Ronin is launching a new 8.8 axle option that allows use of the giant Ford Explorer outer CVs as well as inners. We're calling it 8.8 grande... Development on this one is DONE so we’ll begin taking orders this Friday Feb 14. We figured some of you might want to tell your gal what you really want for Valentines Day (besides the obvious).
Backstory: To date Ronin has always made the conversion between Ford and Mazda driveline pieces via custom halfshafts that used Ford parts for the inner CV and Mazda for the outer. The downside of our present approach is that the spline diameter of the Mazda end limits the overall shaft diameter. FD’s use bigger hub splines than FC but we never really considered the FD CVs to be an upgrade since the halfshaft splines were the same (FC vs FD). Diameter matters a great deal for splines as it’s the main driver of strength. Torsional strength is a function of radius to the 4th power (IE a shaft 2x the diameter is 16x as strong) so it's worth fighting for.
We’re also aware that Mazda outer CV’s are becoming hard to come by, especially in the T2 variety. As such, we’re happy to announce a new Ronin Speedworks new product: custom conversion hubs with shafts to match. Now you can use any year 2002 to 2010 Ford Explorer shaft as a CV donor for the inner and OUTER parts and therefore not sacrifice your OEM halfshafts. This of course helps offset the cost of the upgrade as the used Mazda parts are in demand. Every now and then we also had customers tell us that T2 CVs could be a bitch to disassembly, something that’s not the same for FD or the explorer CVs. Avoid the headache and get a more heavy duty solution in the meantime.
By the way the key ingredient in upsizing FC hubs was finding a wheel bearing that used the factory OD and width, while running a
larger ID so we weren’t compromising wall thickness of the hub when the spline diameter grew.
Note: you still need Ronin specific halfshafts to change the length from an Explorer (otherwise track width doesn’t work out on our cars) and as such the kit will include:
- Grande Halfshafts (4340 heat treated axle shafts, Ford splined on both ends and lengths specific to each chassis.
- SpecificCV boots… Notably this version of shaft does away with the trilobal adapater ring since we found a boot that has the inner CVs bump features built in.
- CVspacers, this is just a slight correction to be sure the dust shield on the FordCV has the proper spacing the knuckle.
- ConversionHubs. Again heat treated 4340. These use full length splines to maximize engagement.
- New wheelbearings. These pretty much destroy themselves whenyou press the hub out and it’s better to start fresh regardless. We’re sourcing top shelf bearings fromTimken. They're made in the USA and Timken makes good stuff.
- An option to have us install 2.5” ARP wheel studs (longer than stock). If you want to install your own that’s cool too and any stud with the common 0.509” knurl should work.
We plan to sell these in two variations.
1) Buy outright. As a kit this will include: Shafts, Boots, CV spacers, Wheel Bearings, and Hubs. If you’re already running our 8.8, you can easily flip your existing shafts. If I were you I wouldn’t even tear them down. We already offer our 8.8 kits as a mounting kit only so whomever buys these will have an easy entry to the 8.8 game.
Cost: $1199 plus the ride2) As an option on a new 8.8 kit purchase. In this case, a version of axles and boots were already included in the base 8.8 kit so you’re really just paying for the extra parts. This also comes with an advantage that used Explorer shafts are easy/cheap to come by while Mazda shafts have turned into gold (which might be our fault really) and that will offset a good bit of the upgrade.
Cost: +$599, ships with the kitIn either case, if desired, we'll add and install ARP studs for $85. They're a little tricky to support for the press (especially the last couple studs!) so we figured it might help folks out.
By the way, if you recently purchased an 8.8 kit from us (anything from Jan 1, 2019 until now to draw a clean line) BUT would have preferred these axles… so long as you’re sending back mint shafts/boots,we’ll swap you out for the bigger stuff and added parts at only the cost of the upgrade option, plus shipping.
Anyways, you nutters keep pushing the bounds of what these cars can do, yet not everyone wants to spend 2k+ on DSS pro level shafts. Going our way you get brand new wheel bearings at the same time PLUS a unconditional lifetime warranty that DSS doesn’t offer… We think this gives us a heck of a Goldilocks option for folks to consider. All shafts will include the same unconditional lifetime warranty. However we hope you'll be pulling the front tires on launch before you need to use it. Going forward, warranty claims on a second broken shaft (base design) will request you upgrade to these. That keeps you on the road, whooping up on the high dollar guys and proving how potent an RX7 can be.
Pre-orders goes live on our website this Friday Feb 14.. All parts are in fabrication now however it is pretty big batch so we do have some lead time and
the target to start delivering will be early April. First 10 orders will get free shipping which will save folks ~$60. We’ll extend this to include ANY orders placed this Friday Feb 14 if we have more than 10 folks ready to jump in. The coupon code will be “88grande”
Regards,
Joel & Mike
(for RSW)
