93 LWB 10 or 24 spline?

[Sign Guy]

Does anyone know at what VIN # LR changed from 10 spline to 24 spline? I will be replacing the differential and don't want to break into the rear end and look if I can just tell from the the VIN.

Thanks!

[rmuller]

just take off the wheel, take off the dust cover, and you can count how many splines are on it... real easy.

[Sign Guy]

Duh! I dunno why I was thinking I had to pull the shafts.

[RageRover]

LOL,yeah I was scratching my head when I wanted to know how many splines were on mine. I have 24.

Now, which is the better recommended? I heard that 24 splined axle shafts were better, I dunno. 10 spline were weak I heard, not sure.

[rmuller]

24 is better than 10 from what I hear... also there are more choices for aftermarket differentials with 24 I believe.

[TN-LR3]

Thats true, I have two complete 24 spline LWB axles in my garage to swap into my 92' SWB for more strength. Also there is a larger afremarket for them

[Paul Grant]

You can only tell the spline count at the diff end of the half shaft. You need to pull a rear wheel off, unbolt the five bolts holding the drive member in place and pull the half shaft out. You'll be able to tell in a second what you have once you see the diff end of the half shaft.

The '93 LWB I just finished up with had a build date of late '92 with a VIN of 633250. It had 10 spline diffs and half shafts. How does that measure up to your truck?

[Paul Grant]

Rage Rover, your truck should have 24 spline diffs and halfs given it's age. By early '93 (build date) the switch was made in the LWB. I am not certain of the SWB. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if only the "Sport" SWB with EAS came with the 24 spline set up.

It is generally considered that the 24 spline set up is stronger and while that may be the case, when you start adding bigger tires, lockers, ect it all starts to become moot. Anyone doing heavy mods in preparation for serious offroading would benefit from HD half shafts like those offered by Great Basin or Rover Tracks or others.

[Paul Grant]

One last thing. Should any of you need any 24 spline stuff, I usually have plenty of diffs and half shafts. Even if you have pre ABS trucks I have hubs, drive members and other bits that are needed for the conversion.

[Sign Guy]

Mine is 635227 & yeah I thought I had to pull the shafts. Come on guys lets get the range down on where it was changed! VINS!!!!!

[Muddy Oval]

I have that info at work- I'll try to remember to check this thread again with the info..

[Sign Guy]

:bump:

[Muddy Oval]

ok- here's what the parts book says:

The split is at JA624754 or NA624754 (NA is the North American and JA is everywhere else code for 1992)

So, if you have and early VIN you should have 24 spline, a later VIN would have 10 spline.

There are probably exceptions to this though- we find trucks that don't follow all the VIN splits etc. from time to time.

[troverman]

My understanding was that axles became 24-spline with the availability of traction control, due to the increased strained ETC created when it was operational.

Thus, all LWB's should have rear 24-spline axles, as should all other SWB Classics w/ ETC. All 99-on Range Rovers and Discoverys should have f/r 24 spline axles.

In knowing what an off-road champ traditional Land Rovers are, how does axle strength hold up to other brands? Flipping through some copies of JP mag it seems all they can talk about are their '31-spline axles' and 'Dana 70 this' or 'Ford 9" that--'

I know durability of the axle is subject to the torque load placed on it, so given a Rover V8 isn't exactly comparable to a Wrangler w/ 38's and a Hemi.

Anyone?

[Paul Grant]

All LWB's DO NOT have 24 spline diffs and half shafts. I have yet to see a '93 LWB with anything BUT 10 spline set ups and I have disassembled a couple. Granted, it is common knowledge that Land Rover switched to 24 spline around the beginning of 1993 but your assertion that ALL LWB's have 24 spline due to ETC is wrong. Also, your claim that all 1999 and on Range Rovers and Discos have 24 spline set ups is a given since, as stated above and throughout this thread, from mid year 1993 on LWB's had 24 spline and by 1994 all RRC's had 24 spline as well.

ALL Discovery Series I AND Series II had 24 spline diffs and half shafts. Let's try to talk about things we know a little something about.

Now as far as axle strength is concerned, it has long been thought that Land Rover's philosophy was to make the half shafts the weakest link. Full floating axles are a lot easier to fix on the trail than a diff. You can look as far back as the Series I Land Rover and see that half shafts were always the first things to break under load. Hell, I've broken a half shaft in my Series III just pulling away from a traffic light. With this historical perspective in mind it is easy to see why Rover half shafts, even in Range Rovers, are less robust than the rest of the drivetrain. Even with 24 spline half shafts, it is still more common to break one rather than explode a diff.