Whats the real worth of a swb axle

[Dirk73]

i found an ex-trailer chummy swb rear axle a few years ago for £120, but that was just the cases with knackered halfshafts and no diff/CWP.  i had a useable '32 long-nose banjo up for sale at 2015 Beaulieu for (if memory serves me right) £250 & it was unsold.

Hans Compter has several A7 rear axles from different years for sale on prewarcar.com from €250, i bought a '29 screw-in-tube one from him a few years ago for that price and spent something like £280 on parts to rebuild it (i lathed down some old lwb halfshafts to give new tapers and lapped them onto the hubs, and fitted a NOS CWP) but that took a fair amount of time in the shed.

If you go to town & splash out on a new CWP (440), pair of new long-taper halfshafts (450) and hubs (224), and a complete set of new bearings (200ish) that's £1300ish on nice shiny (hopefully unburstable) axle components

'You pays your money and you takes your chances' as they say!
- Dirk

[jansens]

As a comparison I have just rebuilt a Riley 9 rear axle and torque tube. I had the casing and tube (tube and driveshaft have been shortened locally - cost about £115 in UK money) and some other bits already but had to buy a good second hand diff, new CWP (5:1), 2 new half shafts, 2 new hub backing plates and seals, new bearings throughout and new wheel studs (6 per wheel) and special wheel nuts (Riley ones are handed) and that was all around £2500.

That's just for the parts I had to buy.

We won't even go into the cost of getting that all that stuff to NZ! The half shafts arrived with the shafts poking out of the box either side with only the hubs keeping them in!

[Charles P]

For real wizards you can create a decent narrow track three piece rear axle from discarded Ruby bits if you have an early banjo and excess confidence, coupled with decent machining & welding facilities. 


Charles

You certainly can - which means you can fiit it with Girling Back Plates and Brakes





Steve

You're posh, starting with a long nose banjo. I can tell you live in North Yorkshire.

You can do it with a short nose banjo, a Ruby torque tube, three Ruby side tubes and a machined spacer if you try hard enough

c

[Hedd_Jones]

And bear in mind that the only difference between a 30/31 axle and a pre D type long chassis rear axle is a little bit of unnecessary width. If you are replacing the half shafts with narrow ones the cases are remarkably easy to narrow with a hacksaw and a MIG.
For real wizards you can create a decent narrow track three piece rear axle from discarded Ruby bits if you have an early banjo and excess confidence, coupled with decent machining & welding facilities. 


Charles

I'm my experience the narrow ones are easier to find. 

Which makes sense as i believe they made them for a slightly longer time. 

I nearly bought one once, for a RN. Then the owner pulled out and chopped it for an ulster rep.