stock units
thats what i do for people