Mercedes Sprinter rear axle swap

[Luke]

anyone done this

basically i'm thinking of fitting a different axle into my mk1 firevan (it currently has a mk5 axle fitted)

my thoughts are as ive fitted the vw engine and sprinter gearbox and prop i already have the prop end to bolt up - i dont want to go through the hassle of cutting the prop down and welding on a transit end only to cut it off later

the reason i'm not keen on the transit axle is although they are very strong they seem to get noisy (but run forever) i dont really want a noisy one - also i might need a lower ratio - like 3.7 over the 4.56 i have in now

last time i looked at a rear axle swap i rejected the sprinter one as it was too wide and too expensive and i went for a F150 axle - but that was my swb van and this is a lwb with arches to fill so wider might be ok
that was also a few years back and they are a lot cheaper now, theres one on ebay now for £150

i've got a few of questions

are the axles any good? do they get noisy/fail etc?

how wide are they?

how off centre is the input flange?

how would the handbrake mechanism work with a transit lever?

i havent got a problem making up spring and shock mountings, piping the brakes etc. even getting the pcd to match i can sort out

has anyone got anything to add to the discussion

[Wadey]

From memory the diff is all but in the middle if not dead Center
The handbrake is disk over drum and the cables run to an adjusting Mec mounted under the van its a thing that has sort of cams that you adjust and do up then it's a cable to the leaver so if I where u I'd fit that there can't be that much different in lengths so you might get a stock cable to fit.
I'm a commercial vehicle mechanic and I don't ever remember changing a sprinter axle or driving a an overly noisy one but iv done a few transit ones ! As for the size I can't help sorry

[Luke]

I'm a commercial vehicle mechanic and I don't ever remember changing a sprinter axle or driving a an overly noisy one

thats good to hear

i was looking at my van yesterday and with the mk5 axle and wide arches ive still got about 3" left so i cant see the sprinters being that much wider

[Guy88]

diff is dead centre on mine,

can measure mine but its a twin wheeler so spring widths etc will be different

and iv seen about 2 with blown diffs at about 500k

[Wadey]

and iv seen about 2 with blown diffs at about 500k

That's fairly good going !

[Luke]

yeah i can handle a swap after 500k miles

the diff being dead centre isn't ideal - i need to get my head round the prop uj angles and see if its ok

the mounts wont be a problem the mk1 twin wheel mounts are really narrow you can see how far in on the modded mk4 axle they are



and you can see the extra space ive got in the arches

[Wadey]

Would you get away with graduly moving the Center bearings over to make the prop line up rather than over doing one Uj?

[Luke]

Would you get away with graduly moving the Center bearings over to make the prop line up rather than over doing one Uj?

not with mine - the front half of the prop doesnt have a UJ on it just a rubber doughnut so the UJ behind the centre bearing is the 1st part of the prop that can be angled - in hindsight i should have mounted the engine in line with the sprinter axle but hey ho

[Guy88]

On heavy trucks the first section is inline and the diff Flange is offset due to diff lock.

The very last section is run out of line to suit

[Guy88]

If you go twin wheel you can get alloys for the merc

[Guy88]

just had another thaught that may look good,

On the NCV3 sprinter 4t it was fitted with a 'susi; rear axle, basically looks like a twin wheel axle with different hubs to accept a single 285 65 r16 wheel and tyre

[dodgy01]

i work on sprinters and transits all day long and have changed a few diffs in sprinter 906's
mainly due to whining under load
prob do about 6 a year

[Wadey]

just had another thaught that may look good,

On the NCV3 sprinter 4t it was fitted with a 'susi; rear axle, basically looks like a twin wheel axle with different hubs to accept a single 285 65 r16 wheel and tyre

Might just be Plymouth but those tyres are expensive and we had to wait a week for a pair to come in the country to put the van back on the road
They do look cool
Kinda like a super single for vans !